"Bad Penny Blues" is a fast instrumental blues written by
Humphrey Lyttelton and recorded with his band in London on 20 April 1956.
Popular success
It was originally released as
Parlophone ER 4184 and became a hit record in Britain at the time.
It was the first British jazz record to get into the
Top Twenty, and stayed there for six weeks. Its success was very much due to the very catchy boogie piano riff, played by
Johnny Parker and brought to the front by producer
Joe Meek.
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
based his piano part for the Beatles' song "
Lady Madonna
"Lady Madonna" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. In March 1968, it was released as a mono single, backed with " The Inner Light". The song was recorded on 3 a ...
" on this riff.
The official producer of the record was
Denis Preston, who employed Meek as engineer.
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the B ...
was head
A&R man of Parlophone at that time, but was not involved in the actual recording.
"Bad Penny Blues" was featured in
Mike Figgis' film ''Red, White & Blues'' and is on the soundtrack CD of that film.
It was a popular and regular feature of Lyttelton concerts, sometimes played with accompanying riffs by the band. It was recorded again by Lyttelton with
Elkie Brooks in 2002, with lyrics added, on their album ''
Trouble in Mind''.
Personnel
*
Humphrey Lyttelton (trumpet, leader)
*
Johnny Parker (piano)
*
Jim Bray Jim Bray (born February 23, 1961, Upland, California) is a former competitive artistic roller skater. He went to Chaffey High School and graduated in 1979. He won several national titles in Singles and Pairs. At the age of 18 he gave up his amateu ...
(bass)
*
Stan Greig (drums)
References
External links
http://www.cool78s.com/Cool_200511.html
1956 singles
Parlophone singles
Humphrey Lyttelton songs
Song recordings produced by Joe Meek
1956 songs
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