Baby I Love You

Ichiban's Mr. December sings Dan Penn.

Arthur Alexander - Baby I Love You  (Dan Penn/Spooner Oldham)

Joe Tex and Arthur Alexander - the sequel: I'm Not Going to Work Today

Obviously I'm not one to belabor a point, but here's a second connection between Mr. Ichibans of December and February. This time it comes courtesy of Clyde McPhatter.

On a 1966 Amy/Stateside 45 (seen here in its non-styrene UK pressing) Clyde covered the early Arthur Alexander hit, "Shot of Rhythm and Blues".

And on the flip he drops his version of "I'm Not Going to Work Today", Joe's calypso-fied ode to parental exhaustion.  The song's from Hold What You've Got but must have been around for a while - Boot Hog Pefferly and the Loafers released it on Sound Stage 7 in 1963, and Hold What You've Got didn't come out 'til 65.

Me neither, Boot.

When Ichiban Months Collide: Arthur Alexander covers Joe Tex!

Take it easy - you haven't been suddenly transported back to 2011. We'll get back to the Tex-in' tomorrow, but for today I couldn't resist posting this unreleased-until-the-90s 1968 cover of "Taking Care of a Woman (Is a Full Time Job)" by Ichiban's Mr. December, Arthur Alexander. Arthur was one of the few soul artists of the 60s who displayed his country influence as much as Joe. The OG is on the I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better LP, which, believe me, we will get to in good time.

I'm too hung over from DJ'ing last night to do anything better.

Arthur Alexander Month: The King James Version

Let's open up the Book of Alexander t0 KING JAMES & MEL's little known but magnificent New Orleansed-up take on "You Better Move On". Very snazzy early Gamble-Huff production.

Can I get an AMEN?

Get A Shot Of Rhythm & Blues

by Richard Younger 2000 - University of Alabama Press

Paradise

Concrete Jungle

Double Shot

Soldier Of Love

Where Have You Been?

I Need You Baby

"Get the tissues out boys, this one's gonna hurt"

Arthur Alexander Month

Bobby Flores - Every Day I Have To Cry

Arthur Alexander Month: The Death of Joe Henderson

     So... while browsing through old issues of Billboard for info about Mr. Alexander, I stumbled upon this article in the November 7, 1964 issue:

    While on the one hand, this does answer the question of why I'd never seen any further records by Henderson, on the other, it just generates further questions. What causes a 27-year old to have a heart attack? A congenital heart defect? Amphetamines (certainly a common thing in the Music City)? Or something else? And why was he bunking with Arthur, rather than his wife and kids? Mrs. Henderson died in 2008, so she's obviously not a good resource.

If you're only going to have one song that people remember, you could do a lot worse than this. 

    I have no answers for those questions, but thanks to the efforts of crack digital librarian and first-rate spouse Mandy Mastrovita, I do know a few things about where Alexander was as his roomie lay dying:

"Social...Spin," Red and Black, October 22, 1964, p. 6
Presented online by the University
of Georgia Libaries.

     Homecoming 1964 at the University of Georgia would have been a pretty good weekend to crash some Greek parties. I can't say which one I would have chosen, though. How could you? Not just Mr. Alexander at Chi Psi, but The Five Du-tones, Eddie Floyd, The Tams, The Sensations (I'm assuming it was these Sensations),  The Upsetters (minus Little Richard), The Catalinas, whichever sets of "Ambassadors" and "Vibratones" these were... even Dionne Warwick (or "Warlick", as they render it here) would have been  worth seeing at that point. Of course, you'd have had to go to a frat party. And, since the Bulldogs apparently won their game by 21-7, they were probably especially wild and rowdy that night.

Chi Psi House, 320 S. Lumpkin St.

       Here's a tiny photo of the house where you'd have been attending the party in question; it was pretty new at the time, having only been built in 1960. The frat was kicked off campus for booze violations in the late '80s, and the building was razed in 2004.

Arthur Alexander: Me and Mine

Some people think I'm lucky, but life don't think that way!

Me and Mine

Call Me Lonesome

Arthur Alexander - Call Me Lonesome

Black cat bone.

Arthur Alexander Month: The Monument Years CD

The Monument Years CD covers Arthur's post-Dot 60s work. Over half of it was unreleased at the time and while there's some duff cuts, most of it sounds great. Arthur is a little bit less despairing than during his Dot years, so there is the occasional lapse in intensity, but not on this great pissed off (and otherwise unreleased) self-penned rant where he actually bucks fate instead of just giving into it. "I PLAY SANTA CLAUS FOR YOU!"

You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)

The Rolling Stones - You Better Move On

Arthur Plays The Macon, Ga Auditorium 1963

Anna

Arthur didn't like the Beatles' version of "Anna".  He thought they were "little girl shit".  He preferred the Stones' version of "You Better Move On".

Arthur Covers Alex Chilton

1965-1972

Cry Like A Baby (mp3)

Gemini Spacecraft Honors Arthur Alexander

Our pals over at Gemini Spacecraft did a fine post on Arthur last year.  Thanks, Bob!

Arthur Alexander Month

You Don't Love Me, (You Don't Care)

Arthur's favorite cover of his songs was Dusty Springfield's "Everyday I Have To Cry Some"