Rock, R&B; From Down South

Nashville may best be known in the record business as the center of country music, but the city was also the home in the ‘50s and ‘60s of one of the most colorful of all regional blues and R&B; labels: Ernie Young’s Excello Records.

Eighteen of the label’s most appealing recordings have just been released by Rhino Records in an album titled “Southern Rhythm & Rock,” the second volume in an Excello retrospective series.

Volume 1, the just-released “Sound of the Swamp,” focuses on the label’s country- and blues-flavored recordings that were mostly recorded in Louisiana in the ‘60s. Among the artists featured: Slim Harpo, Lightnin’ Slim, Al Ferrier.

But it’s Volume 2 that is of the most immediate interest. It’s all the more valuable because so few of the tracks have been widely available on other CD compilations.

Here are some of the selections from “Southern Rhythm & Rock” that are especially noteworthy from a historical point of view:

The Gladiolas’ “Little Darlin’ “--This was the original 1957 version of the song that became a No. 2 pop single the same year when redone by the Diamonds on Mercury Records. Three years later, the Gladiolas had become the Zodiacs and the group broke into the Top 10 itself with the falsetto-accented “Stay,” one of the most distinctive R&B; hits of the era.

Rudy Green’s “My Mumblin’ Baby”--Though neither a pop nor R&B; hit, this lively novelty features such a vigorous battle of sax and guitar solos that it seems to be a showdown over which instrument would become the dominant sound of rock.

Louis Brooks & His Hi-Toppers’ “It’s Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)”--This mid-tempo blues tune was so popular in 1955 that it made it into the Top 10 twice, once with this version and once with a Ruth Brown version on Atlantic.

The Marigolds’ “Rollin’ Stone”--An inspired mix of calypso and R&B; that was one of the most infectious R&B; hits of 1955 and a record described as an early, tentative step toward reggae.

Arthur Gunter’s “Baby, Let’s Play House”--”You may go to college / You may go to school / You may get religion / But don’tcha be nobody’s fool / . . . Come back baby, I want to play house with you,” Gunter declares in what was arguably Excello’s most important single.

Elvis Presley heard the record shortly after it was released in late 1954 and recorded his own version for Sun Records, changing the “you may get religion” line to “you may have a pink Cadillac.” He turned Gunter’s recording of a rather routine country jump tune into a record so electric that it served as a virtual framework for rock ‘n’ roll.