The Gladiolas - Little Darlin'

[taiyo no otosan]

How come I had never heard this song until today? What an astonishingly wonderful track.

And why is it described as 'calypso' on the original Excello 7"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aShvM_eFmQY

I know I could look it all up on Wikipedia, but, like Dayna, I think it is far more interesting to hear what you lot have to say about it.

[NormanD]

And why is it described as 'calypso' on the original Excello 7"?

My guess is that they put "calypso" on the record label as a guide for the radio DJs, or juke box stuffers? Cos it's got a particular shuffle beat, it fit under "calypso" better than "rock & roll". Wasn't calypso the big thing in 1957 (when did Harry Belafonte hit it big?), ready to take off after R&R died a death, or so the industry pundits thought?

[Adam Blake]

That's a mutated New Orleans clave!
Sixteen beats per bar split up like so:
123 123 123 123 1234

Wonderful - and the singer sounds even more certifiably insane than the Diamonds singer...

[taiyo no otosan]

Adam spotted

That's a mutated New Orleans clave!
Sixteen beats per bar split up like so:
123 123 123 123 1234

Which is exactly what I thought. I think.

I know what you mean Norman, about the tag to identify the style for DJs - I believe there was a time when all latin singles had the style on the label so people would know how to dance to it - but I can't see why they'd suggest it is calypso. Surely it is closer to R'n'B, which must have been around then, wasn't it?

I've just stumbled across it on a Japanese compilation of Excello stuff called Swamp Rock Bottom (Wild Bayou Classics), where it sits quite happily with Slim Harpo, Silas Hogan (another embarrassingly new name to me) and "Congo Mombo" by the extraordinary Guitar Gable & the Musical Kings.

Anyway, gotta go listen to Little Darlin' again.

[judith]

I've been playing this song too, and dancing to it. It's great, all the rhythms it's got going.

Over here, the dance people danced to this song was called 'the calypso' at the time. When I tried out that old dance school calypso to the song today, it comes out looking more like salsa footwork. In retrospect, it seems as though calypso was the then version of the term world music for all recordings this side of the Atlantic back then. Lord knows what was in the calypso slot in the record store till bossa nova came along.

By a strange coincidence, my son was listening to "Stay" and looked up the composer and discovered that Maurice Williams, who wrote "Little Darlin". also wrote "Stay" (won't you stay, just a little bit longer...), which was recorded by Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs. (He tells me the 'cowbell' in the intro to "Little Darlin" is playing 'son clave' - an old Afro-Cuban timeline device).

Taiyo, about the R&B sound, In the fourth paragraph of this Maurice williams bio, it states the song's rhythm was 'altered' by the head of the record company, Excello Records.
http://tinyurl.com/5q93q3

[Ted]

I knew The Diamonds version - this is loads better. Presumably this was the original and the Diamonds were a whitened up copy? -their version certainly has simpler rhythms going on.

[taiyo no otosan]

Thanks for that link to the biog, Judith. it was just what I wanted to read. In my ignorance, it hadn't occurred to me that it was the same Maurice Williams. I also cannot see why that is a calypso beat, or why you'd perform a calypso dance to it! Presumably, as you say, it was just a catch-all label in those days. It could've been tagged a limbo, I guess!

Having finally managed to get past track 6 on the CD, I now find myself in awe of Rollin' Stone by The Magnolias. More blooming wonderful music (ha ha!) Does any one know anything about that one?!