Rafael Leon René (March 30, 1927 – November 25, 2007), known
as Googie René, was an American musician, bandleader, and songwriter.
Googie Rene is one of those unjustly overlooked musical
figures from the rock 'n' roll years. Although he was the backbone of Class
Records, Rene has remained something of an "underground" figure
amongst the collector fraternity until the release of the "Wham Bam"
CD on Ace. He is the son of label owner/songwriter Leon Rene (1902-1982) and
was called "Googie" because that was the first word he ever uttered
as an infant. By the time Googie graduated from Dorsey High School in the Los
Angeles suburb of Baldwin Hills, he was showing all the signs of following in
his father's footsteps.
He studied piano, composed songs and gained some firsthand
studio experience when Leon Rene invited him along to record dates. But before
Googie could get more involved, he had to serve in the US Army/Air Force in
Europe. Upon his return in 1950, he found that his father's label, Exclusive
Records, had gone bankrupt, but, undaunted, Leon Rene started to prepare a new
imprint entitled Class Records.
Googie became primarily responsible for overseeing the new
label, which released its first single at the end of 1951, in the short-lived 500
series. However, after the recent upheavals, Leon and Googie, chose to make a
quiet start and struck an arrangement with the Bihari Brothers to release the
Class product on Modern and RPM.
It was not until September 1956 that Class really got off
the ground, with a new 200 series. The second release (Class 201) in that
series was "Sad Fool" by the Rollettes (a.k.a as the Dreamers :
Gloria Jones, Annette Williams and Fanita Barrett), coupled with "Wham
Bam" by the Googie Rene Combo. This rocking instrumental was the start of
a long line of singles (in excess of 20 of them, over an 11-year period) by the
Combo, which usually contained the cream of the West Coast session men.
The cast includes Plas Johnson and Clifford Scott on saxophone, Earl Palmer on drums and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Jimmy Nolen and Rene Hall on guitar. The instrumentals run the gamut from 50s rock'n'roll, boogie woogie, jump, latin, to 60s soul-jazz. On some tracks, Googie stands out front on piano, then organ later on, while letting his cohorts take the lead on many others.
The cast includes Plas Johnson and Clifford Scott on saxophone, Earl Palmer on drums and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Jimmy Nolen and Rene Hall on guitar. The instrumentals run the gamut from 50s rock'n'roll, boogie woogie, jump, latin, to 60s soul-jazz. On some tracks, Googie stands out front on piano, then organ later on, while letting his cohorts take the lead on many others.
Googie was given creative control at Class, which enabled
him to develop his own songwriting, arranging, keyboard playing, and production
techniques. As can be clearly seen from the progression of sides presented on
the "Wham Bam" CD, from the smooth 1956 West Coast jump of Wham Bam
to the groovy 1966 Ramsey Lewis
stylings, Googie had the latest chart hits and
current trends always in mind when he went into the studio. The influences and
inspirations are many and varied.
From a rock & roll point of view, the most interesting
releases are those from the 1956-1959 period, especially "Wiggle Tail,
Parts 1 & 2" ," "Big Time"/"Midnight" ,
"Break It Up"/"Side-Track" and "Rock-A Boogie"/"Beautiful
Weekend".
It was probably due to the usual marketing/promotion
glitches in a less-than-national operation that Googie had only three minor
hits : "The Slide, Part 1" (# 20 R&B, early 1961),
"Flapjacks, Part 1" (# 25 R&B, 1963) and "Smokey Joe's
Lala" (# 77 pop, # 35 R&B, 1966). But as it was a family business,
Class didn't turf Googie out when he failed to hit paydirt - he just kept on
pushing out the singles plus three LPs. If airplay had been there, it's highly
likely he would have had hits during the early years when instrumentals were a
staple part of the Top 100 charts, for the recordings were right on the money
tune-wise and musicianship-wise.
Googie René died in 2007, aged 80. His son is singer and
songwriter Chris Rene.
(Edited mainly from BlackCat Rockabilly)
3 comments:
I was unable to find a shared download of “Wham Bam” but I did manage to get all of the tracks from audiotut and Youtube….so for “Wham Bam! The Best Of The Googie Rene Combo” go here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/9766171/Googie_Rene_-_WhamBam.rar.html
1. Wham Bam
2. Midnight
3. Big Time
4. Side-Track
5. Break It Up
6. Rock-A-Boogie
7. Beautiful Weekend
8. Twilight Walk
9. Wonderful Night
10. Wiggle Tail Pt 1
11. Wiggle Tail Pt 2
12. Sunrise
13. Rock-A-Bye Baby
14. Skumbo
15. Ez-Zee
16. Forever
17. The Slide Pt 1
18. The Slide Pt 2
19. Flapjacks Pt 1
20. Flapjacks Pt 2
21. Bossa Baby
22. Soul Zone
23. Smokey Joes La La
24. Needing You
25. Chica Boo
26. Mercy Mercy (Too Much For The Soul)
The son of noted songwriter Leon Rene, Googie cut a slew of piano/organ instrumentals from 1957-66 for his father's respected Class Records. With the accent on rinky dink R&B, this material also includes out-and-out rockers, tender ballads and groovy soul workouts (including the club favourite 'Smokey Joe's La La'). The majority of the tracks feature those wonderful West Coast session men: Plas Johnson (tenor saxophone), Rene Hall (guitar) and Earl Palmer (drums).. This Ace CD was the first-ever reissue release devoted to the Googie Rene Combo.
Many thanks ,I not have,mi favourite tracks of Googie is the jazzy tracks
@ boppinbob
Thanks for all the Googie Rene.
Great stuff.
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