Brian & The Nash. playing REAL WILD CHILD (live 2005)

Thank you Choochoo darling,


Cheers for the tee-shirt without sleeves!

Thanks, my friend, it was really a fantastic tour
Enjoy this one too, from the same gig: Rock This Town

FC

Absolutely "red hot & live" !! Thanks a lot Amigo.

Absolutely superb!!

Thanks Mon Hub' ! One of my favorite tours !
Fantastic song. The original was by Jerry Lee, no ?

Setzerado wrote:

Thanks Mon Hub' ! One of my favorite tours !
Fantastic song. The original was by Jerry Lee, no ?

The original version was by Aussie King of Rock and Roll 'Johnny O'Keefe'

While Johnny O'Keefe had the first recording of Real Wild Child, the version Brian is clearly paying homage to on Rockabilly Riot is the one by Jerry Lee Lewis. Jerry Lee Lewis, along with Buddy Holly, Paul Anka, and others toured Australia in early 1958, where O'Keefe's version was quite popular. Not only did Jerry Lee rush to record his own version of it, Buddy Holly's drummer, Jerry Allison, along with the rest of the Crickets (including Buddy), recorded "Wild Child," releasing it under the pseudonym "Ivan" in 1958.

Other "Riot" songs in which Brian is covering a Sun version that is not the original are "Red Hot" and "Flatfoot Sam." Obviously, Brian is covering Billy Lee Riley's "Red Hot" and not Billy "theKid" Emerson's (also recorded and released on Sun.) "Flatfoot Sam" was recorded for Sun Records by Tommy Blake in 1957 but the original version was recorded by TV Slim for Checker(Chess) Records earlier that year. I love the TV Slim version - it sounds like a Little Richard record.

Always in a Jam-a-billy

Jerry Lee recorded his version of Wild One in 1958 but it was not released until 1974 on the album, Rockin' and Free.

It's interesting that a couple of the gems Brian recorded on Riot were definitely recorded in Sun's heyday, but not released until much later. Of course, there's Jumpin' Gene Simmons' "Peroxide Blonde (In a Hopped Up Model Ford)" that was released in its fragmented form decades after it was recorded. "Put Your Cat Clothes On" was on Carl Perkins' first album, but the far superior version Brian based his cover on featured Jerry Lee Lewis on piano and although it was recorded on December 6, 1956, it was not released until 1964, long after Carl left the Sun label.

Trivial Pursuit-a-billy

Once again. Rickipedia to the rescue!

Hats off to ya!

One Love,
Scatman

Asking about the "original", I was meaning the version which inspired Brian in Rockabilly Riot. It's Jerry Lee ? Thanks a lot gentlemen.
I don't know why but I was thinkin' there was an other Sun artist who recorded the song.

Nope. Regarding Wild One (Real Wild Child) it was definitely Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun. Since its first release in 1974, it has adorned many a Sun compilation and is also a fixture on various Jerry Lee Lewis collections as if it were some big sensation back in the 50s. It wasn't. Unless you lived in Australia in 1957-58. Then Johnny O'Keefe's version was everywhere.

Even Jerry "Ivan" Allison's version wasn't that big of a hit, and only became sought after when Buddy Holly fans realized Buddy played guitar on it. I heard the Crickets perform it on February 2nd, 2009 at The Surf Ballroom and I'll be damned if it didn't sound almost exactly like the recording. Jerry did the "Ivan" voice exactly as it sounded on record!

I need to track down the O'Keefe version - officially speaking, not on YouTube.

Real Wild Child-a-billy