Young Jessie

The LA R&B vocal group scene from the 1950s was a reasonably incestuous one — members flitted in one aggregation to another, often sporting several connections at that time. Teen Jessie was an associate from the Flairs, Hunters, and Coasters, in addition to scoring a single West Coast strike along with his 1955 rocker “Mary Lou.” Obediah Jessie was a LA high-school classmate of Richard “Louie Louie” Berry. Both come up with the Flairs and debuted over the Bihari Brothers’ Flair label in 1953 with “She Really wants to Rock and roll.” The Flairs documented progressively for the company, but solo position anticipated Jessie, who cut a cover of Big Mama Thornton’s Leiber/Stoller-penned “I Smell a Rat” for Contemporary (the Biharis’ flagship logo design) in 1954. “Mary Lou,” organized by saxist Maxwell Davis, surfaced the next calendar year; its uncommon minor-key arrangement will need to have appealed to rockabilly wildman Ronnie Hawkins, who strike the pop lists with it in 1959 for Roulette. Platters supervisor Buck Ram had taken over Jessie’s profession with time to pencil his torrid 1956 rocker “Strike, Git & Divide” beneath the sobriquet of Lynn Paul. Both that trim and its own follow-up, “Oochie Coochie,” stemmed from a fresh York time that supported Jessie with Mickey Baker on electric guitar and saxman Sam “THE PERSON” Taylor. Jessie reverted to his vocal-group root base in 1957, signing up for the Coasters to sing harmonies on the smashes “Searchin'” and “Youthful Bloodstream” for Atco. Exactly the same company issued a single Jessie 45, “Shuffle within the Gravel,” before shifting him to Atlantic for “Margie.” Afterwards singles for Capitol and Mercury do small to rekindle Jessie’s profession, although Mercury 45s sported some amazing credits. “Be-Bop Nation Boy” was made by ex-Little Richard/Sam Cooke cohort Bumps Blackwell, while a remade “Mary Lou” discovered Jessie collaborating using a trio of Phil Spector affiliates: Jack port Nitzsche organized, and Lester Sill and Steve Douglas co-produced.