Monday, August 16, 2010

The Tune Rockers - The Green Mosquito - United Artists, 1958

Today's 45 is another simmering RnB blaster - "The Green Mosquito".  I can't find much info on The Tune Rockers, but I do know they were a Buffalo-based band. This little number was the inspiration for The Cramps' "Human Fly".  Lucky Pierre, a popular DJ on Buffalo's WBNY radio station, helped break the band by hiring them to play at his weekly "record hops". They even appeared on American Bandstand (season 2, episode 12) performing this tune. This single spent 10 weeks on the Billboard charts, but the Tune Rockers were unable to ever follow it up.
Wikipedia tells us United Artists was started in 1958 by by Max E. Youngstein, so that would make this one of the label's early releases.  The catalog number is "UA 139 X", but I was unable to find a complete discography.
And here's the clip!

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