Air Week: March 16-22, 2026

Imperial Records was a major player among the indie labels of the late 1940s and the entirety of the 1950s. Started in Los Angels in 1946 by Lew Chudd, a Canadian raised in Harlem, Imperial began filling the ethnic and cultural voids left by the majors at the time. Chudd knew there was a large market for Latino Music in America, so he headed to Mexico City and recorded some Mexican jump bands that sold very well. He then included square dance records which also racked up sales as now square dances could be held without callers. He began recording Rhythm & Blues in 1947 and by ’49, he had hired Dave Bartholomew to scout talent in fertile New Orleans. The Braun Brother had beat him to The Crescent City by recording Paul Gayten and Annie Laurie first, but with Bartholomew’s help, Chudd was able to sign Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Archibald and Jewel King, dominating the New Orleans R&B scene. This week, we begin a series looking at the huge impact that Imperial Records had on R&B during the late 1940s into the mid-1950s. In part 1, Matt The Cat will showcase Imperial’s earliest R&B releases from 1947-1950. We’ll see how the boogie woogie stylings of Dick Lewis, “Poison” Gardner, Charlie “Boogie Woogie” Davis and Lloyd Glenn gave way to the New Orleans blues of Tommy Ridgley, Jewel King, Smiley Lewis and Fats Domino, who would become the biggest artist ever on the Imperial label. It’s Imperial Records, part 1 on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”

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Air Week: March 9-15, 2026

This week, the “Juke In The Back” presents a unique program designed to put the listener in a front row seat for a live rhythm review performance. So often, we wonder what a live program would have been like before the dawn of Rock n’ Roll? Well, thanks to the preservation of this 2 week program in Los Angeles from late September and early October of 1951, we can catch a glimpse. Promoter Bill Lester intended to hold weekly midnight concerts at the Olympic Auditorium in downtown LA, but after 2 weeks, the late-night shows were scraped, due to the fact that they were losing money. Lester hired LA disc jockey, Hunter Hancock, who was a trailblazer in playing R&B on the radio to emcee the shows. Some of the biggest names in West Coast R&B performed; Big Jay McNeely, Floyd Dixon, Maxwell Davis and Peppermint Harris. What’s spectacular is the lesser-known talent; Madelyn Perkins, Ernie Andrews, Smilin’ Smokey Lynn and the Gospel group, the Golden Keys. Radio station KMPC agreed to air the first half hour of these 2 hour concerts, which should have led to greater promotion of the event, but alas, after 2 weeks it was done. We are so fortunate that Bill Lester recorded portions of these shows, so that 75 years later, we can still experience the excitement and joy of the music. Sit back as Matt The Cat takes you to the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles for the Midnight Matinee, an exciting jaunt into the world of the live R&B review show.

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Air Week: March 2-8, 2026

Much has been written about the great R&B vocal groups of the 1950s. Many of the classic groups were either great musicians and vocalists and never had the recognition or record sales to back it up or these groups were thrown together, they couldn’t sing very well and scored one, solid hit that still spins in the eternal jukebox of public consciousness. The Moonglows were one of the few groups to come out of the post World War II, pre-Elvis era, who were extremely talented and had the sales figures and notoriety to back it up. Originally called The Crazy Sounds, Harvey Fuqua and Bobby Lester led The Moonglows to a #1 R&B smash in 1954 with “Sincerely” on Chess, but that was after a somewhat bumpy start on Alan Freed’s Champagne Records and Chicago’s Chance Records. This week, Matt The Cat presents part 2 of a 2 part feature on the fantastic Moonglows, covering their career from 1956 through their breakup in 1958 and the singles that followed through the end of 1961. An interview with the late Reese Palmer reveals how Harvey Fuqua came to hire his group, The Marquees as the “new” Moonglows. This week’s “Juke In The Back” shares the rest of the story on this influential and important 1950s vocal group.

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Air Week: February 23-March 1, 2026

Much has been written about the great R&B vocal groups of the 1950s. Many of the classic groups were either great musicians and vocalists and never had the recognition or record sales to back it up or these groups were thrown together, they couldn’t sing very well and scored one, solid hit that still spins in the eternal jukebox of public consciousness. The Moonglows were one of the few groups to come out of the post World War II, pre-Elvis era, who were extremely talented and had the sales figures and notoriety to back it up. Originally called The Crazy Sounds, Harvey Fuqua and Bobby Lester led The Moonglows to a #1 R&B smash in 1954 with “Sincerely” on Chess, but that was after a somewhat bumpy start on Alan Freed’s Champagne Records and Chicago’s Chance Records. This week, Matt The Cat presents part 1 of a 2 part feature on the fantastic Moonglows, covering their career from 1953 to 1955. Vocal harmony doesn’t get much sweeter than this, so don’t miss one note of this week’s “Juke In The Back” radio program.

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Air Week: February 16-22, 2026

We celebrate one of the heroines of Rhythm & Blues and early Rock n’ Roll as Annie Laurie takes the spotlight on this week’s “Juke In The Back.” Not much is known about her early years except that she was born in Atlanta in 1924. Her first recording was “St. Louis Blues” with bassist and bandleader Dallas Barley and from there she toured with Snookum Russell before Paul Gayten asked her to join his band in New Orleans. She made the “Crescent City” her new home and recorded the first hit version of Buddy & Ella Johnson’s “Since I Fell For You,” helping to make it a standard. Many classic recording with Paul Gayten followed with a few more making the charts before she began recording on her own on Columbia’s newly reactivated Blues subsidiary, Okeh Records. The Okeh sides were harder-edged and more contemporary R&B sounding, but none of them charted. A short stint with Savoy proved unfruitful, but she did get to record with Hal Singer’s band, which included guitar legend, Mickey Baker. She was back in the R&B Top 5 in 1957 with “It Hurts To Be In Love” for DeLuxe, but by the early ’60s, she gave up music for devotion to God. Matt The Cat shares Annie Laurie’s fascinating story on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”

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Air Week: February 9-15, 2026

This week, we journey back 70 years as the “Juke In The Back” puts the ol’ Rockola Jukebox front and center and we present part 2 of a 2 part feature on the biggest jukebox jivers from 1956. It was the first full year of Rock n’ Roll Music crossing over from its Rhythm & Blues roots into mainstream Pop Culture. This was the year that Elvis broke through and scored massive hits on the Pop, R&B and Country Charts. We’ll dig on the future King’s biggest record of the year as well as monster crossover hits by Bill Doggett and Little Willie John. Matt The Cat also spins tunes by B.B. King, Gus Jinkins, Otis Rush and Muddy Waters, that were solely R&B hits. So grab a nickel, grab a dime and let’s make some time with the top jukebox spinners from the second half of 1956 on this week’s Jukebox Rhythm Review.

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Air Week: February 2-8, 2026

This week, we journey back 70 years as the “Juke In The Back” puts the ol’ Rockola Jukebox front and center and we present part 1 of a 2 part feature on the biggest jukebox jivers from 1956. It was the first full year of Rock n’ Roll Music crossing over from its Rhythm & Blues roots into mainstream Pop Culture. The line between R&B and Pop was getting more and more blurred, but there were still many records that Black audiences were dancing and romancing to, that were not heard at all by White audiences. We’ll hear a few of those on this week’s program from big artists such as Muddy Waters, Ruth Brown and Little Walter. We’ll also dig on some certified crossover hits from Chuck Berry, The El Dorados, The Platters and The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon. So grab a nickel, grab a dime and let’s make some time with the top jukebox spinners from the first half of 1956 on this week’s Jukebox Rhythm Review with host Matt The Cat.

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Air Week: January 26-February 1, 2026

It’s part 3 of our 3 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. In early 1954, he set up Gee Records and scored a huge hit in early ’56 with The Teenagers, “Why Do Fools Fall In Love.” By mid-’57, due to his gambling debts, Goldner sold Tico, Rama and Gee to alleged mobster Morris Levy. This week, we will take a close look at Goldner’s last R&B labels that he would run independently: Gone & End Records. Both new labels did well with Gone scoring hits with NY vocal group, the Dubs and Goldner-arranged instrumental “7-11 (Mambo No. 5)” by the Gone All Stars featuring Buddy Lucas on tenor sax. End soon followed with million-sellers from The Chantels, The Imperials and The Flamingos. Both labels proved that Goldner still had the magic ear for picking the music teenagers wanted to hear and buy, but eventually both labels would face the same fate as Goldner’s early record companies. You’ll get the full story of Gone and End Records and the finale of George Goldner on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”

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