Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order (4 CD, 1993/FLAC)

 When the fusion between traditional country and blues which would come to be called Rockabilly erupted in the early to mid-Fifties, most proponents - including Elvis and Carl Perkins - could name Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup as being among their primary influences.

Born on August 24, 1905 in Forest, Mississippi, he was among a small number of blues musicians to get a recording contract with a major label, in his case the RCA Victor subsidiary Bluebird, and in 1945 he put out a double-sided hit, Rock Me Mamma b/w Who's Been Foolin' You. The A-side peaked at # 3 on what then passed as the R&B charts - Most-Played Juke Box Race Records - while the flipside topped out at # 5 on Bluebird 34-0725.

Before the year was out he had Keep Your Arms Around Me climbing the charts to # 3 in January 1946 on Bluebird 34-0738 b/w Cool Disposition. Later that year he scored again, this time on the parent RCA Victor label with another twin hit, seeing So Glad You're Mine reach # 3 and Ethel Mae one notch lower at # 4 in October and November respectively on Rca Victor 20-1949. The A-side would later be recorded by Elvis in 1956 (two years after he recorded another Crudup single, That's All Right (Mama), which itself had failed to chart for Big Boy on RCA Victor 20-2205 in 1946 as simply That's All Right. His last nationally-charting single was I'm Gonna Dig Myself A Hole which peaked at # 9 in November 1951 on Rca Victor 50-0141 b/w Too Much Competition.

Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup /-A Music Man Like Nobody Ever Saw (5 CD, 2016/FLAC)

 In the world of music, there was never anyone quite like ARTHUR 'BIG BOY' CRUDUP. Rooted in the Mississippi Delta, his style was propulsive, melodic, original, and profoundly soulful. If he wasn’t 'The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll', as one LP proclaimed, there’s no doubt that rock ‘n’ roll owes a debt to his songs, including That’s All Right Mama, My Baby Left Me, Rock Me Mamma, So Glad You’re Mine, and Mean Ol’ Frisco Blues, as much as to his tight, swinging brand of rural blues.& ,

Arthur Crudup was in his thirties when he made his first recordings in 1941 and recorded prolifically until his death in 1974. This set includes his complete recordings from 1941 until 1962, including every extant song from RCA and its associated labels, as well as his sides for Trumpet, Checker, Ace, and Fire. Over one hundred recordings in all. An expressive singer and a true poet of the blues, Arthur Crudup certainly deserves to be known as the guy who wrote three songs that Elvis Presley recorded during the Fifties, but he was a towering musician in his own right. His influence didn’t end at Elvis Presley. In addition to all those that Elvis influenced, countless other blues and rock musicians adapted his songs and his sweet, lyrical style.