Sammy King

The three 45s New Orleans artist Sammy King had out on Marathon are all pretty rare. The first one is a double sided dancer, neither side of which give me much enjoyment sadly. But the second one is considerably more to my taste. “What A Night” is an uptempo R & B number of considerable power – you gotta love those big fat horns and the cheesy organ (co-writer Sam Henry?). ListenAin’t Like It Use To Be has a rhythm pretty reminiscent of “Spanish Harlem” but the chord changes, arrangement and “feel” just has to be the Crescent City. King gets right underneath the lyric as the horns blurt out an occasional phrase. I could do without the children’s posse though. King’s third 45 combines an interesting beat ballad “Be A Friend Of Mine”, with distinct echoes of “Stand By Me” especially in the bass line, with another uptempo number “Ain’t That Satisfaction”.

 


Discography

Your old standby / She’s moody with her love ~ MARATHON 101 (1966)
What a night / ListenAin’t like it use to be ~ MARATHON 102 (1966)
Ain't that satisfaction / Be a friend of mine ~ MARATHON 104 (1967)

 

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