27th July 11
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Dave “Baby” Cortez, “The Happy Organ.”
In those halcyon days before the Beatles, all you needed to have a hit record was two things:
- A neat idea for a melody that could serve as the basis for a two-minute song.
- A willingness to play three shows a night, three hundred nights a year, for a salary of $75 per week.
Detroit’s Dave “Baby” Cortez had both of these things, plus a truly great nickname. That makes him, in my book, one of the best. I hope that someday he goes to rock music heaven, where he can joyfully bang out this melody on a Katzenklavier made out of corrupt record executives and unscrupulous tour bookers.
Instead of cats, guys in purple suits nicknamed “Chin.”
