Featured 45: June Alexander - Sally Sue Brown (Judd 1020)

In the late 50's, Sally Sue Brown's co-writer, Tom Stafford, was the ringleader of Florence, Alabama's hipster sub-culture. When Tom wasn't busy managing the town's Princess movie theater, he and his pals hung out on the second floor of his parent's pharmacy. Information on this scene is a bit sketchy, but I'm willing to guess that pharmaceutical speed found its way to the drug store's second floor. There on the second floor, amidst the masculine posturings of twenty-somethings, the dull odor of stale cigarettes and beer, and an array of guitars, the spark of ingenuity hit: young men with nascent inklings that a living could be made playing a guitar, emboldened by the bennies coursing through their bloodstreams, started to make up their own songs. The list of names that walked those floors reads like roll call at a Southern music hall of fame: Donnie Fritts, Dan Penn, Terry Thompson, Spooner Oldham, David Briggs, Earl 'Peanut' Montgomery, Jerry Carrigan, Ray Barger, Hargus 'Pig' Robbins, and Rick Hall.

The shingle that Stafford hung outside the building was Spar music, and the business was primarily recording song demos by area hopefuls. Arthur 'June' Alexander stumbled into this scene after the breakup of his vocal group, the Heartstrings. He'd been working on some material and, after a tryout, Stafford brought him into the fold. Stafford showed Alexander some lyrics he'd been fiddling with and Alexander suggested a melody cribbed from Brook Benton's most recent hit 'Kiddio.' As Alexander couldn't play an instrument, Peanut Montgomery rounded out the writer's credit, presumably working out the others' ideas into their coherent whole: 'Sally Sue Brown' was born.

...or should I say 'stillborn.' Arthur Alexander himself reckoned that his first record didn't sell more than 7 or 8 copies. He might be right. Up until a stack recently materialized in a Nashville publishing executive's holdings, I'd theorized that most of this Judd single's pressings were destroyed. It seems now that they weren't given much distribution beyond Nashville: Judd 1020 wasn't much more than a glorified song demo. I'm sure most were tossed, but song publishers have long memories and deep files. I suspect there at least a few still tucked away in other executives' libraries!

'Sally Sue Brown' is unique among Arthur Alexander's records; he sounds assured, singing a fairly straight-forward--albeit fantastic--r and b rocker. The band supporting him on this effort is an embarrassment of talent, some of whom would go on to be some of Muscle Shoals and Nashville's greatest session players: Peanut Montgomery on guitar, Jerry Carrigan on drums, Ray Barger on bass, and Pig Robbins on piano.

Alexander hadn't yet developed the weird, emotionally conflicted vocal delivery that would characterize much of the material that followed. Only a year and half after 'Sally Sue Brown,' Arthur Alexander would release 'You Better Move On' and a decades worth of fantastic country soul would follow.

Reportedly, this record has a history on Belgian Popcorn dancefloors, undoubtedly given some help by a bit of turntable pitch-shift. Maybe a reader can explain this phenomenon more fully.