Billy Lee Riley – Don’t Fight It b/w Mississippi Delta

By , November 12, 2017 1:02 pm

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Billy Lee Riley

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Listen/Download – Billy Lee Riley – Don’t Fight It MP3

Listen/Download – Billy Lee Riley – Mississippi Delta MP3

Greetings all.

If you already know the name of Billy Lee Riley, you very well might be surprised to see him here at Funky16Corners.

Along with his band the Little Green Men he waxed some smoking rockabilly sides for Sun Records in the mid-50s, including ‘Red Hot’ (later covered by Robert Gordon) and ‘Flying Saucers Rock and Roll’.

However, as the years went on, Mr Riley found his way to the R&B side of the street (though there is a case to be made that having worked in rockabilly he was already half the way there).

In 1962 he was the man behind the Megatons’ ‘Shimmy Shimmy Walk’, and as the decade moved on he recorded a wide variety of material, including a fair amount of soul covers.

Today’s selections hail from a 1967 45 for the Mojo label (Riley bounced around to Mercury, GNP Crescendo, Atlantic, HIP and then back to Sun by the end of the 60s) where he did a number of 45s and a couple of albums, including 1968’s hard to find ‘Southern Soul’.

Riley’s covers of Wilson Pickett and Bobbie Gentry are pure Memphis, with a tight, hard-hitting band and great vocals. There’s plenty of hot guitar (naturally) and some nice piano and backing vocals as well.

‘Mississippi Delta’ is especially groovy. Originally the flipside to Bobbie Gentry’s epic ‘Ode To Billie Joe’, it was – in its original version – smoking hot. Riley turns up the soulful heat just a little bit more and the horn chart and drums are excellent.

Riley’s 45s from this period aren’t too hard to find, but the albums might force you to pry open your wallet a little bit further.

I hope you dig the tracks and I’ll see you next week.

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Keep the faith

Larry

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One Response to “Billy Lee Riley – Don’t Fight It b/w Mississippi Delta”

  1. TB says:

    Found this site while looking for info on Larry Darnell on a whim, very impressed, have had a good trawl through.
    And yes this a great version of Mississippi.
    Keep ’em coming please!

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