Bluejean Bop!

Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps' debut album, Bluejean Bop!, was rushed out in August 1956 just after his first and biggest single, "Be-Bop-A-Lula," had peaked in the Top Ten. The speed with which it had been assembled was apparent in the song selection. Vincent and Tex Davis had penned "Be-Bop-A-Lula" (or obtained it, anyway), but the songwriters turned up, together or in combination with others, on only four tracks of the LP (which did not feature the hit, an oversight corrected by the 2002 reissue), the title song, "Who Slapped John?," "Jumps, Giggles and Shouts," and "Bop Street." Augmenting the original material were some surprising covers, including the 1951 Frankie Laine hit "Jezebel," the 1920s Tin Pan Alley standards "Ain't She Sweet" and "Wedding Bells (Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine)," the 1947 Roy Acuff country hit "Waltz of the Wind," Hoagy Carmichael's 1931 composition "Lazy River," and the Ziegfeld Follies song "Peg o' My Heart" from 1913. Such material served to broaden Vincent's appeal, demonstrating that he was more than just the hiccuping rockabilly cat of "Be-Bop-A-Lula," that he could handle ballads in his breathy, emotive voice in the manner of, say, Johnnie Ray. Nevertheless, it was the bop tunes that most appealed, especially because of the Blue Caps' spare, propulsive accompaniment. The 2002 reissue expands the brief original album with half again as many bonus tracks, among them Vincent's second single, "Race With the Devil," and his fourth, "Crazy Legs." (His third single was the album's title song, so it was already present.) As such, the disc now contains Vincent's 1956 recordings, and they show him, if lacking the cocky authority of Elvis Presley, to possess an emotional commitment his Memphis rival never matched. — William Ruhlmann.