Buddies With the Blues (Remastered) - Single

Before he hit it big as a country singer, Bobby Bare was a rock & roller who scored a hit single in 1959 with "The All-American Boy," a witty tune about a guy not unlike Elvis Presley who rises to fame before being drafted into the Army. However, while Bare co-wrote and sang the song, the record was credited to Bill Parsons, a close friend and fellow musician who occasionally collaborated with Bare. Bare wrote the song for Parsons to sing, but the label that put out the single preferred Bare's demo to Parsons' polished recording, and it was Bare's recording that rose to number two on the pop charts despite Parsons' name appearing on the label. Buddies with the Blues collects 30 sides Bare and Parsons released during their rock & roll days between 1956 and 1961; listening to this album, it's not hard to imagine how Parsons and Bare could be mistaken for one another, since their voices are similar, and most of this music is light but lively early rock & roll shot through with a goofball sense of humor, as the songs celebrate revved-up Volkswagens, horror movie host Vampira, difficulties with cheap guitars, sending satellites into orbit, and a guy who buys the Brooklyn Bridge. (The set also includes the little-known follow-up to "The All-American Boy," "I'm Hangin' Up My Rifle," in which the same rock & roll idol comes home after serving his hitch in the service.) Anyone who enjoyed the loopy fun of "The All-American Boy" should dig Buddies with the Blues, which along with solving the riddle of how Bobby Bare's first hit got released under the wrong name provides a solid overview of Bare's days as a funny rocker before Nashville came calling.