She’s My Baby (S Turner/T Moffatt/E Finch) and It’s Too Late (C Willis)- Johnny O’Keefe 1960.
In late 1959 O’Keefe decided on a whim to go to America and make a record, he sold his Zephyr to fund the trip and flew out to Los Angeles on Oct. 23 that year; his wife had just delivered their first baby, John Lee O’Keefe, and was struggling with post-natal issues. There was no itinerary nor any prearranged meetings with record company or television executives as Johnny had boasted, but he did intend to have his first American thick shake, in a typical US drugstore! By sheer luck Johnny bumped into guitarist Scotty Turner in that drugstore on Sunset Boulevarde, Scotty had toured with Tommy Sands on one of Lee Gordon’s Big Shows in Sydney and remembered Johnny. Below L-R – Scotty Turner, Liberty Records Logo, Simon Waronker
Turner introduced O’Keefe to Don Bohanon of Liberty records, the largest and most successful independent label in Hollywood, Johnny had an acetate copy of his then yet-to-be -released version of Shout with him, the Liberty executives were impressed. Simon Waronker, the company founder and music industry legend (Simon along with Theodore Keep, and Alvin Bennett, were all Liberty record company executives who provided the names for the three singing Chipmunks), instructed his staff to sign O’Keefe to a five year deal straight away, he also got a US$5,000 advance against future royalties; two recording sessions were set up for later in the week at the famous Gold Star Studios owned by Stan Ross and Dave Gold. Below L-R Leon Russell and Snuff Garret, Gold Star, Recording session at Gold Star.
The Gold Star location at 6252 Santa Monica Boulevarde, was an anonymous cinderblock facade that concealed a former dentist’s surgery, which had been converted in 1950 into a powerhouse of hit-making, a cauldron of creativity where such visionaries as Stan Ross, Dave Gold and Larry Levine, transformed the fervid imaginings of pop music’s visionaries into three minutes of backbeat and hum, that topped the charts around the world. Phil Spector, Snuff Garrett, Jack Nitzcshe, Herb Alpert, and Brian Wilson were but a few who brewed the alchemy that produced hits for The Righteous Brothers, The Beach Boys, Eddie Cochran, Richie Valens, Duane Eddy, The Champs, Johnny Burnette, Sonny and Cher, and many others. On November 5th 1959, Liberty spared no expense and assembled an A-list of session musicians under the control of producer “Snuff” Garrett (Thomas Leslie Garrett), who had recently produced hits for Johnny Burnette and would work extensively with Bobby Vee, Cher, and Gary Lewis and the Playboys in the future. Below L-R Earl Palmer, Barney Kessel, Plas Johnson.
The musicians included guitarist Barney Kessel who had performed with Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker and would become a member of the famous “Wrecking Crew”; playing on recordings for Phil Spector, the Beach Boys and the Monkees.
The drummer was Earl Palmer, a member of the Louis Armstrong Band, who had also recorded with Fats Domino; Scotty Turner sat in on guitar along with Rene Hall, the saxophonists were Jewel Grant, and Plas Johnson, bassman Red Callender, and the in house Ernie Freeman Orchestra and Chorus completed this esteemed line up. Below L-R Jewel Grant, Rene Hall, Red Callender.
Johnny O’Keefe had literally fallen on his feet, the songs he would record at Gold Star in that one week would produce his first two #1 hits – She’s My Baby and Come On and Take My Hand , and set a standard for production and musicianship that would inspire JO’K to return to the US for new material and musical inspiration, in the future. Liberty dubbed Johnny “Boomerang Boy” and promoted him as Australia’s number one jukebox favorite and television star, they even trimmed a few years off his age, and set about making him a star in the US market, but his competition there was overwhelming as he would discover, the Everly Brothers, Chubby Checker, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, the Platters, and Elvis Presley who would soon be demobbed from the army and back in the charts. Below JOK The “Boomerang Boy”
She’s My Baby was JOK’s first #1 hit and his favorite track among those he recorded in Los Angeles at the Gold Star Studios with Snuff Garrett, because it reminded him of his wife Marianne and how much he was missing her and their newborn son.
The song intros with a resonant bass man refrain by George McCurn (I’m Just A Country Boy) – bom, bom, bombom – and is quickly followed by bass guitar, drums, and the Wild One’s vocals- “Short black hair makes her look so sweet…” the whole orchestra swings in behind him and the song really talks off, brass contributed to a full-bodied authentic studio sound, reverb was added by the engineer Eddie Brackett, and this was Johnny’s most professional recording to this time. She’s My Baby first charted on January 9th, 1960, before reaching the top spot on February 20th, that year, it held onto number one for six weeks and stayed in the charts for an incredible 21 weeks overall. The song replaced Boom Boom Baby by Crash Craddock at number one, and in a twist of fate, was later dethroned by the same track. Below Record Artwork x 2, centre George McCurn.
In one marathon session at Gold Star Studios JOK recorded no less than five songs – She’s My Baby and the B side to that record It’s Too Late, Own True Self, a song originally earmarked for Elvis Presley, who was still in the army, as well as Ready For You, and Come on And Take My Hand, which were both hits back in Australia. She’s My Baby had been offered to O’Keefe by co-writer Scott Turner when he toured Australia with Tommy Sands in March 1959 and when JOK recorded the song in LA later that year Scott Turner was delighted to be able to play guitar on the session along with Barney Kessel. She’s My Baby became the first internationally produced record by an Australian rock artist to claim the #1 chart position locally, and the first time that an Australian rock star had recorded Stateside. Below- Al Lucas
The song had been originally recorded by Al Lucas, an Hawaiian/Filipino performer in 1959 and Scott Turner shared composing rights with DJ Tom Moffatt and Al Lucas’s manager Earl Finch, such sharing of songwriting credits was common practice at this time, to ensure that records got airplay and promotion, despite the negligible contributions that DJs or others made to the actual creative process. Below L-R JOK having a puff, Six O’Clock Rock Opening Title, Live recording of Rockville Junction.
The Wild One was rising quickly and as well as compering the ABC’s Six O’Clock Rock, he had his own Sydney radio show, Rockville Junction. His records were also hitting the mark, and he enjoyed great chart success having recorded the #16 best-selling record of 1959 with Shout and the #13 and #21 best -selling records in 1960 with She’s My Baby and Come On And Take My Hand.
It’s Too Late was the flipside to She’s My Baby and it became JO’K’s eleventh Australian top 20 hit, it was a tender rockabilly ballad with plaintive and soulful vocals by the Wild One, and a solid seller hitting #17 nationally, and even topped the charts in New Orleans, it was also covered by the Crickets (’59), and Roy Orbison (’61). O’Keefe was now poised for international success, he enjoyed the backing of a major US record label and he could avail himself of the songwriting and promotional resources that his contemporaries, like Col Joye, could only dream of having. In the 1990’s Snuff Garrett in interview about the Liberty Records phase of his career remembered Johnny O’Keefe ” We were after him, John didn’t have the voice of Mario Lanza of course, but he was exciting. Liberty saw the potential of a big star at that moment. We gave him every opportunity, everybody (top session men) was on it. He had all the hallmarks (of making it), I’ll tell ya that.” (4TR are indebted to Tony Watson who generously shared his copies of the Session Notes from JOK’s Gold Star recording sessions in 1959/60.) Below L-R JOK and Lonnie Lee, JOK x2.
4The Record 