Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1959


The Happy Organ

Buy The Happy Organ now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




"'The Happy Organ'" is the name of an instrumental composition made famous by Dave "Baby" Cortez in 1959. Cortez co-composed it with noted celebrity photographer James J. Kriegsmann and frequent collaborator Kurt Wood. A significant portion of the tune bears a strong resemblance to the traditional "Shortnin' Bread" tune. The record topped the 'Billboard' Hot 100 on 11 May 1959 and also reached #5 on Billboard's R&B chart.

"The Happy Organ" originally featured lyrics and was intended to be sung accompanied by a piano and an organ. Cortez recorded a vocal for it, but was unhappy with the result. He spotted a Hammond B3 organ in the studio and decided to play the song's melody on it. He also brought in studio drummer, Gary Hammond, to provide percussion. The guitar solo is by session musician Wild Jimmy Spruill. Hearing an organ on a rock or R&B song at the time was unusual, but Cortez helped popularize its use outside of the jazz field.

The piece was Cortez' second single for Clock Records, a New York indie launched in 1958. Lowell Music's 'Clock' was located at 1619 Broadway. Doug Moody handled sales & promotion. The next week, the Hot 100's #1 was Wilbert Harrison's cover of "Kansas City", which also included Spruill's guitar. Doug Moody soon left Clock to start up Mystic Records in Hollywood, and Cortez took his next hit, "Rinky Dink", to Chess Records.

See also



* List of 'Billboard' Hot 100 number ones of 1959

References



Category:1959 singles

Category:Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles

Category:Cashbox number-one singles

Category:Pop instrumentals

Category:Rock instrumentals

Category:1959 songs

Category:1950s instrumentals


Buy The Happy Organ now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 1959



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1087688410.