PLEDGE WEEK: “Papa Oom Mow Mow” by the Rivingtons

This is a bonus episode, part of Pledge Week 2021.

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Rock and roll, roll and roll your

Today, we're going to look at a record that, like the record we looked at in the main podcast this week, has connections to Kim Fowley and to the Beach Boys, who covered it just as they did Moondog.

But we're going to look at it as a way to say goodbye to Gaynal Hodge, who has appeared in so many of our previous episodes.

Hodge played piano on Ali Oop, which we've done a bonus podcast on before, and which is also very briefly discussed in this week's main episode.

And while I was writing that, I heard from a Twitter follower that he had died this week.

We've already covered all the records we're going to look at in which he had major involvement, so today we're going to look at another one on which he was just a session musician.

This one is actually from 1962, when we're still in 1960 in the main podcast, but it's not jumping so far ahead that it's unreasonable, and I wanted to tip my hat to him with the last record he played on, which I was already planning on discussing.

If you remember the Patreon episode on Little Bitty Pretty One, I said we'd be looking at Thurston Harris's backing group when we got to 1962.

So today, let's look at Papa Um Mau Mau by the Rivingtons.

Funniest sound I ever heard

And I can't understand the single word

Is he serious or is he playing?

Oh my

is all he says

The history of the Rivingtons is a convoluted one, as the story of so many vocal groups is.

They started out as a group called the Lamplighters, who were formed by Willie Ray Rockwell, who had been an original member of the Hollywood Flames.

The first line-up of the Lamplighters also included Leon Hughes, who left before they started recording, to join the Hollywood Flames.

Hughes, of course, later went on to join the Coasters.

Hughes was replaced by Thurston Harris, and they made their first recordings for Federal Records, with Ralph Bass and Johnny Johnny Otis.

Be Bob Wino, their second single, and the most impressive of these early recordings, was by a line-up of Rockwell, Harris, Al Frazier, and Matt Nelson.

Minecraft is better.

I'll keep my whine off.

They also recorded backing Jimmy with a spoon.

I

cannot

go

I've got bags on the mouse,

corns on my feet,

holes in my shoes,

and the world knows I'm beat.

Various changes happened in the line-up as people fell out with each other, got jailed for non-payment of child support, or just generally became too difficult to work with.

For a while, the group became made up of Al Frazier, Carl White, Sonny Harris, and Matthew Nelson, and were recording, still for Federal, as The Tenderfoots.

One little kiss, kiss, kiss.

You will never list.

My little kissing, but but you know, no, no,

I really love you so, so, so

I never let you go, go, go,

until I get a kiss,

my little kissing.

After four unsuccessful singles, Thurston Harris rejoined the group and they became the lamplighters again, recording a few more singles, starting with Don't Make It So Good.

afford

to pay more

paid by my room and born.

Hey, I know I found the way.

I know I found a way.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, my darling.

You know I found a pay.

I thank you, dear.

Then they decided to fire Harris again, as he was extremely unreliable.

They took on a new singer, Rocky Wilson.

The line-up now was Al Frazier, Carl White, Sonny Harris and Rocky Wilson.

This line-up's first recording was backing, of all people, Paul Anker, on his first ever recording, a session paid for by Anker's father.

I must confess

I do.

Yes, my

darling, I

love you

from the moment

we

first

met.

Lester Sill renamed the group the Sharps, and they started making records under that name, like six months, three weeks, two days, one hour.

Six months we win,

two days and an hour.

That is what I love,

'cause love

of life.

They also backed their old bandmate Thurston Harris on his hit, Little Bitty Pretty One.

Little Bitty Pretty One, come on and talk to me.

Love me, love me, love me, one,

come sit down on my knee.

Lester Sill started getting them back in vocal jobs.

Hits them on Rebel Rouser by Dwayne Eddy.

They briefly renamed themselves the Crenshaws and released a record of the old standard Moonlight in Vermont.

This was a Kim Fowley production and their first work with him.

They then renamed themselves the Rivingtons, still with a line-up of Frasier, White, Harris, and Wilson.

And Kim Fowley got them to start recording novelty songs with the normal group of people that Fowley used on novelty records, like Gary Paxton and Gaynell Hodge.

Their first record, Papa Um Mau Mau, made the top fifty on the chart.

no man's shout for

my mouth.

There followed a variety of records with similar backing vocals, of which my favourite is the coasters-flavoured Kickapoo Joy Juice.

You've been shouting all the time.

Simply

and I'm slipping at the sink.

And you've been twisted upside down.

And I'm flying all around.

Kick a poo chum.

And you're gonna steal my recipe.

recipe.

I better learn to fly if you won't catch me.

But the only one to have any success at all was The Bird's the Word, which went to number 52 on the chart and was their only RB hit, making number 27 on the RB charts.

Swinging this and this gotta hit the sea.

It's got the latest groove that has real to me.

Shortly after that, their songs moved from the world of LA RB groups into the world of surf music, through, of all people, a white group from Minnesota.

The Trash Men put together a medley of the Rivingtons' two biggest hits, and called it Surfin' Bird.

Their record originally credited their drummer as the songwriter, but a few lawyers' letters later, the Rivingtons got the credit they deserved, as Surfin' Bird made number four in 1963.

That brought the Rivingtons' original recordings back to mind for those surf groups like the Beach Boys, who had also been influenced by the LA RB vocal group scene.

And Papa Umau Mau entered the Beach Boys' regular set list and featured on their album Beach Boys Concert, which was the Beach Boys' first number one album, as well as the first number one live album by anyone.

guys called the Ribbingtons.

Their song is called A Papa Huma Mao.

The Beach Boys loved the song, and it was also included on their Beach Boys Party album, as well as on numerous live recordings that have been released on archive sets.

To this day, the current touring Beach Boys perform part of the song during their extended performances of Barbara Ann.

The Rivingtons continued to tour for many decades in various line-ups.

Unfortunately, they remained so obscure that I can't find much more about them after Carl White died towards the end of the 70s, though the other three continued at least into the 90s.

There are no compilation C D's of their music in print, and you can only find their hits incongruously placed on various artists' surf albums.

It's a shame, as their best recordings are as good as any doo-wop out there.

The Rivingtons intersected with so many of the great musicians of the period, Johnny Otis, the Hollywood Flames, Dwayne Eddy, that it's really a shame their work is never placed in that context.

But at least their hits are remembered, and there are very few records that can be more likely to bring pure joy to listeners.

And Gaynell Hodge, the piano player on their biggest record, will be remembered too.

rhythm of the sea.