Pigmeat Markham – The Hip Judge

By , July 17, 2016 11:19 am

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Here Comes Pigmeat!

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Listen/Download -Pigmeat Markham – The Hip Judge MP3

Greetings all.

It’s summer. We’re all hot and sweaty. We sit stupefied, watching the droplets of humidity run down the outside of our beer, swatting flies away.

What better time to strip the gears with something funky?

If you’re anywhere pre-middle age, it’s unlikely that the name Pigmeat Markham will ring a bell.

He was born near the beginning of the last century, and started in show business right around the end of World War One, but he managed to put his name – and his growl – on the 45 you see before you today, in 1968.

Dewey ‘Pigmeat’ Markham was a comedian who got his start in the vaudeville era and was a very popular comedianon the chitlin circuit, plying his trade for almost exclusively black audiences for most of his career.

It was only in 1968, when Sammy Davis Jr went on Laugh-In and worked it out to one of Markham’s best known routines, ‘Here Come the Judge!’ that Pigmeat (momentarily) broke through to a much wider audience.

As far as I can tell, Markham first recorded the routine in the early 60s for Chess, but had been doing it on stage for years.

Sammy made the routine viral (by 1968 standards) and there was a veritable ‘Judge’ craze, with a grip of records (funk, soul and pop), all kinds of ephemera, and last but not least, the resurgence of the career of Pigmeat Markham.

Chess put some of their finest to work,and before you know it, ole Pig (64 years old!) was trampling the charts, his ‘Here Comes the Judge’ making it to the R&B Top 5, Pop Top 20 in the US and the UK!

His follow up single (the record you see before you today) found him in the studio with Gene Barge, working it out on songs written by Maurice Dollison (aka Cash McCall), Maurice McCallister of the Radiants, and Barge.

‘The Hip Judge’ features grooving bass, tight drums, saxophone, and Pigmeat’s ‘singing’. The extent of the singing isn’t too far removed from your average Jerry-O record, reduced to comedic interjections and interaction with the backing singers.

That said, the 45 is quite funky and an excellent entry into the ‘Funky Judge’ discography.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

2 Responses to “Pigmeat Markham – The Hip Judge”

  1. Mike Roeder says:

    By “all kinds of ephemera,” I feel we need to mention the Pontiac GTO known as “The Judge.” John DeLorean is credited with coming up with the name of the re-branded High Performace GTO capitalizing on Sammy Davis Jr’s appearance on Laugh In, giving it a kind of “hip” vibe. https://www.hotrod.com/features/history/stories/1406-an-inside-perspective-on-the-birth-of-gto-judge/

  2. Larry says:

    Thank you Mike! That completey slipped my mind. I love the commercial with the Raiders, and it never occurred to me that it was linked to this trend (though it makes complete sense).

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