The Upsetters were one of the hottest bands in R&B and rock'n'roll history and King Richard Penniman's touring outfit during the Specialty years, yet they were sorely undervalued and poorly chronicled. They backed Little Richard on some of his greatest and wildest sides and were also featured on Don Covay's debut Atlantic single, 'Big Bop Bip', in 1958 or Dee Clarke's 'Oh Little Girl'. The King and Queen of rock'n'roll served as the uncredited lead vocalist on some of the Upsetters' Little Star singles in the early '60s in one of his many moments of finding God and then losing him again. The band's line-up at periods included the powerful saxophonist Grady Gaines, who was also featured as a leader on some releases. The nuclear powered Ricardito's recordings exuded nightly in the mid-50s must have rubbed off on Grady Gaines. Mind you that Little Richard had a big argument with the owner of Specialty Records, Art Rupe because he wanted to record more songs with The Upsetters who favored over the studio session players.
The early Upsetters sessions reveal a band with a raw sound, lacking in studio polish, but with volcanic rhythmic creativity. Upsetters drummer Charles Connor is credited by James Brown with facilitating the rhythmic transition from '50s rock 'n' roll to '60s funk. Anyway, during this period, they were considered by many to be the greatest touring rock'n'roll band on the planet! Connor claimed in a Ponderosa Stomp piece that 'Keep a Knockin' was the first four-bar drum intro on a rock'n'roll record:
“Richard was saying, ‘I want the guitar to play the four-bar intro.’ So the guitar player, he tried it. Then Richard tried it. He said, ‘I don’t like that.’ Then he let the saxophone play the four-bar intro. I said, ‘Wait a minute, Richard. Let me do something. Let me do a four-bar intro because this has never been played on a rock and roll record!’ It had never been played on a rock and roll record. So I came up with a ‘tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat’ . Richard gave me a thousand dollars for that idea, and that was a lot of money in those days.”
The Upsetters remained intact long after Richard left in 1957 to become a minister and they toured or recorded (or both) with Little Willie John, Sam Cooke, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Joe Tex and Larry Birdsong. Band's saxophonist Wilbert Smith became the vocalist and performed under the name Lee Diamond on their own releases. He was from New Orleans (Upsetters were coming from Macon GA as Little Richard of course). Smith was in the horn section for James Brown and the Famous Flames' 1956 breakout hit, 'Please Please Please'. Further sessions and releases followed at Vee-Jay and Fire in the next years.
As you might have guessed from the above, the Upsetters cut many excellent records independently, as well as backing some of the greatest R&B singers of the era. This homegrown compilation showcases the best (I believe) of the Upsetters' releases under their own name, as well as their backing work. I tried to delve deeper into their history than their heyday in the '50s and early '60s. Some of their instrumentals are pure gritty and sleazy strip-tease stuff, while other are hyperspeed and primitive rock'n'rollers or soul funky dancers and it's a damn shame they're only known to R&B and rock 'n' roll diehards. I left out the Specialty Little Richard stuff because, well, it's already very well documented (don't worry, the King is still here, lending his fingers to the piano and his voice to the Little Star singles). I tried to compile almost all of their singles and songs, and I only included a handful of recordings that served as the backing unit. If I had a copy of a recording made from vinyl rather than a digital format, I obviously preferred the former for the collection you will hear. Who doesn't love those crackles, anyway?
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