Soul Station Feature: Billy Joe & The Checkmates

Oozin’ Soul

The Dore label, started by Lew Bedell, had pop rock hits with The Teddy Bears and Jan & Dean before 1960. The label also had a hit that was basically manufactured and played by session musicians around Ernie Freeman, Percolator (Twist). It was copped from a Maxwell House coffee jingle. The made up band was called Billy Joe & the Checkmates, and the label continued to release records under this name well into the late 1960s, and perhaps into the early 1970s! My favorite of them is a crushing, and mildly comic, slab of grungy rock-funk, Try It, You'll Like It. But is is nowhere to be found to post. So here is my second favorite, from early 1968 (?), it has a southern feel, like something by the Bill Black Combo, with cheeky organ and a wonderful, bluesy guitar solo.

DJ Pi/Paul Yamada