(1956) Sun ''Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby'' (Take 4) Carl Perkins

Описание: STUDIO SESSION FOR CARL PERKINS
AT THE MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE FOR SUN RECORDS 1956

SUN RECORDING STUDIO
706 UNION AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: PROBABLY MARCH 1956
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - SAM C. PHILLIPS

"EVERYBODY'S TRYIN' TO BE MY BABY"
Composer: - Carl Perkins
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None - Take 4 - Not Originally Issued (2:17)
Recorded: - March 1956
Released: - April 27, 2012
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17240 ER-2-18 mono
CARL PERKINS - THE SUN ERA OUTTAKES

Although this song got recorded at several sessions in March 1956, it remained unreleased until Carl's album came out in 1958. Its origins deserve some discussion. According to his biography, Carl claimed that he was inspired by an offhand remark that he made to Jay at a club date and it quickly turned into a song. When bio author David McGee pointed out that the song actually dated from the 1930s, Carl opined that perhaps he'd heard someone sing it at some honky tonk or another.

In fact, we know of four recordings of this song that pre-date Carl's - the first, by Rex Griffin in the late 1930s, one by Roy Newman, one by Jemmy Short ( (better known as Ernest Tubb's guitar player), and one by Gene Thompson in the early 1950s The styles evolve from western swing to hillbilly as the years go by, but the the song stays the same. It's a twelve-bar blues with a two-line verse followed by four lines of the title. The two-line verses vary from record to record All four of the early ones include ''They took some honey from a bee/Dressed it up and called it me'', which Carl modifies to ''honey from a tree''. All include waking up at half-past four with some number of women knockin' at my door; three of the records have fifteen women but Roy Newman has a near dozen. Carl did not make this up at a club.

There several full outtakes, a few fragments and false starts, and some discussions in which lyrics get composed. Obviously they were not satisfied with the arrangement and took a variety of approaches to it. The natural first question was how to open the song. Should they go right into it or have a few opening lines with stops? If there are stops should they be single-beat stops as in ''Boppin' The Blues'' or two-beat stops as in ''Blue Suede Shoes''? They try out all those possibilities. Should the guitar solos be rhythmic chords or single or double-note tunes or pedal steel-like chord sequences? They try out all those too. Carl's vocals range from energetic to subdued. They also try changing the key they play it in (the 7th and 8th outtakes are in a deferent key from the others). And even what little melody as there is in this song gets a revision in the 8th.

As we've seen, Carl often made up lyrics on the spot so it's no surprise that the verses change from take to take. But it is interesting to at half-past four. Most of the predecessor recordings of this song have fifteen. Carl has nineteen until the middle of the seventh outtake. In that take he sings the verse twice - there are nineteen women the first time but that shrinks to only the historically correct fifteen later in the take. And he sticks with fifteen thereafter. So what happened to the number nineteen, we wonder? Easy. In the version that was released on LP 1225 he adds a verse. ''Went out last night didn't mean to stay late/ Before home I had nineteen dates''. Nineteen is too good a number to abandon completely.

The band seemed never fully satisfied with any single approach to the song. Sam wasn't satisfied either, apparently, and sat on it until he finally put it on the album. (CE) (HD) (MH)

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Carl Perkins - Vocal and Guitar
James Buck Perkins - Rhythm Guitar
Lloyd Clayton Perkins - Bass
W.S. "Fluke" Holland - Drums

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©