Jimmy Crain "Rock-A-Socka-Hop" 2003

1950s-1960s country and rockabilly artist from Lima, Ohio.
JIMMY CRAIN, born 17 April 1940, Lima, Ohio, a somewhat obscure rock and roller, best known for his two pounding rockers "Rock-A-Socka-Hop" and "Shig-A-Shag".
Jimmy was a multi-talented youngster. By the age of seven, he was able to play several musical instruments, including guitar, banjo and mandolin. Less than ten years later he was playing regularly at county fairs, dotted about Ohio and neighbouring Indiana. In addition to this, Jimmy was also employed on an ad-hoc basis as a session musician at a studio in Dayton, Ohio. Shortly after his seventeenth birthday, Jimmy signed a recording deal with Floyd Whited, owner of the Springfield, Ohio based Spangle label. Jimmy's first and only release on Spangle was "Shig-A-Shag", which was recorded at Bradley Studios in Nashville. Crain insists that he wrote the song himself, though the label credit reads "M. Whited / R. Fisher". The record caught on in the Mid-West and the East Coast. This led to a string of radio and TV dates, as well as the odd package tour, where he played alongside such rock 'n' roll notables as The Big Bopper, Link Wray and Dion and the Belmonts. "Rock-A-Socka Hop" was recorded in the autumn of 1957 and sounds a lot like "Shig-A-Shag", though I rate it even higher. The track, which came out on another tiny Ohio label, Prism, never lets up from start to finish. Strangely, Terry Gordon mentions 1962 as the release date for "Rock-A-Socka-Hop" (on his RCS website), which looks like a mistake to me. Also, Gordon dates "Why Worry" (Vincent 5048) in 1961, whereas Bo Berglind, writer of the sleeve notes for the Various Artists comp "Rock-A-Socka Hop" on Classics, tells us that this song was cut in 1956.The 13 track collection of Jimmy Crain's original 1950s recordings. Rarest real rockin' music featuring has Spangle Records 45's and a wealth of previously unissued cuts.
trax:
01 Learning to Rock and Roll 02 Why Worry, Pt. 2 [Instrumental] 03 Guitar Playin' Son of a Gun 04 Shig-A-Shag 05 (Why) Worry On[Instrumental] 06 I Keep Hearing Rumours 07 Rockin' All Night Long 08 Mixing It Up [Instrumental] 09 We're Gonna Rock 10 Suzie Q Is the One for Me 11 Crushin' [Instrumental] 12 She Loves Rock and Rock 13 Baby What's Wrong With You 14 Messing Around [Instrumental] 15 We're Goin' Rockin' 16 I'm Gonna Get Ya' 17 Hey, Hey 18 Rock-A-Sock-A-Hop 19 Rockin' [Instrumental] 20 Just Let Me Know 21 You Name It Rock [Instrumental] 22 London Fog [Instrumental] 23 Spooky Village [Instrumental] 24 Why Worry 25 Jimmy's Nothin' Like It Rock [Instrumental] 26 That's All Right 27 Morning Rock [Instrumental] 28 J.C.'s Boogie [Instrumental]