Air Week: January 12-18, 2026

We begin a multi-part series on record man, George Goldner. He is said to have had the “golden ear” for hit records and songwriter Jerry Leiber even complimented his talent for picking hit songs by saying that Goldner had, “the musical taste of a fourteen-year-old-girl.” Born to Jewish immigrants in 1919, Goldner’s first love was Latino dance music and he began his career by opening night clubs and starting Tico Records, a Latino label in 1948. By 1953, he was interested in Rhythm & Blues and began releasing records under the Rama subsidiary. This week, we’ll take a close look at Goldner’s first R&B label, which helped put Rock n’ Roll on the musical map with the 1953 smash, “Gee,” by New York vocal group, The Crows. “Gee” crossed over to a very respectable #14 on the pop chart and just might be the first Rock n’ Roll hit by a Rock n’ Roll group. From there, Goldner signed The Wrens, The Valentines, The Joytones, The Heartbeats, The Harptones and other NY groups that are now considered vocal group royalty. His house band was led by the tenor great, Jimmy Wright, who put his sax stamp on all these classic records for Goldner’s various labels. Next week in part 2, Matt The Cat will focus on Gee Records as we continue our look into the ground-breaking labels of George Goldner.

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Air Week: January 5-11, 2026

The “Juke In The Back” once again puts our old Rockola Jukebox in the forefront as we spotlight the biggest Rhythm & Blues jukebox hits of 1946. This week, in part 2, we’ll focus on the second half of the year, featuring three #1s from Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five. During 1946, Jordan held the top spot on the Race Record Chart for an incredible 35 weeks. The King Cole Trio scores one of their most memorable hits, “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,” which tops the Pop Chart, but only makes it to #3 R&B. The Ink Spots continue to dominate, but like Nat “King” Cole, they’re scoring bigger Pop Hits. Jay McShann tells us about his “Voodoo Woman Blues,” while Roosevelt Sykes takes us down that “Sunny Road.” T-Bone Walker, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and Julia Lee make appearances as well as Bull Moose Jackson, who makes his first chart appearance in the middle of 1946 for Queen Records. Matt The Cat wraps up 1946 with movie and sports highlights and as always, the “story behind the story,” on some of the greatest blues and rhythm records of all-time.

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Air Week: December 8-14, 2025

Don Bowman and Dewey Terry never scored a national hit record, but together as the 1950s duo Don & Dewey, they remain one of R&B and early Rock n’ Roll’s best kept secrets. They grew up as friends in Pasadena, CA, joining fellow students at John Muir High School to form The Squires. In 1955, the group scored a local Los Angeles hit with “Sindy,” which has since become a vocal group classic, but when no follow-up hits materialized, Don & Dewey were persuaded to go off on their own by local manager John Criner. After a few sides for local labels Spot and Shade tanked, Criner sold their contract off to Art Rupe, owner of the much larger Specialty Records in LA. Rupe and his A&R man, Bumps Blackwell worked with Don (who was now known as Don Harris) & Dewey, trying to turn their frantic brand of up-tempo jump blues into something, but it never really caught on. Don & Dewey remarkably wrote most of their own material, which was not a standard practice back in the ’50s and though they couldn’t score hits with their own recordings, other artists were able to. Dale and Grace took Don & Dewey’s “I’m Leaving It All Up To You” to the top of the pop chart (#6 R&B) in ’63 and the Righteous Brothers cracked the pop chart with their version of “Justine” in ’65. The Olympics made a hit out of “Big Boy Pete” in ’60, while The Premiers entered the top 20 with “Farmer John” in ’64. This week, Matt The Cat reveals the story of one of early Rock’s craziest duos as he loads the ol’ Rockola Juke with their jumpin’, jivin’ sides on the Juke In The Back.

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