I've picked up a handful of Dee Clark 45's the past couple of years. I'm talking stuff on Abner, Falcon and Vee Jay. Most of the time I've come away disappointed, as Clark has played the balladeer or pop crooner and not with material exactly geared towards my listening habits. One decent one is "I Want To Love You", a nice, uptempo r&b number on the flipside of his huge hit, "Raindrops". But that one doesn't compare to "24 Boy Friends" that has our man pulling off a great Little Richard cop.
What would any Little Richard tribute be without the appropriate lyrics? "24 Boy Friends" has 'em from note one,
"It was last night, the night before
24 of your boy friends knockin' at your door
oh baby, yeaaaaaaaah baby
woooo, I've been good to you
whatcha tryin' to do to me"
He continues with my personal favorite lines,
"Well I got up, let 'em in
bust 'em all in the head with a rolling pin...
...and so on. Pretty tough to beat that. It appears that this record was released in the late summer of 1957, just about the same time as Mr. Penniman's "Keep A Knockin'". Not sure if that's coincidence or not but there's certainly some lyrical resemblance.
The instrumentation consists of a drum wallop that stops every so often to allow Clark's vocals to accent the beat, the obligatory piano and a pair of wailing sax breaks. All in all, a great Little Richard rip off that also stands on its own.
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