Oscar McLollie born September 22, 1924

Oscar McLollie (September 22, 1924 – July 4, 2008) was an American jump blues  baritone singer, congo player and orchestra leader who was one of the missing links between jump blues and rock 'n' roll. For someone who had only one modest hit, he had a lot of influence with many of his records being covered by other artists who enjoyed greater success.

He was born in Kelly, Caldwell Country, Louisiana. In the armed forces during World War II, Oscar sang in a quartet called The Bullets, putting on USO shows for fellow servicemen. After the war, he made his way to Los Angeles, the location where he would make all of his recordings. He sang in local jump blues bands before being recruited by Mercury Records, for a short time, as their West Coast A&R man for black music. In 1951 he also recorded the song "I'm Hurt." 

After his short stay at Mercury Records, McLollie started to record for Leon Rene and his son Rafael, also known as Googie. They had just set up a new label, Class Records, after the bankruptcy of Exclusive Records, but decided to make a quiet start and struck an arrangement with the Bihari brothers to release the Class masters on Modern Records. Leon Rene would be Oscar's manager, producer and chief songwriter (often using his pseudonym Jimmie Davis) throughout his recording career. McLollie's first release under this arrangement was "The Honey Jump" (Parts 1 & 2, 1953), credited (as would be all of his Modern records) to Oscar McLollie and his Honey Jumpers. 

Though not yet quite rock 'n' roll, it has many elements of the genre. Two saxes try to out-honk each other, while the piano man is pounding away on the 88 keys. Wild stuff. The song was covered by the Sauter-Finnigan Orchestra on RCA and by Jackie & Roy with Charlie Ventura on Coral. McLollie's follow-up, the witty "All That Oil In Texas", was outsold by a cover version by Ralph Marterie on Mercury. For Christmas 1953, Leon Rene wrote the old-fashioned "God Gave Us Christmas", which failed to catch on, but after the holidays, the swinging flip, "Lolly Pop" (written by Googie Rene), started to make noise for Oscar. 

                                    

It was covered by none other than Louis Jordan for his final Decca date. The year 1954 saw several good up-tempo releases by McLollie, like "Mama Don't Like", "What You Call 'em Joe" and "Wiggle Toe", but with no commercial success. "Love Me Tonight"" became Oscar's only UK release, on the London label.  "God Gave Us Christmas" was reissued by the Biharis for the 1954 Yuletide season, this time with a jumping B-side, "Dig That Crazy Santa Claus", hoping to appeal to the growing teenage market.

By 1955, Oscar and his Honey Jumpers were in heavy demand as live performers. More Modern singles were released in that year, among them was the ballad "Convicted", with an upbeat B-side, "Roll Hot Rod, Roll". The single, promoted by DJ Alan Freed, became McLollie's biggest seller on the Modern label and won him a slot on the Hunter Hancock TV show. The latter starts off with a "One for the money" chorus that resembles the one that Carl Perkins would use to kick off "Blue Suede Shoes" a few months later. "Convicted" (his biggest seller on Modern) showed that McLollie was also a fair ballad crooner and was covered by Lu Ann Sims and Gene O'Quin. It was also recorded by Dale Hawkins, whose version remained unissued until 1998.

After an interval at Mercury, Oscar was reunited with Leon Rene on his reactivated Class label. It was here that he scored his only (pop) hit, a duet with Jeanette Baker, "Hey Girl, Hey Boy" backed by Googie René's band, reached number 61 on the Billboard pop chart. However, it was not successfully followed up. The tune was covered by Louis Prima and Keely Smith and turned into the title of one of their movies. Later, McLollie continued to perform in cabaret in Los Angeles. Reportedly, he also spent some time in the Philippines, where he appeared in low-budget martial arts movies. 

In the 1960s, Oscar Lollie met Anna Margaret McCabe in Los Angeles, California; they married and had two daughters. In the late 1960s McLollie took his career in a new direction, moving his family north to Canada and settling in the Chilliwack Valley of British Columbia. His first Canadian release was the 1970 single So Pleasing Loving You b/w As Long As You Care at All on the New Syndrome label, a soulful and contemporary track that showed him at ease with modern funk stylings. A year later he issued Chilliwack Valley b/w She’s a Child on 6th Avenue Records, a heartfelt tribute to his new home in the Fraser Valley.

The culmination of his Canadian period was a self-titled LP on Big 3 Records in 1973. For these sessions McLollie drew upon the city’s finest studio musicians: keyboardist Robbie King, bassist Doug Edwards, drummer Kat Hendrikse, guitarists Terry Frewer and Ed Patterson, saxophonists Wayne Kozak and Steve Douglas, and horn players Bob Rerick and Don Clark. Their presence gave McLollie’s Canadian work a polish and groove that reflected the very best of the city’s studio sound in the early 1970s. After Oscar and Anna divorced in the 1970s, he returned to California. He continued performing in lounges in the Pacific Northwest and California before fading from prominence.

He died in Oakland, California, in 2008 aged 83 years.

(Edited from Wikipedia, This Is My Story & The Museum Of Canadian Music)