''The Wham of That Memphis Man'' is a 1963

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Lonnie Mack Lonnie McIntosh (July 18, 1941 – April 21, 2016), known as Lonnie Mack, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was an influential trailblazer of blues rock music and rock guitar soloing. Mack emerged in 1963 with his breakthroug ...

. This album, Mack's first, was recorded in several sessions beginning in March, 1963 and was released by the small Cincinnati label

Fraternity Records Fraternity Records is a small record label based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was started by Harry Carlson and silent partner Dr. Ashton Welsh in 1954. The first recording to be released on Fraternity was Jerri Winters' "Winter's Here". The first hit ...

in October of that year. It reached only #103 on the charts, but music critic Jimmy Guterman ranked it No. 16 in his book ''The 100 Best Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time.'' Mack is considered a pioneer of virtuoso rock guitar soloing and a key stylistic forerunner of the Blues-rock and

Southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. Author Scott B. Bomar speculat ...

guitar genres, for his fast-paced instrumental solos, including his 1963 hit singles, "Memphis" and "Wham!" Both of these recordings are found on this album. The album also included several Mack vocals, done primarily in the country-esque blues/gospel style for which Mack became well-known. Regarding the vocals on this album, music critic Bill Millar said: "For consistency and depth of feeling — the best blue-eyed soul is defined by Lonnie Mack's ballads and virtually everything the Righteous Brothers recorded...Lonnie Mack wailed a soul ballad as gutsily as any black gospel singer. The anguished inflections which stamped his best songs had a directness which would have been wholly embarrassing in the hands of almost any other white vocalist." The album has been re-released at least ten times, most recently on the Ace label in 2016.

Track listing

#"Wham!" (Lonnie Mack) #"Where There's a Will There's a Way" (Lou Williams) #"Bounce" (Charles Fizer, Walter Ward, Eddie Lewis) #"I'll Keep You Happy" (

Hank Ballard Hank Ballard (born John Henry Kendricks; November 18, 1927 – March 2, 2003) was an American singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of The Midnighters and one of the first rock and roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s. He played an inte ...

) #"

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

" (

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

) #"Baby What's Wrong" (

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

) #"Down and Out" (Lonnie Mack) #"Satisfied" (

Martha Carson Martha Carson (March 19, 1921 – December 16, 2004), born Irene Amburgey, was an American gospel-country music singer most popular during the 1950s. Biography Early life and rise to fame Amburgey was born in Neon, Kentucky (since absorbed int ...

) #" Susie-Q" (

Dale Hawkins Delmar Allen "Dale" Hawkins (August 22, 1936 – February 13, 2010) was a pioneer American rock singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist who was often called the architect of swamp rock boogie. Ronnie Hawkins was his cousin. Biography He began ...

, Stan Lewis, Eleanor Broadwater) #"Why" (Lonnie Mack) #"Down in the Dumps" (Lonnie Mack) The track listing shows the eleven tracks in the order in which they appeared on the original release. An expanded version of the album, incorporating the original cover art, was released in 1969 by

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...

under the title "For Collectors Only". It adds two 1964 tracks ("Farther on Down the Road" and "Chicken Pickin'") to those included on the original release. It begins with "Wham!" as track 1, as on the original, but thereafter the track order differs completely from that of the original 1963 album. All of the album's songs appear on the 1999 Ace CD ''Memphis Wham!'', though not in the same order, and with some different mixes (this CD adds thirteen songs to the album's eleven).

Personnel

*Lonnie Mack - guitar, vocals *Wayne Bullock - bass, keyboards *David Byrd - keyboards *Truman Fields - keyboards *Ron Grayson - drums *Don Henry - saxophone *Marv Lieberman - saxophone *Irv Russotto - saxophone *Bill Jones - bass *

The Charmaines The Charmaines were an American female vocal trio of the 1960s, described by the NME as being ''as sassy as The Supremes and The Marvelettes''. Personnel Supported by Irene Vinegar and Dee Watkins, the group's lead singer and sometime lyricist wa ...

– background vocals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wham of That Memphis Man, The Wham of That Memphis Man, The Alligator Records albums Lonnie Mack albums Fraternity Records albums