Bob Geddins
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Robert L. Geddins (February 6, 1913 – February 16, 1991) was an American
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
and
rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
musician and
record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
. Geddins was born in
Highbank, Texas Highbank is an unincorporated community in southern Falls County, Texas, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North A ...
,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, a town ten miles south of
Marlin Marlins are fish from the family Istiophoridae, which includes about 10 species. A marlin has an elongated body, a spear-like snout or bill, and a long, rigid dorsal fin which extends forward to form a crest. Its common name is thought to deri ...
, who came to
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and worked there until his death of liver cancer in 1991, ten days after his 78th birthday.


Record labels and artists produced

From 1948 onwards, he founded and owned numerous small
independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...
s, including Art-Tone, Big Town, Cavatone, Down Town, Irma, Plaid, Rhythm, and Veltone. He also leased his recordings to
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based labels such as
Swing Time In music, the term ''swing'' has two main uses. Colloquially, it is used to describe the propulsive quality or "feel" of a rhythm, especially when the music prompts a visceral response such as foot-tapping or head-nodding (see pulse). This sens ...
,
Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...
,
Modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...
,
Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...
, and
Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
, and also to the
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
operated Checker label. Geddins produced acts including
Lowell Fulson Lowell Fulson (March 31, 1921March 7, 1999) was an American blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. He also recorded for contractual reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom. After T-Bone Walker, he was the most imp ...
,
Jimmy McCracklin James David Walker Jr. (August 13, 1921 – December 20, 2012), better known by his stage name Jimmy McCracklin, was an American pianist, vocalist, and songwriter. His style contained West Coast blues, Jump blues, and R&B. Over a career tha ...
,
Johnny Fuller John Charles Fuller (born March 3, 1946) is a former professional American football player. He played eight seasons as a safety in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears. As a colle ...
,
Sugar Pie DeSanto Sugar Pie DeSanto (born Peylia Marsema Balinton, October 16, 1935) is an American R&B singer and dancer, whose career in music flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. Early life DeSanto was born to an African-American mother, who was a concert pianis ...
and
Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer who performed in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and soul. Starting her career in 1954, sh ...
. A 4-CD box set of 107 selected recordings has been issued by JSP Records under the title ''The Bob Geddins Blues Legacy''.The Bob Geddins Blues Legacy, Complied and annotated by Neil Slaven, JSP77122, JSP Records, 2007.


Compositions

Many tunes often mistakenly attributed to other artists were either written or co-written by Geddins, e.g. "Tin Pan Alley". "
Mercury Blues "Mercury Blues" is a song written by rural blues musician K. C. Douglas and Robert Geddins, and first recorded by Douglas in 1948.Leadbitter, M. and Slaven, N., ''Blues Records 1943 to 1970 Vol. 1: A-K'', London: Record Information Services 2nd ...
", and "My Time After A While". Geddins best-known tune is possibly "Haunted House" (originally produced by Geddins, sung by
Johnny Fuller John Charles Fuller (born March 3, 1946) is a former professional American football player. He played eight seasons as a safety in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears. As a colle ...
, released in 1958 on Specialty 655) which later became a 1964 US number 11 hit for
Jumpin' Gene Simmons Morris Eugene Simmons (July 10, 1937 – August 29, 2006), better known as Jumpin' Gene Simmons, was an American singer and songwriter best known for his 1964 novelty single "Haunted House". Biography Gene Simmons was born in Itawamba County, Mis ...
and, subsequently, many other well-known artists.


References


External links


Bay Area Blues Society homepage: "Bob Geddins, Godfather of Oakland Blues"
1913 births 1991 deaths Record producers from Texas American music industry executives People from Falls County, Texas 20th-century American businesspeople {{music-producer-stub