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Wednesday 21 March 2018

Great Googie Boogie

Here are a couple of tracks from someone who, in all honesty, I had never heard of before today.

I popped into a local charity shop and spotted the Ace Records logo on one CD, which always means it is worth pulling out of the racks for a closer look. The CD was "Wham Bam: The Best of the Googie Rene Combo".

Googie - real name Rafael - was the son of L.A. based songwriter/ producer/ label owner Leon Rose, and he turned out to be a bit of a whizz of the keyboards. As well as acting as a talent scout and band leader for his father's Class label, he was allowed to release some records of his own. Some of them were pretty good too - these ones for example.

"The Slide (Part 1)" - The Googie Rene Combo

"Wiggle Tail (Part 1)" - The Googie Rene Combo

This rather marvellous clip features Class Records' biggest ever hit, which you'll all be familiar with I'm sure. Written by Leon, there's a fair chance Googie is on there somewhere.

3 comments:

  1. I thought Goodie was a female name, as in Googie Withers, the actres who was prison governess in Within These Walls (a programme you are certainly old enough to remember)

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    1. Googie Withers. Not Goodie. Where's my reading glasses??

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    2. According to the sleevenotes, he was given the nickname Googie as a child because it was the first word he said and it ended up sticking. Had he understood the consequences of his actions, he probably would have chosen a different first word.

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