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| THE GROUNDHOGS-Shake It/Rock Me U.S. Interphon IN-7715 1965 |
Legendary British blues rock heroes The Groundhogs 45 rpm debut was incredibly only released in the United States in January 1965 on the tiny Interphon label (home of other obscure Brit releases like The Soul Agents, The Hi Fi's and The Honeycombs). After backing multiple American blues artists touring Britain legend has it that John Lee Hooker put in a word for them enabling this single to be released in the United States but strangely not the U.K.!
The A-side "Shake It" is a band original. I first heard it back in the 80's on one of Greg Shaw's "English Freak beat" compilation albums in the late 80's. For the uninitiated it's a 101 mph British r&b stormer. Wailing harmonica, driving piano and a frenetic beat drives this ditty and it's pure amphetamine driven British 60's r&b at it's finest!
The flip, "Rock Me", the Muddy Waters number is your bog standard blues number with some barroom ivory tinkling and a nice bluesy guitar solo dueling with some mean harp blowing that rescue it from it's mundane feel.
As mentioned above the A-side is available on Volume One of the "English Freakbeat" series and both sides are on an unauthorized (read "bootleg") compilation "Please Leave My Mind" that collects early Groundhogs/Herbal Mixture tracks.
Hear "Shake It":
Hear "Rock Me":
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