Spadella: The Essential

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Cooley was one of the more curious characters in the annals of country music. In the mid-1940s, Cooley was riding high: he was king of the Southern California ballroom circuit; a radio, TV, and movie star; and, according to legend, winner of a battle of the bands with Bob Wills. Following this 1943 victory over Wills's Playboys, Cooley declared himself "King of Western Swing" and signed a recording contract with OKeh, the results of which are found here. These 20 songs cover territory from merry ballads to blistering instrumentals. With Tex Williams handling the vocal chores, and fiery pickers such as Johnny Weis (guitar), Noel Boggs, and Joaquin Murphey (steel) behind him, the Cooley band packed a mean punch, with fiddles, harp, and accordion adding to the frenzy. These mid-1940s records, many of them big hits, marked the acme of Cooley's career and his life. His movie and TV successes dried up, his best band (this one) was stolen away by Williams, and in 1969, Cooley died while in prison for murdering his wife. --Marc Greilsamer

Spadella: The Essential,Spade Cooley,Sony,Country,Country & Western,Pop,Western Swing

Average customer rating:

The True Club of Spade, but not what you think is!

this is the real stuff

Spadella Hotter'n'hella!

1950's revisited

Spadella: The Essential
Spade Cooley
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music
Western Swing | Country | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B0000029BX
Release Date: 1994-11-01

Tracks:

Troubled Over You
Oklahoma Stomp (Instrumental)
You Can't Break My Heart
Detour
Crazy 'Cause I Love You
Swingin' The Devil's Dream (Instrumental)
Shame On You
Forgive Me One More Time
You Better Do It Now
Steel Guitar Rag (Instrumental)
You'll Rue The Day
You Never Miss The Water (Till The Well Runs Dry)
I Guess I've Been Dreaming Again
A Pair Of Broken Hearts
Cow Bell Polka (Instrumental)
Hide Your Face
I Can't Help The Way You Feel
I've Taken All I'm Gonna Take From You
Three Way Boogie (Instrumental)
Spadella (Instrumental)

Amazon.com

Cooley was one of the more curious characters in the annals of country music. In the mid-1940s, Cooley was riding high: he was king of the Southern California ballroom circuit; a radio, TV, and movie star; and, according to legend, winner of a battle of the bands with Bob Wills. Following this 1943 victory over Wills's Playboys, Cooley declared himself "King of Western Swing" and signed a recording contract with OKeh, the results of which are found here. These 20 songs cover territory from merry ballads to blistering instrumentals. With Tex Williams handling the vocal chores, and fiery pickers such as Johnny Weis (guitar), Noel Boggs, and Joaquin Murphey (steel) behind him, the Cooley band packed a mean punch, with fiddles, harp, and accordion adding to the frenzy. These mid-1940s records, many of them big hits, marked the acme of Cooley's career and his life. His movie and TV successes dried up, his best band (this one) was stolen away by Williams, and in 1969, Cooley died while in prison for murdering his wife. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews:

The True Club of Spade, but not what you think is!.......2003-11-26

Neither Bob Wills nor certainly not Spade Cooley would have seen themselves as part of "Country" music in their heyday. They would have felt insulted to be included in the same business as Roy Acuff or even Ernest Tubb. They saw themselves as part of the big band music, and pop Jazz of the Hollywood Studio variety. Especially Cooley, but also Wills, hired people from and lost people to big white swing bands. Jimmy Wyble who played leader guitar with both and helped set the guitar trio sound that was standard for all 1940s Western swing went on to become Frank Sinatra's guitarist of choice in the 1950s!!!

It is true in the 1950s, the existence of Western Swing as a separate entity slowly collapsed and a never before existing amalgam called "Country Western" came into being. However, the musicians in these bands considered themselves more part of Jazz and pop music than they did the WSM, Grand Ole Oprey, version of Country Music. There is the famous incident in 1945 when Bob Wills was on the Grand Ole Oprey and almost left before because the Oprey tried to stop him from bringing his drums and horns on stage. The Oprey never thought of asking Cooley with his harps and choruses of violinists.

Spade Cooley was always a ways uptown from Wills. He comes out of the Hollywood singing cowboy crowd, being a cellist who was a body double for Roy Rogers in films. He knitted a band together among the more educated musicians working the Hollywood western music scene at the start of WWII. Jimmy Wyble who worked for both Wills and Cooly talked about how Cooley was pretty disciplined, and wanted nothing strange and wanted the band to stay with what was known in the 40s and 50s as the "businessman's bounce," the tone of all moderation. Everything is harmonized and moderate. Wills, on the other hand, allowed anythign that he and the audience liked, like Wyble playing Charlie Christian style solos and leads whenever he felt like it.

At the same time on this record we have the first and best band Cooley ever put together. Being not much of a musician himself and a disciplinarian, Cooley regularly fired all of his musicians and subsequently had worse and worse bands until he wound up with his mediocre all-women ensembles of the 1950s.

This band really rocks and rolls and scurries around despite Cooley's moderate intentions. It features the incomparable Joaquin Murphy on steel guitar in his glory. Listen to what he and the band do to the Oklahoma Stomp to hear Hollywood western swing at its acme starting out with a Harp intro and leading on to some of the wilder dirtier driving steel playing ever recorded.

This was the hot band Cooley had coming out of the war which had fantastic battles of the bands with Bob Wills' Texas Playboys before tens of thousands of fans on the Santa Monica and Venice piers in Los Angeles.

If you like this band, you will like the first band that Tex Williams had, since it is made up of 90 percent of the musicians on this record, including Williams who is lead singer on a number of tunes here.

Cooley as you know ended his career by being imprisoned for sadistically murdering his wife and torturing his daughter because he was suspicious that his wife was having an affair with his friend Roy Rogers. (See Nick Tosches Country Music for more on this).

Being a Bob Wills man, I realize in the late 1950s right after that happened Wills came out with a version of Cooley's hit "Shame on You" (one of the few repertoire's Wills had not raided at that point). At the end of the cut Wills shouted "Shame on You Spade Cooley!"
Oh what musical rivalry will do!

this is the real stuff.......2003-11-04

I was introduced to Western Swing Music by the music of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. This is better! Spade Cooley's band swings much harder then Bob Wills' ever did. His life (Spade Cooley's) would make a great made for t.v. movie, but that's another story. What's important here is the music, and wow, is it great!

Spadella Hotter'n'hella!.......2000-08-27

Every musical era has a peak, and for me, these mid-forties 'Columbia/Okeh' treasures are the absolute pinnacle of 'Western Swing'. This album cooks even at a simmer, but when it reaches the boiling point, the playing here is astounding, with Spade Cooley's fiddle on fire, and the band right there fueling the flames. 'Oklahoma Stomp' is a guitar/drum tour de force with Spade's fiddle as kindling. On 'Three Way Boogie', accordianist George Bambi, Cooley, and guitarist Joaquin Murphey burn the barn---some of the hottest squeeze-box playing you're ever likely to hear complimented with a killer uncredited piano solo---try to keep your foot still during this one! Cooley's fiddle on 'Spadella' soars in & out of the proceedings like an instrument possessed, and catch the driven intensity of his playing at the beginning & end of 'Swingin' The Devil's Dream'. 'Steel Guitar Rag' again shows off the bands guitar proficiency and 'Cow Bell Polka' is a fiddle, guitar, and accordian romp that should convert even the most 'polka-phobic' of listeners. The instrumental prowess of this band permeates the ballads as well, complimenting Tex Williams warm textured vocals with unwaveringly tasteful accompaniment. All throughout this classic assortment of western songs the everpresent dance of Spade Cooley's fiddle weaves inspired patterns, sharing the cloth equally with profound performances by some of the most accomplished pedal steel, electric guitar, and accordian players of the day---with a hefty kick from Muddy Berry's hot drums. The musicianship on these recordings is startling, the electricity tangible, yet sadly, the genius captured here was also the apex of Spade Cooley's phenomenal career. Spade's fire burned fast & furious, and his rapport with his band-members was short-lived. When Spade fired Tex Williams most of the band left with him, and Cooley's popularity began a long slow decline. Unfortunately, like so many legendary musicians before and since, Spade Cooley's life eventually crashed in self-destructive tragedy, leaving Bob Wills as the undisputed 'King Of Western Swing'. Will's infectious talent, the sheer span of his career, and volumes of great recordings ensure that. But from 1944 to 1946, as evidenced here, Mr. Cooley trumped him in 'Spades', giving 'The Texas Playboy's' a run for their money, and raising the bar for the music that followed. The folks at Sony did an admirable job with this release, the booklet is fairly comprehensive, and the sound quality is very good, deserving of 5-stars plus.

Jim Otterstrom

1950's revisited.......2000-06-26

Flashback! Western Dance Halls,western swing, drinkin' beer and smokin' cigarettes. This is a fabulous album of great tunes.

Music Album:

Music Album