Previously in the book: Midwesterner Hal Neely tore up the big band circuit, joined the Army during World II, got his degrees from USC and launched himself into the record industry where he met loud and crude producer Syd Nathan.

Shortly after their initial meeting, Nathan hired Neely to update King’s dilapidated factory. The first phase was changing from the 78 RPM format to 45 RPM. The old format was still popular in the hillbilly and R&B markets because many of the customers still used hand-cranked players which only used 78 RPM. However, Nathan wanted to convert to the new format not only because it would give him additional sales but would also give him access to placing hits on the pop charts.10
Forty-fives were becoming the state-of-the-art in sound fidelity and the preferred choice of those buyers who had money to spend on them. Hence, music released on 45 RPMs had a better chance to place on the popular charts.
Evolving technology notwithstanding, there was the ultimate financial decision to move to the smaller 45s. RCA Victor introduced 45s on seven-inch vinyl discs which could hold as much sound as the 12-inch 78 RPMs.11 Less material—lower cost, another factor that the always penurious Nathan surely considered.
In December of 1950 King Records produced “Sixty Minute Man” by Billy Ward and His Dominoes. It became the first crossover hit from the rhythm and blues charts to Billboard’s pop charts. What ensured the success of “Sixty Minute Man” was the outrage spawned by the suggestive lyrics. Many radio stations around the country refused to play it, making it the biggest R&B hit of 1951 and probably the biggest R&B record of the first half of the 1950s. It sold mostly to white teenagers who were in their Rebel Without a Cause phase. It also reached No. 17 on the pop charts. Critics said “Sixty Minute Man” went too far with its lyrics about a “mighty, mighty man” known as “lovin’ Dan” with “kissing,” “teasing,” “squeezing,” and “blowing my top.”12
This success actually occurred on the Federal label which King had just created to act as a subsidiary for mostly R&B, jazz, and blues artists discovered by King’s newest artist representative, Ralph Bass. Bass originally worked for Black and White Records during the time of Jack McVea’s hit “Open the Door, Richard.”
Bass, born in 1911 in New York, was a white man of mixed Jewish-Italian ancestry who said he blurred the ethnic line with ease.13 He described himself as a “jive-talking wheeler-dealer, half artist and half con artist.” He was the key operator at Federal Records from 1951 to 1958. Besides Black and White Records, Bass worked with other labels such as Bop, Portrait and Savoy.
“Look, babe, I am in black music,” Bass said in a 1984 interview. “Being white, I had a lot to overcome to gain the confidence of blacks so they would accept me as being for real, not just a jive cat who was gonna take advantage of them. I had to learn the language all over again. I didn’t really become a different person, but I acclimated myself to what was happening with blacks in the South.”
Bass was introduced to Syd Nathan by Ben Bart of the booking agency Universal Attractions.
“I wanted to quit Savoy so bad, but I couldn’t afford to,” Bass said. Nathan offered him a generous financial deal, so Bass moved to Cincinnati. “I was going from the frying pan into the fire.”14
After the success of the Dominoes, Bass acquired Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, a Detroit vocal group discovered by King’s Detroit branch manager, Jim Wilson. Bass and his group recorded several songs in 1952 and 1953 which received mediocre reception. However, in 1954, within days of release “Work with Me, Annie” went to No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart, mostly because, like “Sixty Minute Man,” it had so-called “dirty leerics.”15
“Annie, please don’t cheat
Give me all my meat
Oh, ooooooh, weeeee
So good to me
Work with me, Annie…”16
Ballard and the Midnighters followed up their success within three months with “Annie Had A Baby.”17
“Now I know, and it’s understood
That’s what happens when the gettin’ gets good
Annie had a baby…”18
King followed up these hits with other songs with sexual innuendo, such as “Keep On Churnin’” by Wynonie Harris, “Big Ten Inch Record” by Bullmoose Jackson and “My Ding-a-ling” by Dave Bartholomew. Eventually King compiled all the records together in one album called “Risky Blues.” Despite the financial success of these records, King came under attack in an editorial called “A Warning to the Music Business” in none other than Billboard Magazine.19
“What are we talking about? We’re talking about rock ‘n roll, about ‘hug’ and ‘squeeze’ and kindred euphemisms which are attempting a total breakdown of all reticence about sex. In the past such material was common enough but restricted to special places and out-and-out barrelhouses. Today’s ‘leerics’ are offered as standard popular music for general consumption by teenagers. Our teenagers are already setting something of a record in delinquency with this raw material idiom to smell up the environment still more.”20
The Billboard editorial unleashed a torrent of other criticisms, such as comments by Los Angeles disc jockey Peter Potter who said, “All rhythm and blues records are dirty and as bad for kids as dope.”
Another disc jockey, Zeke Manners, opined that Potter’s comments were extreme but did discount the modern music as a fad. “The R&B following is limited to teenagers, white as well as colored, and to listeners that are musically immature. I don’t even say that it does any harm, but it is merely a passing craze with the kids of all races. And what do kids buy? Nothing but rhythm and blues records.”21
In reaction to the editorial and comments by disc jockeys, John S. Kelly, vice president and general manager of King, submitted the following letter for the next issue of Billboard Magazine:
We know that we are not without guilt in having in the past allowed some double-entendre tunes to reach the public, but I can assure you there will be no repetition. Several months ago we took definite steps to eliminate the possibility of objectionable material being recorded by or for our A&R (artist and repetoire) men on our three labels, King, Federal and Deluxe, by writing to them as follows:
‘We do not need dirt or smut to write a song. Imagination, newness of ideas, hard work to generate original new sounds, lyrics, and tunes will do the job all the time. This is just a reminder that we will never relent again and allow any off-color lyrics. If any of you record such material you, yourself, will have to pay for that part of the session that will be thrown out because of improper lyrics. Our policy is definitely established and that policy is to reject a tune if, in our opinion, it is unsuitable for the teenage group, who today are heavy buyers of R&B, as well as pop releases. We know that at times there will be a difference of opinion as to whether a given word or phrase measures up to our good intentions, but I believe you will agree that we in this company are sincerely trying to abolish the objectionable songs.’”22
Ralph Bass, in a 1994 interview, said he never recalled receiving a copy of the memo. “I was in Los Angeles, living there again and running the branch office. All of a sudden, white kids were buying black records for the first time.” A television interviewer wanted Bass to come on his show to talk to a politician, a woman with her 11-year-old daughter and the head of the PTA. “So I got on the show and I said, ‘Look, when it comes to something where white people don’t understand the language used, they immediately think in the worst terms. They don’t think in humorous terms, they just think it’s nasty.” Bass asked the little girl if she liked “Work With Me Annie” and she said yes because she “liked the beat.”23
King’s Detroit branch manager Jim Wilson, who had brought Hank Ballard to King’s attention in the first place, said he “believed that (dirty lyric) music helped younger whites to pass up some of the prejudices held by their parents.”24
Music historians pointed out King vice president Kelley was clever in his statement to leave an escape clause for the company which would excuse an occasional slip-up. His exemptions left the door open for King to release the often-controversial lyrics of hits by James Brown who was just about to hit the national scene. 25

Bibliography

10 Powers, Brian, History of King Records, Public Library of Cincinnati.
11 History of the Gramophone Record, http://www.45-rpm.org.uk/history.html.
12 Powers, Brian, History of King Records, Public Library of Cincinnati.
13 King of the Queen City, 87.
14 Ibid., 88.
15 Powers, Brian, History of King Records, Public Library of Cincinnati.
16 King of the Queen City, 92-93.
17 Powers, Brian, History of King Records, Public Library of Cincinnati.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 King of the Queen City, 91.
24 Brian Powers.
25 Ibid.

(Author’s note: This chapter contains my research. Chapters in italics are in Mr. Neely’s own words and may not conform to what I found.)