Billy Lamont - Shake and Jerk/Girls, Girls, Girls

Here's yet another title from the "worse for wear" collection. I found this record at a big, city wide yard sale in Carbondale back in April. It was set up like an outdoor flea market and I picked up lots of records on the cheap that day. I got this one for a quarter from a lady who had lots of odd titles. Most were dinged up but sometimes you take what you can get. Normally, I wouldn't have kept one in this shape but it's such a cool record and apparently a pretty tough find, so I'm hanging on to it. I think it's the only record in my collection that features, not one but two cracks. But it plays okay, despite having seen better days.

I don't know a lot about Billy Lamont, except that he had record releases going back to the late 1950's. It also looks like he released at least one record that featured a then unknown Jimi Hendrix on guitar. Here, he shares songwriting credits on both numbers with Gene Redd, who's also listed as producer and arranger.

"Shake and Jerk", as you may be able to discern is a dance floor tune. On it, Lamont lists a bunch of steps of the day, including the Monkey, Swim, Mashed Potato and Twine. This record is listed as a 1965 release which seems right, as "Shake and Jerk" sounds influenced by James Brown's "Out of Sight", a big hit during the second half of 1964. Here, Billy winds up each verse singing "You're too much, the way you shake and jerk". Then, drums round things out rather than the guitar riff present on the J.B. song.

On "Girls, Girls Girls" Lamont sings, "There's a whole lotta girls but I only want one". It seems he's keeping his options open though, as he names a bunch of girls without expressing a preference. But, on second thought, it sounds like he'd appreciate attention from any one of them, a very common tale. He even goes so far as to say "She don't have to be purdy". At least he's not very picky.

Both of these songs are short, without even an instrumental break. The total time runs less than four minutes for the both of 'em, meaning you have to enjoy them in a hurry. Me, I do.