In 1949 Roy and the band cut their first records, for Fortune, a small, independent label located on 12th Street in Detroit. Over the next year Fortune released six sides by Roy Hall: "Dirty Boogie," "Okee Doaks," "Never Marry a Tennessee Girl," "We Never Get Too Big to Cry," "Five Years in Prison," and "My Freckle Face Gal." Most of these recordings were slick hillbilly blues, similar to the sort of music with which Hank Williams had recently risen to fame. But the most successful of the bunch, "Dirty Boogie" was a wild, nasty rocker which foreshadowed much of what was to come to be musically in the South during the next few years.
In 1950 Roy traveled on to Nashville alone. He cut two records there that year for Bullet, one of Nashville's most active independent labels. Both of these Bullet singles, "Mule Boogie" and "Ain't You Afraid," were fine hard-driving things, but they failed to sell. After Bullet, he recorded for Tennessee, a small local company that had a national hit in 1951 with Del Wood's piano instrumental "Down Yonder"; but Roy Hall's piano brought no hits.
He opened a joint in Nashville called the Music Box (later renamed the Musicians Hideaway). There he played piano and drank. One of Roy Hall's most loyal customers was Webb Pierce, who, following Hank Williams's death on NewYear's Day 1953, became the undisputed king of the country singers. Pierce hired Roy as his piano-player, using him on most of his recordings in 1954-55. During this time, Roy also recorded with Marty Robbins and Hawkshaw Hawkins.
In the summer of 1954 Elvis Presley came to Roy Hall's club looking for work. Roy recalled; "I fired him after just that one night. He weren't no damn good." Towards the end of that same year another young man came to the club looking for work. He was Jerry Lee Lewis, and Roy kept him on for a few weeks. Roy hired Jerry for $15 a night. They did a lot of duets together. It was also in 1954 that Roy Hall and a black musician named Dave Williams took a trip to the Everglades that resulted in one of the classic rock 'n' roll songs;
Twenty-one drums and an ol' bass horn
Somebody beatin' on a ding-dong
Come on over baby, whole lotta shakin'goin' on
Come on over baby, baby, you can't go wrong
There ain't no fakin', whole lotta shakin'goin' on
Webb Pierce arranged for Hall to sign a contract with Decca, and on September 15, 1955, Hall went into the studio and cut three songs for the label, including "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." The record was released three weeks later. Roy Hall continued to record for Decca until the summer of 1956. While a few of these recordings, such as his cover of Carl Perkins's "Blue Suede Shoes," were plainly uninspired, most of them were among the most fiery rockabilly records of the midfifties. His "Diggin' the Boogie" contained one of the toughest and most unrelenting rhythms that had ever been recorded in the South. But none of this amounted to a hit record.
Bad luck seemed to follow Roy Hall. "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," which he had co-written under the pseudonym of Sunny David, became a huge hit for Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy's ex-employee, in 1957, and Roy stood to make a good deal of money in royalties. But when the time came to collect he was sued by his ex-wife, and the court awarded her his share of the royalties from the song.
But Roy Hall kept on pumping his rockabilly music, and he kept playing around Nashville and wherever else he could find a piano and a paycheck. Roy died on March 2, 1984, in Nashville. He was sixty-one years old.
Nick Tosches, 1984
Source: Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll by Nick Tosches
All By Myself
Roy Hall Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I want to be your lover man
All by myself
All by myself
I don't need no one to love you
I'm gonna love you all by myself
Don't you know I'm in love with you
All by myself
All by myself.
I don't want no one to love you
I want to love you all by myself
Meet me in the parlor 'bout half past one,
We'll go on down and have some fun
All by ourselves,
All by ourselves,
We don't need nobody with us
We gonna do it all by ourselves.
The lyrics of Roy Hall's All By Myself appear to be a flirtatious invitation to a girl for a romantic rendezvous. The opening line "Little girl don't you want to stay" suggests that the singer is trying to convince the girl to spend some time with him. He goes on to declare that he wants to be her lover man and he doesn't need anyone else to love her as he can do that all by himself. In the second stanza, he assures the girl that he loves her and wants to love her all by himself.
The third stanza is an invitation to meet him in the parlor at half-past one where they can go and "have some fun all by ourselves". The last line is a repetition of the chorus emphasizing the fact that they don't need anyone else to enjoy their time together. Interestingly, the song ends with a unique saxophone solo that adds a playful and flirtatious element to the melody.
Line by Line Meaning
Little girl don't you want to stay?
Hey, would you like to stay here with me, little girl?
I want to be your lover man
I want to be the man you love and care for.
All by myself
I don't want anyone else to be with me, just alone.
I don't need no one to love you
I don't need anyone else to love you, I can do it all on my own.
I'm gonna love you all by myself
I'm going to love you without any help from anyone.
You'll find, little girl, you know it too,
You'll realize it too, little girl.
Don't you know I'm in love with you
Do you know that I'm in love with you?
I don't want no one to love you
I don't want anyone else to love you.
I want to love you all by myself
I want to love you without anyone's interference.
Meet me in the parlor 'bout half past one,
Let's meet in the parlor around 12:30 pm.
We'll go on down and have some fun
Let's have some fun together.
All by ourselves,
Just the two of us together.
We don't need nobody with us
We don't need anyone else to be with us.
We gonna do it all by ourselves.
We're going to do it on our own, without anyone else's help.
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, Universal Music Publishing Group, Tratore, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Eric Carmen, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
MaabudZ
I was looking for the Broony version recorded in the 30s (?) but this is a fun find of the same song with a rockabilly take.
Christophe Despouy
le rockabilly est un super style musical sans ce dernier que serait il advenu de la musique actuelle??