Friday 10 June 2022

Bonnie Davis born 10 June 1920


Bonnie Davis, born Gertrude Melba Smith (June 10, 1920 – August 1976), was an American R&B singer most popular in the 1940s. Her recording of "Don't Stop Now" reached no.1 on the R&B chart in 1943. She was the mother of singer Melba Moore. 

Melba Smith was born in New Orleans, but her family relocated to Bessemer, Alabama, when she was a child. At first she planned to become a school teacher. However, in the late 1930s she started working as a singer in New York, initially in saxophonist Teddy Hill's band. By early 1942, she had joined another band, the Piccadilly Pipers, based at the Piccadilly Club in Newark, New Jersey. The group comprised Clement Moorman (piano and vocals), Ernie Ransome (guitar and vocals), and Henry Padgette (bass). 


                              

She recorded several tracks with the trio, including "Don't Stop Now", for Herman Lubinsky, who had recently established Savoy Records. However, because of the "Petrillo Ban" which prevented union members from releasing records legitimately at the time, the release was credited to Bonnie Davis - a pseudonym for Smith - with the "Bunny Banks Trio" - a name disguising the actual musicians. On March 6, 1943, the record reached no.1 on the "Harlem Hit Parade", which was later renamed the R&B chart. 

Several further records credited to Bonnie Davis (sometimes also nicknamed "The Oomph Girl") with the Bunny Banks Trio were issued by the Savoy label before, in 1945, the label reverted to using the name of the Piccadilly Pipers. The same year, Bonnie Davis and bandleader Teddy Hill had a daughter together; she was born Beatrice Hill, and later became known as singer Melba Moore. Soon after the birth, the couple separated. In 1950, Bonnie Davis and pianist Clem Moorman were married. 

Bonnie Davis and the Piccadilly Pipers left the Savoy label in 1946. They began releasing singles again in 1950, and over the next four years recorded for the Keystone, Columbia, Coral and Melmar labels. However, the records were not commercially successful. With Davis and Moorman as the core members, there were various personnel changes in the group: Ransome was replaced by Walter "Pinky" Smith, and Padgette by, firstly, Ed "Skeets" McKaine, and then James "Doc" Starkes, who was in turn succeeded by Brother Moncur. In 1955, Bonnie Davis began recording as a solo singer, at first for Decca Records and then various other labels including Tune Tone, who released an LP, All I Want Is You, credited to Bonnie & Clem, "The Aero-Dynamic Singers", in 1966. 

Davis and Moorman continued to perform together in clubs as a duo until the early 1970s. On June 15, 1971 Melba Moore was a guest on David Frost's TV show; she brought along her mother and step-father, Bonnie and Clem. However all good things come to an end: Bonnie and Clem were divorced a couple of years later. She died in August 1976 in East Orange, New Jersey of cancer, and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, New Jersey. Clem passed away on July 21, 2017 at the age of 101. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Marv Goldberg )

6 comments:

boppinbob said...

For” Bonnie Davis – Collected 1942 – 1958 (2CD) “ go here:

https://workupload.com/file/43t8njqxLcV


Bonnie Davis CD 1, 1942 - 1948

01 - The Savoy Dictators - Rhythm and Bugs - 1942 Savoy 100
02 - Bonnie Davis & The Bunny Banks Trio - Don´t Stop Now - 1942 Savoy 102
03 - Bonnie Davis & The Bunny Banks Trio - Paratroop Boogie - 1942 Savoy 102
04 - Bonnie Davis & The Bunny Banks Trio - Why Don't You Do Right - 1942 Savoy 104
05 - Bonnie Davis & The Bunny Banks Trio - He Know's How To Knock Me Out - 1942 Savoy 104
06 - Bonnie Davis & The Bunny Banks Trio - No Love Blues - 1942 Savoy 110
07 - Bonnie Davis & The Bunny Banks Trio - I Don't Stand For That Jive - 1942 Savoy 110
08 - Bonnie Davis & The Bunny Banks Trio - Get In Touch With Me - 1943 Savoy 112
09 - Bonnie Davis & The Bunny Banks Trio - So Long - 1943 Savoy 112
10 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Shoo Shoo Baby - 1944 Savoy 126
11 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Don't Stop Now - 1944 Savoy 5500
12 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - He Know's How To Knock Me Out - 1944 Savoy 5500
13 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - I Don't Stand For That Jive - 1944 Savoy 5512
14 - Lloyd Thompson - I Wonder - 1944 Savoy 5512
15 - The Piccadilly Pipers - My Pretty Pretty Baby - 1944 Savoy Prev. Unreleased
16 - Bonnie Davis & The Bunny Banks Trio - Embraceable You - 1944 Savoy 531
17 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Forget It You're Still In Love - 1945 Savoy
18 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Upstairs - 1945 Savoy 5517
19 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Don´t Stop Now - 1946 Savoy 5519
20 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - He Know's How To Knock Me Out - 1946 Savoy 5519
21 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Let Me Play With Your Poodle - 1946 Savoy 5525
22 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - So Long - 1946 Savoy 5525
23 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - I Don't Stand For That Jive - 1946 Savoy 5531
24 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Have You Ever Been Lonely - 1948 DeLuxe 1179
25 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Shout It - 1948 DeLuxe 1179

boppinbob said...

Bonnie Davis CD 2, 1950 - 1958

01 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Toy Piano Man - 1950 Columbia 30215
02 - The Piccadilly Pipers - Toy Piano Boogie - 1950 Columbia 30215
03 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - (I'm Not Cryin' Over You) I'm Peelin' Onions
04 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - I Want My Baby - 1951 Coral 65043
05 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Out In The Cold Again - 1951 Coral 65043
06 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - All Of Me - 1951 Coral 65046
07 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - When You Come Back To Me - 1951 Coral 65046
08 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - I Like It - 1951 Coral 65074
09 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - One Little Raindrop - 1951 Coral 65074
10 - Bonnie Davis & The Clem's Pipers - Love, Look What You've Done - 1952 Apollo 1193
11 - Bonnie Davis & The Clem's Pipers - Pickin' Petals - 1952 Apollo 1193
12 - Judy King & The Knights - Two Shadows - 1952 Chester 1200
13 - Judy King & The Knights - What More Could I Want - 1952 Chester 1200
14 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - So Near And Yet So Far Away - 1954 Melmar 100
15 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Sometimes - 1954 Melmar 101
16 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - If You Only Knew - 1954 Melmar 101
17 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - How Could You - 1954 Groove 0032
18 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Since You're Gone - 1954 Groove 0032
19 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Angry - 1955 ''X'' 0086
20 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - I Wanna - 1955 ''X'' 0086
21 - Bonnie Davis - Pepper Hot Baby - 1955 Decca 29718
22 - Bonnie Davis - I'll Make You Mine - 1956 Decca 29802
23 - Bonnie Davis - I've Lost All My Love For You - 1956 Decca 29802
24 - Bonnie Davis & The Piccadilly Pipers - Where's My Baby - 1956 Chart 615
25 - The Piccadilly Pipers & The Pic-A-Dillies - A Lonely Lover's Prayer - 1956 Chart 619
26 - The Piccadilly Pipers & The Pic-A-Dillies - Mr Butterball - 1956 Chart 619
27 - Bonnie Davis - Come Up Early And Stay Late - 1958 Gary 1008
28 - Bonnie Davis - Please Return My Heart - 1958 Gary 1008
29 - Bonnie Davis - Take A Number From One To Ten - 1958 Tune Tone 101
30 - Bonnie Davis - If You Only Knew - 1958 Tune Tone 102

A big thank you to Wimakaeler for this great compilation.
Cover hastily done by me.

Bob Mac said...

Thanks for these, all new to me.

bluesjumper33 said...

Great work! Thanks Bob & Wimakaeler !

Rob Kopp said...

Thanks. Also new to me

Hitparade said...

Wimakaeler,
Thank you for all of your hard work and especially the documentation on this collection. Instead oy two cds, I much prefer and recommend displaying the music as one 55 song collection. Much easier to understand and study the music.

What are your favorite performers, favorite years of music? Do you have a "want list"?

This is a wonderful, historic collection; most of the songs are new to me; however, Bonnie did record some pop gems: "Why Don't You Do Right?" (4-January 1943 by Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman; "Shoo Shoo Baby"(1(9)-Jan-March 1944 by The Andrews Sisters and 4-January 1944 by Ella Mae Morse); "Out In The Cold Again" (23-November 1951 by Richard Hayes); and an oldie, even for her "All Of Me" (1(2)-March 1932 by Louis Armstrong; I love all three of her recordings of her one charted hit "Don't Stop Now" (1(5)-March-April 1943 R&B chart); even the upbeat "Pepper Hot Baby" (19-November 1955 by Jaye P. Morgan) :-)