Threaded Thursday: Life Could Be a Dream

As I mentioned yesterday, there was something interesting lurking on the B‑side of The Chords’ Cat label cover of Cross Over the Bridge. It was a sleeper — Sh‑Boom.

Back in the single‑record era, this happened from time to time: the intended A‑side wouldn’t catch fire, a disc jockey would flip the record over, like what he heard, and suddenly the “throwaway” track was the one lighting up the airwaves. Presumably something like that happened with The Chords — their flipside Sh‑Boom became a massive hit.

Let’s spin that Cat side:

There’s a rugged charm to it — a kind of street‑corner vitality that must have caught listeners off‑guard in 1954.

And here’s where things get delightfully tangled: this B‑side of the cover of a Mercury record aimed at the R&B market on the Cat label was itself covered by Mercury Records for the pop market, courtesy of Canadian vocal quartet The Crew‑Cuts.

Let’s spin that one:

The Crew‑Cuts’ version was an even bigger hit, though both charted well. The record‑business logic of the time was complicated — execs assumed rhythm and blues numbers by Black artists wouldn’t be acceptable to white audiences, so major labels often commissioned sanitized pop covers. It’s a frustrating pattern, but historically accurate.

That said, I genuinely like the Crew‑Cuts’ take. It’s bright, sunny, and not pretending to be R&B at all. And in some cases, those pop covers did help bring attention to the originals.

Whatever the case, 1954 saw a seismic shift. Rock ’n’ roll was taking its first baby steps, and not everyone was thrilled.

One of the loudest skeptics was master satirist Stan Freberg, who cut this parody version of Sh‑Boom for Capitol:

It’s brilliant — like Marlon Brando moonlighting as an A&R man for an R&B session. And the references to Mambo and Hugo Winterhalter? Pure 1954 flavor. Stelllaaa!!!

It’s also funny in hindsight to think how worried the squares were about the “state of music” seventy‑odd years ago. What would they think of today’s scene?

Warehouse Whispers

Once The Chords’ record of Sh‑Boom took off, Cat Records changed the flipside from Cross Over the Bridge to Little Maiden, another Chords original. No sense splitting royalties with Bennie Benjamin and George Weiss anymore!

Still, I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened to Sh‑Boom if it hadn’t been pressed into service as a B‑side for a crossover attempt at Cross Over the Bridge.

Sometimes history hinges on a flip of the record!