Aw-wop-bob-a-loo, Aw-wop-bob-a-li

I’m posting today’s record in honor of the great junk store that I found it in a few years ago. I drove by there yesterday and it’s under new management. I didn’t see any records in the place. Dang, I found some good things there.

New Yorker Mickey Lee Lane started making records in the in 1958. There weren’t any hits so Lane backed up Neil Sedaka, The Bell-Notes (who did the great “I’ve Had It”), and wrote songs recorded by The Action and Bill Haley. Lane cut a bunch of records for a variety of labels. The only one that came close to being a hit was “Shaggy Dog” which hit the Top 40 in 1964.

Lane’s cover of Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” (called “Tuitti Fruitti” on the label) is terrific. It’s one of the better versions of that song. Lane produced the record himself. I hope the clunky fadeout was a mastering mistake, no producer would do that to his own record on purpose. The b-side is a Lane original, the singing is, errr, interesting. Not bad but it could be better. I wonder if it was meant as a demo record and got used when Mala Records needed a b-side.

In the seventies, Mickey Lee Lane moved to the other side of the recording studio glass. Eventually Lane became the head engineer at Kama Sutra Records. He also released a compilation of his records in 1997. Anybody got a copy?

The Detroit Cobras and the Sexareenos have recorded Mickey Lee Lane songs in the last few years. John Peel liked this record. There was a copy of "Tuitti Fruitti" in a box of the DJ's favorites 45’s when Peel died.