Sheb Wooley & Ben Colder - Sheb Wooley & Ben Colder - 22 Greatest Hits

Did MGM Lose Many Of Their Masters In A Fire?

When it comes to MGM hits of the 1950s and 1960s more often than not they are presented as re-makes. What happened? Did they lose much of their historical master material in a fire or something?

The case of Sheb Wooley [and his alter-ego Ben Colder] is a classic example of what I'm talking about. Nowhere, it seems, can you find a complete collection of his original 16 Country and/or pop hit singles recorded between 1955 and 1971 - all for MGM. You might find Purple People Eater on some novelty compilations, and maybe one or two of his better Country hits like That's My Paw, but never all together.

This pathetic offering from Tee Vee Records even suggests that they are giving you 22 of his "best" - but you find that tracks 3 to 5, 9, 13, and 15 to 22 were not hits for Sheb/Ben - either Country or pop. Legitimate hits represented are at tracks 1,2,6 to 8 and 10 to 12, while track 14 was the flip of Fifteen Beers Ago. Of course, that's negated by the fact that all are re-makes.

Sheb, who played Pete Nolan on the TV series Rawhide with Clint Eastwood, began his singing career with a version of Are You Satisfied? in December 1955, seeing it top out at # 95 Billboard Pop Top 100 b/w Humdinger. Three years later he struck gold when The Purple People Eater shot to # 1 Top 100 in summer 1958 and remained there for six solid weeks b/w I Can't Believe You're Mine. It even managed to crack the R&B charts at # 18.

Exactly one year after that Sweet Chile peaked at # 70 Hot 100 b/w More. Then came another 3-year drought until That's My Paw made it to # 1 Country and # 51 Hot 100 b/w Meet Mr. Lonely early in 1962. Later that year his alter-ego, Ben Colder, struck paydirt with a parody of the Rex Allen hit Don't Go Near The Indians. Changing it to "Eskimos" Sheb saw it reach # 18 Country/# 62 Hot 100 b/w Louisiana Trapper.

Figuring he might have a successful formula, he tried again as Colder in 1963 with Hello Wall No. 2, a send-up of Faron Young's Hello Walls, which reached # 30 Country and "bubbled under" on the Hot 100 at # 131 in March b/w Shudders and Screams [Shutters And Boards]. Then came Still No. 2, a take-off on Bill Anderson's Still which was shut out in the Country market and only reached # 98 Hot 100 b/w Goin' Surfin', and Detroit City No. 2, a Bobby Bare parody which also failed on the Country charts and peaked at # 90 Hot 100 in November b/w Ring Of Smoke [Ring Of Fire].

He went back to his own name for Blue Guitar in summer 1964 [# 33 Country b/w Natchez Landing], was shut out completely in 1965, and then returned as Sheb Wooley with I'll Leave The Singin' To The Bluebirds [# 34 Country b/w Buba Hoo Boba Dee in June 1966]. In October that year he found major success again as Ben Colder when Almost Persuaded No. 2 [David Houston's hit] reached # 6 Country and # 58 Hot 100 b/w Packets Of Pencils.

In November 1966 he was back as Sheb Wooley with Tonight's The Night My Angel's Halo Fell, a # 70 Country b/w Anchors Aweigh, had no hits in 1967, and began 1968 with Tie A Tiger Down [Sheb Wooley], which peaked at # 22 Country b/w Make 'Em Laugh. Later that year he had another opportunity to pan a mega-hit as Ben Colder when Harper Valley P.T.A. (Later That Same Day) scored at # 24 Country and # 67 Hot 100 b/w Folsom Prison Blues. That, however, was to be his last Hot 100 hit.

Another Ben Colder offering, Little Green Apples No. 2, reached # 65 Country in 1969 b/w It's Such A Pretty World Tonight at much the same time as I Remember Loving You was going to # 52 Country as by Sheb Wooley b/w That Girl (Next Door). He finished 1969 off with the Wooley tune The One Man Band [# 63 Country b/w You Still Turn Me On], and then launched his final hit in 1971 when Fifteen Beers Ago made it to # 50 Country by Ben Colder in a parody of the Conway Twitty hit Fifteen Years Ago [the flip was Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down].

His were mostly fun tunes which always drew a chuckle the first two or three times you heard them, but the novelty wore off pretty quickly as evidenced by the low ranking of most. Even so, it would be nice to see one of the better compilation outfits like Rhine or Ace do him justice by putting out a comprehensive set. In the meantime, avoid this piece of junk. August 30, 2007

Tee-Vee Records and re-recordings!

Well, Tee-Vee/Gusto/whatever they are records is at it again, passing off re-records as the genuine article. They go and find a lesser known country artist or one who is out of the prime of their career and these artists re-record their hits (or sometimes non-hits) for Tee-Vee. This is a quite common case with many of Red Sovine's "hits" as well.

Not a one of these songs are the original recordings and most suffer from a lack of quality. "Purple People Eater" comes off quite good but that's where it ends. The recordings are just not good.

Mercury Nashville/Polygram Records, where are the original MGM recordings? They've taken on a new life in the "shareware" world and you would do well to do something other than license a few masters to Bear Family and do something domestically. Of course, Mercury is too busy worrying with their lap dancer Shania Twain and too many others who CLAIM to be country to worry about treating their back catalog with respect-witness their treatment of the Hank Williams catalog. July 2, 2003

Mainly parodies of classic country songs

These are re-recordings, but apart from Purple people eater and That's my pa (the only two songs that are not parodies), the original recordings are not available on CD. Whether the original recordings will ever be released on CD is a moot point.

The parodies include - to give the original titles and singers - I walk the line (Johnny Cash), Detroit City (Bobby Bare), Harper valley PTA (Jeannie C Riley), Little green apples (Roger Miller), Fifteen years ago (Conway Twitty), Almost persuaded (David Houston), Hello walls (Faron Young), Green green grass of home (Porter Wagoner), Sunday morning coming down (Kris Kristofferson), Folsom prison blues (Johnny Cash), Easy loving (Freddie Hart), Help me make it through the night (Kris Kristofferson), Ruby don't take your love to town (Kenny Rogers) and Games people play (Joe South).

However, the standout must be D-I-V-O-R-C-E. This parody was covered by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly and became a number one hit for him in Britain. Not all the parodies work as well, but everybody will have their own preferences. Of the others, I particularly like Green green grass of home.

Because there are other ways of buying Purple people eater and That's my pa, you should look elsewhere if you want those songs. You buy this (as I did) for the parodies. April 3, 2003

Good, but Re-recorded

I was slightly disappointed with this. I thought that these would be original songs of his but, most are ones that he redid later on and some he jazzed up. They're still good but lack the feeling of his original songs. December 22, 2002

Re=recordings

Beware... these are rerecordings and bad ones at that. Some of Sheb Wooley's earlier recordings (Purple People Eater) can be found on a Bear Family single-CD release. That's My Pa can also be found on both single and box set CDs by Bear Family. His later stuff has yet to show up in its original (MGM) form. February 14, 2001

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