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Hot Toddys
Rockin' Crickets / Shakin' And Stompin' - 7"
Shan-Todd - 1959
Michael Panontin
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Hot-Toddys' 'Rockin' Crickets' was released on a tiny Buffalo label called Shan-Todd in February 1959 and around the same time in Canada on the Barrel imprint. A few years later, an identical version by a bunch of Buffalonians called the Rockin' Rebels started showing up in the shops (yes, those Rockin' Rebels of 'Wild Weekend' fame). And while today 'Rockin' Crickets' is mostly forgotten along with the bulk of that sax-driven early rock 'n' roll, it was not without its controversy back in the day.
Enter Big John Little, a Canadian musician from the Niagara region who had taken his band across the border to tape of few of their songs. "We were in Shan-Todd Studios in Buffalo and we were waitin' for our turn to go on," a surprisingly affable Little recalled in an interview with the California-based Color Radio. "So we started experimentin' with this tune - Bill Pernell from Cleveland, Ohio, and Vaughan Jonah from Niagara Falls, and Gary Kelba from Port Colborne, and myself."
As the guys started fleshing out a groove along the lines of 'Rockin' Crickets', someone in the studio overheard the ruckus and liked what they were hearing. "We played it through [and] played it through...it was full of mistakes," Little said. "Somebody heard us out in the other studio and they said 'What are you guys playing?' And so they recorded it, full of mistakes and everything else."
The Hot-Toddys' record was a minor hit, spending eleven weeks on the Billboard charts and reaching a respectable #57 position. But unfortunately for the group, the song was credited to the studio owners Tom Shannon and Phil Todaro, which of course meant little to no money was coming their way. "We were so happy to get the doggone thing out. And it started takin' off. We were blind to the business end of it." Being just kids, they naively thought that a little assertiveness would be all that was needed to get their share of the profits. "We weren't gettin' no royalties, so we started makin' a fuss about it. So they took our recording and put another band's name on it." That band of course was the Rockin' Rebels.
For Shannon it hardly mattered where the money went. For one thing, he was already making a name for himself deejaying at popular WKBW. What's more, he and Todaro would strike it rich a couple of years later, taking the cheesy theme song to Shannon's radio program and parlaying it into the Rockin' Rebels' massive-selling 'Wild Weekend' in 1962. (And Windsorites of a certain vintage will no doubt recognize Shannon as the heavy-hitting jock for CKLW during its heyday as a 40,000-watt AM powerhouse.)
As for Big John Little, after recording an album of twist songs in the early sixties in Montreal, he eventually settled out east in New Brunswick, where he enjoyed a long and fruitful, if somewhat overlooked, career. Today, though, he can be found back in the Niagara Falls area, still rocking and rolling at the ripe old age of ninety. In 2019, he was finally given his due, on celluloid no less, with Ayo Adewumi's full-length documentary The Guy from Niagara, which premiered in Niagara Falls in December.
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