Johnnie Pate - Walkin' With Mr. Lee (1958) / paired with Beat Girl (1960)

I really had to hunt the info for this baby down, as what it says on Internet Archives is dead wrong. The US release is by Johnnie Pate but the international release says The Johnnie Pate Quintet. He also went by the name Johnny Pate (rather than "Johnnie"), to make things more confusing. Internet Archives has the recording dated as 1953. WRONG. It was released on December 13, 1957. It became a very minor hit for Pate in 1958 at #77 on Billboard in January. Lee Allen is credited as the composer of the instrumental. Lee Allen and His Band also recorded his version for single release and it reached #54 on Billboard and Lee's and Pate's versions were featured many times on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Lee Allen's version is superb, without question, the sax comes through with style and flourish. But in all honesty, the Pate version too is excellent and Edwin Johnson's tenor sax is classic rock n' roll sax all the way! Claude R. Jones on organ gives us an early glimpse of the role the instrument would play in the early-to-middle 1960's in bands like The Animals and The Zombies. This was rock n' roll born out of the jazz and bebop of the early 50's, played in the roadhouses of America long before there was an American Bandstand or Elvis on Ed Sullivan. But by 1958 it was the rage, especially for the college age set, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Which takes us to these wonderful film excerpts (three), all dancing and synchronized to the song, all from the 1960 British film, Beat Girl, which was released in the US under the title of Wild For Kicks in 1961. The star is Gillian Hills and the clips also feature a very young Oliver Reed.