Listen: Short Fat Fannie / Larry Williams
Short

Larry Williams is seldom respected as an original bad boy of RnR, but he should be. Legend has his underworld activities stretching back prior to these initial recordings. He eventually bit the bullet, literally, a victim of a suicide, although street legend claims otherwise. Having served time in the early 60′s for drug dealing, he hooked up with Johnny Guitar Watson upon release to sleaze out in late night Hollywood, which admittedly may be my self fulfilling fantasy, and also make some of the most authentic Northern Soul tracks known to mankind for Okeh.

I was excited when The Mooney Suzuki, who I looked after while at Columbia, recorded in the same studio on Santa Monica Boulevard that he and Johnny had. I literally thought about it constantly while there. I was pissing in the same toilet as the dynamic duo. No one else seemed to apprciate my excitement.

Prior to all that, he wrote ‘Bonie Maronie’, ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’, ‘Slow Down’ and ‘She Said Yeah’, my favorite, as recorded and performed by The Rolling Stones on HULLABALOO:

‘Short Fat Fannie’ goes back to pre Northern, pre Johnny Guitar Watson and pre jail time. It was actually one of his hits (#31 RnB / #35 Pop) in ’57 and comes courtesy of the Tony King Collection.

Original post: August 19, 2009.

Listen: Two For The Price Of One / Larry Williams & Johnny Guitar Watson 01 Two For The Price Of One 1.mp3

These guys teamed up around ’66 and reportedly invented the term ‘party animal’ Hollywood style. Fantastic stories of cocaine and sexual escapades surround the myth. The whole time, they were contracted to the Okeh label, as both solo artists and a duo; as well writers and producers. That label’s output in the the mid 60′s is pretty flawless, and feeds the Northern Soul fetish solidly: Little Richard, Cookie Jackson, Billy Butler & The Enchanters, Sandi Sheldon, The Vibrations etc. The singles and the LP they did together, TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE, are all musts for a proper record collection. The autobiographical 7″ of the same name tells you the story.

Listen: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy / Larry Williams & Johnny Guitar Watson Mercy Mercy Mercy.mp3

Then it’s their East LA/Watts version of ‘Mercy Mercy Mercy’ which packs soul grease (as the DISC & MUSIC ECHO review described it) into the otherwise bland Pat Boone style rendition The Buckinghams bravely brought to US Top 40. Not surprisingly, Larry Williams & Johnny Guitar Watson’s version went unheard. Ahh – American radio.