Sixty Minute Man

Song infobox
Name = Sixty Minute Man


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Artist = The Dominoes
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Released = May 1951
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Recorded = December 30, 1950
Genre = Rhythm and blues
Beach music
Length = 2:31
Writer = Billy Ward, Rose Marks
Composer =
Label = Federal Records
Producer =
Chart position = US Billboard pop #17
US Billboard R&B #1 (14 weeks)
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Misc = "Sixty Minute Man" is a highly successful and influential rhythm and blues (R&B) record released in 1951 by The Dominoes. It was written by Billy Ward and Rose Marks and was the first R&B hit records to crossover to become a pop hit on the pop charts. It was also the first double entendre hit. It is regarded as one of the most important of the recordings which helped generate and shape rock and roll.cite book
first=& Steve Propes
last= Jim Dawson
authorlink=
coauthors=
year= 1992
title= What Was the First Rock'n'Roll Record
edition=
publisher= Faber & Faber
location= Boston & London
pages= p. 91-95
id=ISBN 0-571-12939-0 ]

Background

The Dominoes were a black vocal group consisting of Clyde McPhatter (1932-1972), who later left the group to form the Drifters, Bill Brown, Charlie White and Joe Lamont, led by their pianist, manager and songwriter, Billy Ward (1921-2002). Ward was a black, classically trained vocal coach who had formed a business partnership with a white New York talent agent, Rose Marks.

The pair decided to put together a smooth vocal group to rival the Ink Spots, the Orioles, and other similar groups who were beginning to win acceptance with white audiences. In 1950, the Dominoes were signed to Federal Records, and held a series of recording sessions at the National Studios in New York in November and December of that year.

Their initial release was "Do Something For Me", the first record on which McPhatter sang lead, was musically a gospel song with gospel-style melismas but lyrically secular.cite book
first=& James Henke (eds)
last= Anthony DeCurtis
authorlink=
coauthors=
year=1980
title= The RollingStone: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music
edition=(3rd Ed.)
publisher=Random House, Inc.
location=New York, N.Y.
pages= p. 18
id= ISBN 0-679-73728-6] This was a success, entering the R&B charts at the beginning of February 1951. However, its follow-up, the pop standard "Harbor Lights", which had been recorded on 30 December 1950, failed to match its success.

The record company then turned to the other, sharply contrasting, straight R&B song which the group had recorded on the same day, "Sixty Minute Man". It was issued in May 1951 (on Federal 12022), and by the end of the month had reached #1 on the R&B charts, a position it held for an almost unprecedented 14 weeks. The recording used Bill Brown's bass voice, rather than McPhatter's tenor, as the lead. It featured the singer's boasts of his sexual prowess,cite book| first=Charlie| last=Gillett | year= 1996| title= The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll| edition= (2nd Ed.)| publisher= Da Capo Press| location=New York, N.Y.| pages= p. 156| id= ISBN 0-306-80683-5] of being able to satisfy his girls with fifteen minutes each of kissing, teasing, and squeezing, before his climactic fifteen minutes of "blowing [his] top".

::Sixty-minute man, sixty-minute man::Look a here girls I'm telling you now::They call me "Lovin' Dan"::I rock 'em, roll 'em all night long::I'm a sixty-minute man

::If you don't believe I'm all that I say::Come up and take my hand::When I let you go you'll cry "Oh yes"::"He's a sixty-minute man".

The chorus was more specific:::There'll be fifteen minutes of kissin'::Then you'll holler "Please don't stop" (Don't stop!)::There'll be fifteen minutes of teasin'::Fifteen minutes of squeezin'::And fifteen minutes of blowin' my top"

Although the writing credits were given to Ward and Marks, the song's origins go back much further. Bragging about sexual prowess goes back to times immemorial, and was a feature of the "hokum" style of early blues recordings. The reference to "Dan" (alternatively, "Jim Dandy") dates back at least to minstrel shows in the nineteenth century. A common reference was to "Dan, the Back Door Man" - the lover of a married woman who would leave her house by the back door - as in a song of that title recorded by Georgia White in 1937.

One possiblesource, with a very different angle on the same theme, is "One Hour Mama" by Ida Cox. [cite web|url=http://blueslyrics.tripod.com/lyrics/ida_cox/one_hour_mama.htm|title=Ida Cox - One Hour Mama|publisher=blueslyrics.tripod.com|accessdate=2008-06-22]

"Sixty Minute Man" was banned by many radio stations, and was seen as a novelty record at the time. However, in hindsight it was an important record in several respects: it crossed the boundaries between gospel singing and blues, its lyrics pushed the limits of what was deemed acceptable, and it appealed to many white as well as black listeners, peaking at #17 on the pop charts. Cover versions were made by several white artists including Hardrock Gunter. In later years, the Dominoes' record became a contender for the title of "the first rock and roll record".

The Dominoes went on to become one of the most popular vocal groups of the 1950s, with Clyde McPhatter eventually being replaced by Jackie Wilson. However, Bill Brown, lead singer of "Sixty Minute Man", had left even earlier, in 1952, to form a new group, the Checkers. They had little success and, according to one website. [cite web|url=http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/1950.html|title=The Dead Rock Stars Club - The 50's and earlier|publisher=thedeadrockstarsclub.com|accessdate=2008-06-22|last=|first=] Brown and the Dominoes released their own answer song with the same melody, "Can't Do Sixty No More", which included the line, "Please excuse this blown-out fuse, but I can't do sixty no more." Brown died in 1956.

Legacy

Ultimately "Sixty Minute Man" remained a novelty song, a throwback to such songs as "Open the Door, Richard in the tradition of coon songs, and did not contribute significantly to the merging of pop music and R&B. Although McPhatter's tenor singing and falsetto whoops were in the back ground on this recording, the following year, McPhatter was the lead singer in another song by The Dominoes, "Have Mercy Baby", a hit R&B song which had a stronger gospel influence. It was considered the definitive fast "rhythm and gospel record" and was Number One on the R&B Charts for 10 weeks.

Other recordings

In 1951 "Sixty Minute Man" was recorded as a duet by Hardrock Gunter and Roberta Lee, [cite web|url=http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/g/gunt1000.htm|title=Gunter, Hardrock (RCS Artist Discography)|publisher=rcs.law.emory.edu|accessdate=2008-06-22] and also by the York Brothers. [cite web|url=http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/y/york5000.htm|title=York Brothers (RCS Artist Discography)|publisher=rcs.law.emory.edu|accessdate=2008-06-22] The Lee/Gunter recording is cited as an early example of rockabilly. A version was recorded in the early 1970's by Australian band Daddy Cool. Huey Lewis frequently covers the song in concert.

Trivia

* "Sixty Minute Man" was featured in the movie "Bull Durham", starring Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins.
* Ed Bradley, African-American reporter for "60 Minutes", the television newsmagazine, performed the song at musical promotions he was involved in although he did not otherwise represent himself as a singer.Fact|date=June 2008

ee also

*Billy Ward and the Dominoes
*First rock and roll record

Footnotes

References

* Jim Dawson and Steve Propes, "What Was The First Rock'n'Roll Record?", Faber and Faber Books (1992) ISBN 0-571-12939-0