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Mel-o-dy 113 (A), May 1964
b/w Cold As Usual
(Written by Dorsey Burnette and Joe Osborn)
After a brief pop digression with Bruce Channel’s Satisfied Mind, Mel-o-dy Records heads back to country and western territory with Dorsey Burnette – a bona fide rockabilly legend, former member of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio and later an inductee of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (who knew there was such a thing? Not me, that’s for sure.) My knowledge of this scene is shaky at best, but the material suggests Motown pulled off something of a coup in luring Burnette to their country subsidiary label.
This starts out in baffling fashion, a cold open featuring nothing but a bashed tambourine and a menacing series of finger-snaps for a few bars. Then, enter Dorsey, doing a call-and-response vocal with bass and guitars:
A little squirrel
(BOM BOM BOM BOM)
Found an acorn
(BOM BOM BOM BOM)
And buried it
(BOM BOM BOM BOM)
Down deep in the ground
(BOM BOM BOM BOM)
It’s weird, plonky and plodding, and slightly dispiriting. It gets worse, too, the lyrics degenerating into a simplistic, annoying hymnal along the lines of “The House that Jack Built”, detailing how that acorn grew into a tree, and the tree gave wood for a house, and the house housed a young couple who had a baby, and only God can make a tree, or something.
But Dorsey’s voice is friendly and engaging, and I find him strangely likeable, for some reason; while this is definitely more in the country bag than Bruce Channel’s effort, there’s still a certain pop sensibility to this. By the time we get to the chorus, with a big swoon of horns and female backing vocals, then – Dorsey’s whiter-than-white rockabilly delivery and Southern twang aside – there’s not a vast gulf between this and the likes of, say, Eddie Holland’s I Couldn’t Cry If I Wanted To, or any of Motown’s records cut with white radio in mind.
I’m overselling this – the verses are schlocky and twee, and the whole thing lacks bite – but Burnette is palpably enjoying himself a great deal, and his avuncular enthusiasm is infectious enough to paper over some of the giant, yawning cracks in this song. Eh, what can I say, I’ve got a sneaking soft spot for this in spite of almost everything about it. Don’t take that as a recommendation – but nor is it a savage kicking.
MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
(I’ve had MY say, now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, or click the thumbs at the bottom there. Dissent is encouraged!)
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I just traded away a copy of this. and someone, believe it or not wrote “Sh*t” twcie on the label. My knowledge of country music and rockabilly is probably a bit more than the average Motown fan [if I were British I’d likely be more of a Ted than a Mod]
Dorsey had been label hopping during his lifetime. After the Trio broke up, he went to Fabor Robison’s ABBOTT label then after reuniting with brother Johnny landed a gig with Imperial [most likely because of their association with Ricky Nelson], then off To Era [where he had his biggest hit with Tall Oak Tree] folliwng which he had a brief spell at Dot, then to Reprise [ one of Sinatra’s first “rock n roll signings but was given over to Jimmy Bowen to produce] Shortly before he came to Motown, he did some production work for Herb Alpert at A & M [for French Canadian rockabilly singer Lucille Starr]. After that we come to this period covered here]Sadly, three months later. JOhnny was killed in a boating accident in California. Which will probably account for why none of his three Mel-O-Dy singles made much fof an impact.
Let it be said that Dorsey’s productions had nothing to do with the Texas division of Mel-O-Dy–or anything else!!
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Thanks for the background, Ed – I freely admit this is outside my area of expertise.
I love the idea someone would bother to write that on a label. I like to think it’s because they couldn’t remember whether they liked something or not. I wonder if some of their other records had things like “AMAZING” or “FAIRLY AVERAGE, REALLY” scrawled on them.
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“Little Acorn” is the “child” of his mega hit, “Tall Oak Tree”. It’s a poor facsimile. I DO, however, like “Everybody’s Angel”, his second Mel-o-dy release.
I “scrounged” for records from 1953-1972 in Canada and USA, and have looked through, literally, millions of 45s. I have seen thousands with writing on them describing the “quality” of the songs (“fantastic fast Doowop!”, “pure shit!”, “Garbage”, “nice ballad”, “great uptempo”, etc.)
You should see what some people wrote on Dora Hall’s records!
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You should see what people do with Dora Hall records–they do make nice ashtrays!! Did Dora ever cover any Motown song??
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She certainly did. And, it was played on The Northern Soul Scene, no less! She recorded “I heard It Through The Grapevine”, and several other Motown (HDH) songs (luckily, for my sanity, I can’t remember which (although I recall a couple Four Tops, Temptations and Mary Wells).
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I lived in Chicago during her heydey. i should have gone to Calamo Records and asked her millionaire husband, “WHY???”
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The most exciting thing I can add to this discussion is that his son Billy replaced Lindsay Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac.
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Seven years later and IMHO Fleetwood Mac died when Peter green left
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