Bo Diddley, Big Joe Turner, Etta James, The Clovers 1955 Jumbo R&B Concert Poster. ...

Description

Bo Diddley, Big Joe Turner, Etta James, The Clovers 1955 Jumbo R&B Concert Poster. An original jumbo Globe Posters window card printed in the summer of 1955 for a blockbuster 12-act R&B concert tour overloaded with talent. How overloaded? "Top 10 Rhythm & Blues Review," the poster boasts. And that wasn't hype: the dozen acts on this poster combined for a staggering SEVENTY-THREE Top 10 R&B hits in their careers. Top Ten! If you wanted to cite the Top 20 instead, that number reaches up over 100. Holy Mackerel! This thing almost collapses under its own weight of success. If you listened to the radio at all and this show came to your town, how could you not have gone? Measures 22" x 28 1/2" and grades to Near Mint Minus condition. COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information: This poster is so stuffed with musicians that Globe Posters, the printer, didn't even have room for their usual credit in the bottom margin. They preferred to work in song titles, photographs, descriptors, backing musicians or record labels for (almost) everyone. (Poor Charlie and Ray.) And these artists did more than just tickle the top of the charts; they dominated. The Clovers in the fall of '55 had had 15 consecutive Top 10 R&B hits; thus the well-earned tag, "America's Top Quartet." Faye Adams' two song titles on the poster were #1 R&B for a combined total of almost four months. Bo Diddley's first single for Checker (a subsidiary of Chess) went to #1, and both its titular A-side and seminal B-side are listed, which is way cool and helps make up for no picture of Bo.

"Honey Hush" is given by Big Joe Turner's name, and all that did was stay at #1 for two months. Almost makes you forget about his era-defining "Shake, Rattle & Roll" in 1954, which lodged at #1 for 'only' three weeks. The Charms with "Hearts of Stone"? Two months at #1. On the other hand, "Hammond Organ Stylist" Bill Doggett was a man of the future; no solo success yet, but his "Honky Tonk" would devour the #1 spot for three months the following year. The Five Keys with "Glory of Love" by their name? Numero uno for only (yawn) one month.

But the king of them all is bandleader Paul Williams, called "Mr. Hucklebuck" on this window card for a reason. Six years prior, his hit "The Huckle-Buck" was #1 for a jaw-dropping 14 weeks on Billboard's R&B singles chart. Now that's dominance.

And then way, way down in the lower left corner, without a picture, without a song title, without a record label and getting no respect, is future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Etta James (along with two other future HOF'ers found here). But like so many others on this poster, she passed her initiation by having, yes, you guessed it, one hit record thus far that lodged at #1 R&B for a full month: "The Wallflower."

You know you've got a monster poster when a bottom-billed no-credit musician has already been #1 for a month. And it only gets stronger going upwards. Sorry, music fans; next time we'll try to offer you a poster with some hits on it.

Condition details: The board has brown toning around all four edges from decades of storage. The lower left corner has been slightly dinged, leaving a ½" crease that's only in the white.


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