Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Revisiting The Heeey Baby Days at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame



It wasn't the "real" Beach Club , you know, the one on U.S. 17 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina but most of the musicians whose photos lined the walls of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame's "Beach Club" ( exhibit October 2006 - May 2007) played at Cecil Corbett's mecca of Beach Music back in the Heeey Baby Days of Beach Music ! Come on in and meet some of my friends.





The band is on break but reminders of days gone by remain . ( shown far left back is an outfit worn by legendary, Joe Pope ! click on the image to enlarge


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The Farfisa organ before you is the actual one used at the recording session at Arthur Smith's in Charlotte,North Carolina where the famous party song "Double Shot" ( of My Baby's Love) was recorded.





It might say "Prophets" on the sweatshirt but we all knew them as the "Georgia Prophets." They sure "got the fever." Stories about the Georgia Prophets abound in The Heeey Baby Days of Beach Music.




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"Down in the Alley with the In-Men Ltd." is a chapter devoted entirely to the great show band from Burlington, North Carolina










Tip Tops from Hawkinsville, Georgia : They got their name for a downtown Atlanta Shoe Store... Another party band that spent many a Saturday night on fraternity row. Their memoirs are found in the chapter on Georgia bands.








Jesters Band.... Athens, Georgia what else is there to say... Horns... R&B ... they backed many greats!













The K-Otics were chaotic for sure... Do you sense they maybe "Charlena" knew them better than they let on ? lol












Mouse, The Boys & Brass were "Dancin' to the music" in Chapter 6 of The Heeey Baby Days of Beach Music.











Dirk & Tony, the famous Beach Music singing duo of the Classic City still occasionally get together for a reunion.














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Bill Deal & The Rhondels (center) had three top forty "Beach Tunes" in 1969 !
















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To be continued ...










2 comments:

Jeffers66 said...

Love that wall of 45s! It would be a treat to visit this some day.

heybabydays said...

Jeff,

Unfortunately, it was not a permanent display but was scheduled for a six month run just as the book was being released. It was replaced by the Otis Redding exhibit. The Heeey Baby Days exhibit more or less featured items from the book plus additional memorabilia contributed by members of various bands. All items like guitars, band uniforms, posters and records have been returned by the curator, Joseph Johnson, to the various contributors. I was very proud that the Georgia Music Hall of Fame chose to present the book and memories in such an elaborate manner. It was truly first class. It was a tremendous tribute to those musicians featured in the book. I am going to add a few more images from the exhibit either today or tomorrow.

Thanks for your comment

Greg

P.S. During the exhibit's run, I would occasionally drop in to see how things were going and Joseph Johnson, the curator, would tell me of the various band members that would drop by to see the exhibit and have their picture made standing in front of their display or photo. That made everything worthwhile. And the sight of seeing a group of small girls (8 or 9 years old?) dancing to Beach Music in front of the juke box. That was a very pleasing memory from the exhibit but opening night topped everything. Read Wayne Scarbourgh's letter at the site.