Warren Smith - I've Got Love If You Want It - 1958 Rockabilly - SUN 286

Описание: Warren Smith - Vocal and Guitar
Al Hopson - Guitar
Roland Janes - Guitar
Will Hopson - Bass
Jimmie Lott - Drums

This is not so much a cover, this was more a spirited revival of the Slim Harpo tune from six months earlier which had caught Warren Smith's ear over radio station WDIA in Memphis. Taken in a higher key and with a major hike in tempo, the arrangement was purposely detailed for teenage ears. For once all of the elements seemed to be in place for Warren to break through, except to say that most of Sun's promotional energies by late 1957 were totally geared towards the latest singles by Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Among the song that Warren Smith heard on the car radio was Slim Harpo's "Got Love If You Want It". In Harpo's hand it was a mellow mid paced blues, delivered in a laconic bayou country drawl to a pseudorhumba beat. In Smith's hand it became another celebration of joyous, primal rockabilly. Al Hopson and Roland Janes trated licks on the intro and the solo (Hopson taking the lead and Janes the response). Smith contributed a hugely confident vocal and made some minor lyrical changes in deference to prevailing mores: "Your fine brown frame" became "You fine looking thing", for example. Warren Smith omitted Harpo's final verses and substituted lines adapted from another Slim Harpo record, "I'm A King Bee". Coupled with a lovely ballad by Al Hopson, "I Fell In Love", there was no reason that the record should not have been a hit - except that it was issued in the same month as Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls Of Fire".

According to Sun's royalty statement, the record had only sold a shade over 7000 copies by the following June. Warren Smith was disgusted, and his band began to lose the faith. Marcus Van Story dropped out, to be replaced by Al Hopson's brother, Will. Jimmie Lott also packed his bags and headed back to Memphis,