Listen/Download – Sam Wright Group – Green Onions

Greetings all.

I’m going to have to make this quick today since I am currently bedeviled (like the egg, see?) with an infection of some kind that is making feel like old, wet garbage.

The tune I bring you today will certainly be a familiar one, if the version in question is not.

You know that I am an inveterate Hammond 45 junky, and will always pick up any and all interesting looking organ instro 45s, which is why I grabbed the one you see before you.

I’d certainly never heard of the Sam Wright Group, but since ‘Green Onions’ is one of my all time fave instrumentals, I figured it was worth picking up.

Which it was.

What is especially interesting is the fact that as it turns out, there probably was no Sam Wright.

The smoky, late-night take on the Booker T classic is in actuality just another product of the Synthetic Plastics Company.

Formed in Newark, NJ after World War Two, SPC had a variety of plastics-related endeavors, but the most important of them – at least as far as we’re concerned – is the one that made records.

Over the next five decades SPC (doing business under a variety of label names, such as Curio, Peak, Power, Diplomat, Guest Star , Spin-O-Rama, and most famously Peter Pan) released all kinds of stuff, from kids music and stories (mostly the Peter Pan label) to a panoply of knock-offs of the hits of the particular day, in a wide variety of genres, on the others.

I have absolutely no idea who played on these records, but from hearing more than one of them, my guess would be a range of talent from experienced club/studio musicians to utterly disinterested hacks.

Fortunately, whoever was wearing the Sam Wright Group mask was better suited to the material they were covering than some of their fellow exploiters.

Since the aim of the label seems to have been taking advantage of the current popularity of songs, I’d date this 45 somewhere in the vicinity of late 1962, early 1963.

Interestingly, I’ve also seen a listing for the Sam Wright Group doing a cover of the Tornados ‘Telstar’. Whether or not it was the same group of musicians I cannot say.

I hope you dig the record, and I’ll be back on Friday.

 

Peace

Larry

 

 

PS Thank you Leah…

 

 

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

 

2 Responses to “Sam Wright Group – Green Onions”

1. The Commissioner says:

   January 11, 2012 at 5:04 am

   Larry
   Thanks for the post, always received with enthusiasm here. A new year’s wish from all here for a swift and comforting improvement to yours and Mrs Grogan health.

   Have fun

   The Commissioner

2. Mingus Al says:

   January 14, 2012 at 2:01 pm

   Fun stuff – always love the Hammond groove. Is this the same outfit that had Sun Ra and Al Kooper record an album of fake Batman tunes?