“Col Joye and the Joy Boys stood along Johnny O’Keefe as the first stars of Australian rock. It took the Beatles to end their dream run on the charts.” (Peter Thompson – Talking Heads. September 2006)
This review was originally featured in the Toorak Times in April 2013 as part of an on-going retrospective of vinyl albums in my personal collection. That series was called, “Cream of The Crate”, and they represent vinyl albums that I believe are of significant musical value, either because of their rarity, because they represent the best of a style or styles of music or because their is something unique about the group or the music.
This is an updated review and it features a legend in the Australian Rock/Pop scene. That man is Col Joye and, the record I am retro-reviewing is “Let’s Rock with Col Joye“.
This album was released in 1970, on the Universal Summit label (SRA 051) and is a album by Col and while the Joy Boys are not mentioned, most if not all of the tracks featured the Joy Boys backing him.
Now the album doesn’t cover his biggest hits, “Stagger Lee” “Bye Bye Baby“, “Rockin Rollin Clementine” or his fifth single, “Oh Yeah Uh Huh“, and that is a serious oversight.
Unfortunately it is yet another example of pressings at that time undertaken in Australia, being inferior (quality wise) the USA and Britain. While time and handling hasn’t been kind to my copy, age and the originally pressing quality does show.
However, the album should not be disregarded because of issues of pressing quality, or a lack of some of Cols hits on it. Because what it does cover are many of the rock and roll tracks we came to love and that Col would regularly feature during live performances and this is a damn fine reason for examining it.
Born Colin Frederick Jacobsen on 13 April 1936 in Sydney, Col is about Australian as they come.
He is, like the great J.O’K, one of a handful of people who were at the forefront of Australia’s R&R Revolution from the late 50’s through into the early 1960’s. His recordings were either solo or with The Joy Boys who were, before Col came along, a jazz band with Col’s brothers Kevin and Keith being members.
Col Joye and the Joy Boys became a formal unit sometime in 1957 when Col joined them.
One important fact that needs to be noted is that Col Joy was the very first Australian R&R singer to have an Australia wide number 1 hit!
He released 48 singles (that’s 45’s) from 1959 to 1992. Not bad over 33 years! In fact by 1963 Col had released 20 singles, 24 EPs and 19 LPs and his popularity was such that two full time staff were required to cope with all the fan mail.
In regard to albums the story gets even bigger. His festival releases are incredibly extensive and then there is the plethora of releases on the ATA label. Overall, his album releases number into the hundreds.
They disbanded in 1966 with a final single Col Joye And The Joy Boys
So let’s examine the track listing:
SIDE 1
1. Early In The Morning
2. That’ll Be The day
3. Hound Dog
4. Johnny B.Goode
5. Rock Around The Clock
6. Clap Your hands
SIDE 2
1. What’d I Say
2. Tallahassee Lassie
3. All Shook Up
4. Queen Of The Hop
5. Dream Lover
6. Splish Splash
This album may as well be part of the ‘song book of rock and roll‘!
This is very much the strength of this album, rock classics, sung by an ‘Aussie Rock Classic’. So I have chosen four tracks from the album to feature and discuss and we will come to them shortly.
These were the songs that were popular in the day and Col sang them well. Sadly what the vinyl recording doesn’t capture is the “edge” he had when performing live.
However, he was immensely popular in the day and he still commands great respect today and when he performed he still drew good crowds.
In some ways when you listen to him, it can be hard to think of him at the ‘cutting edge’ of R&R in Australia. His softly spoken demeanor, and his caring attitude almost worked against him in those tumultuous days of the late 50’s and early 60’s.
Unfortunately for Col, as his name was becoming even more widely known thanks to his ongoing work on Brian Henderson’s Bandstand, found by l963 – 1964 his style and his songs were becoming overlooked with the wave of ‘new’ music coming in from Britain.
Then, in 1990, while pruning a neighbour’s tree with a chainsaw as a favour, Col slipped and fell six metres onto brick paving below, striking his head and falling into a coma. In addition he sustaining serious lower back and shoulder injuries. It was not looking good for him for him, but physically recover he did but importantly he also recovered his desire to perform again.
So for a long while it seemed as though Col would be relegated to the great forgotten Australian Rock ‘n Rollers, however he began performing and touring again in 1998 and in 2008 celebrated his 50th Anniversary in show business.
Now let’s pop into the album and start with track #2 which is That’ll Be The Day which was a Buddy Holly track and a popular one at that.
As with most of his covers, Col rarely produced a track that was better than the original and this is definitely the case with this track, yet, he did add a unique element to his interpretation.
In many ways the track has lost its “rock” edge and gained a more “pop” edge to it. One thing that is worth mentioning, is that the Joy Boys show their excellence in being his backing group with a musically tight and harmonically rich accompaniment.
That’ll Be The Day
Then let’s move to track #6 on side 1 – Clap Your Hands.
This track was made very popular in Australia by the late and great – Johnny O’Keefe, our first home-grown rock hero.
I like this track and certainly as a pop/rock track that Col would often use in his live performances, so you would expect it to be a good dance track but there is an element of joy in this track that gives it a most infectious edge.
Clap Your Hands
Turning the LP over we stop at a track that has been covered by many artists, and quite successfully. Track #3 is All Shook Up which of course was made a massive hit by the real King of R&R – Elvis. Composed by the great Otis Blackwell and released by Elvis in 1957 the Presley version sat on the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 8 weeks.
Obviously popular with rock fans it was a natural for Col to record and it was another track he used it regularly in his live performances. certainly it doesn’t have the same “class” that Presley put into it – buy hey, Presley was a unique performer with an equally unique voice.
Col’s version is a little more laid back and lacks some of the sexual overtones that Elvis famously put into his music. However, Aussie rock fans couldn’t have Elvis, so they accepted Col Joye as a good replacement and with tracks like this, he didn’t let them down.
All Shook Up
Finally we stop at the final track on the album – Splish Splash, which was a hit originally for Bobby Darrin.
Now this was never really a hard core “rock’ track, in some ways it was what we later called “pop” music.
Splish Splash was performed and co-written by Bobby Darin and released in 1958. It was co-written with the very popular DJ Murray the K (Murray Kaufman). The story goes that Kaufman made a wager with Darin that he could not write a song that began with the words, “Splish Splash, I was takin’ a bath”.
The story also goes that in fact the line was originally spoken by Murray’s mother, Jean Kaufman. Now payola was becoming a very dirty word in the US music industry and would bring down some very big names, so to avoid any hint they might be involved in the payola scandal, the song was credited to Darin and “Jean Murray” (a combination of their names)
Back from the background info to our featured man – Col Joye.
Once again, Col provides an excellent rendition and in many ways this track was perfectly suited to both his voice and his style of singing
Splish Splash
It is not possible to declare that this album, “Let’s Rock with . . . Col Joye“, is a major part of the musical legacy he will leave. However, it is a good album to have in any collection because it does reflect the tracks that Col often performed live, and although it doesn’t capture the feeling of his live performances, it is a reminder of the music he sang and the major contribution he made during those formative years of Australian R&R.
His legacy is left in many ways through his major hits, for example in 2010 “Bye Bye Baby”, by Col Joye and the Joy Boys with backing vocals from the Sapphires, was a track added to the National Film and Sound Archive‘s Sounds of Australia register.
In addition to this honor, he has won two Aria awards, has numerous gold and platinum albums and was inducted into the Aria Hall of Fame in 1988. Finally, in 1981 he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for his entertainment and philanthropic work.
Finally, never lose sight of the fact that for Australian music to grow to the massively successful business it became in the late 60’s onward, it needed a solid foundation. Col Joye was one that helped build that foundation.
This album is available for the rock bottom price of around $15.00 (inc postage) and for ‘collectors’ of vinyl, and you collectors of Oz Rock, how can you go wrong?
VIDEOS
There are a number of Col Joye/Col Joye & The Joy Boys video clips. The one’s I have re-posted represent performances with ‘classic’ rock songs.
Oh Yeah, Uh Huh (1959)
Be Bop A Lula (1963)
Kissin’ Time Australia Way
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