THE STORY BEHIND B. Bumble & THE STINGERS is long, complicated and messy. It is a veritable "War And Peace" of instrumental music through no fault of its own, but with so many clever and talented people involved, it is high time the record was set straight.

THE STORY BEHIND B. Bumble & THE STINGERS is long, complicated and messy. It is a veritable "War And Peace" of instrumental music through no fault of its own, but with so many clever and talented people involved, it is high time the record was set straight.
\\ hen singer Gene Pitney first emerged, he had a manager called Art Talmadge who'd once held down an early A&R position at Mercury in Ghicago. When the label had opened for business just after the second World war, one of its first releases was a hopped-up arrangement of Rimsky Korsakov's much maligned "Flight Of The Bumble Bee" by a pianist known as Jack Eina. It was no coincidence that in the spring of 1961, Art's brother Sid Talmadge was in charge of distribution for Leon Rene"s Rendezvous label. The company had recently enjoyed major success with the Ernie Fields Orchestra but they were beginning to find it hard to shift new releases by this once hot outfit. Yet they knew the market was still wide open for instrumentals, so plans were made to launch a new. smaller combo and it was a fresh version of Fina's "Bumble Boogie" that was lined up for the debut single.
Just as Leon Rene was setting the session up he was paid a visit by a young hustler called Kim Fowley. Flushed with the success of producing The Hollywood Argyles's "Alley Oop", he was busy hawking his off-the-wall ideas around the local independents. He was curious about the Rendezvous cover of his record by an act known as The Dyna-sores. To his surprise he was introduced to their vocalist who turned out to be guitarist and arranger Rene Hall. When Leon Rene saw how well the two got on. the subject of producing "Bumble Boogie" cropped up. It was decided there and then that Fowley should handle A&R on the record. When the session got underway, Rene Hall remembered that he knew how to get hold of Jack Fina. He called him up and asked him to stop by Gold Star studios and show his arrangement to Ernie Freeman who'd been booked to play piano on the date. Fowley decided to record Freeman on two piano tracks, one using a Grand for the rhythm part, whilst the other featured a doctored upright, complete with thumb tacks attached to the hammers. Earl Palmer played drums, the redoubtable Red Callender was on bass and they brought in guitarist Tommy Tedesco to add his full throated twang, similar to the sound he'd recently been featuring on Piltdown Men records.

The result was a blatant slab of commercially and was tailor-made for the pop market (even if it was in a minor key). The final touch came when they added the cheeky moniker of B Bumble and the Stingers. So with everything now in place, label copy was made ready and they managed to turn the record round in less than two weeks. Sid Talmadge then got to work, and by the time the record was released, the stores were well stocked in anticipation of demand.
The single soon began to show on the Hot Hundred and it became obvious that an act would have to be created to handle promotion and P.A.s. In time-honoured fashion Leon Rene" dispatched his junior partners Rod Pierce and Gordon Wolf to trawl some of the local clubs around LA.
Adopting the Frebergesque "Hey kid. Can you play?" syndrome, they found themselves a touring version of B Bumble and the Stingers, when they hit upon an unsuspecting trio who were in town from Oklahoma. By the early summer of 1961 on the strength of the single peaking at #21, a hasty follow-up had to be conceived. "Boogie Woogie" was a straight reading of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" with Clarence Smith's appellation removed. This time Kim Fowley gave us two Ernie Freemans for the price of one by way of double tracking the "tack" piano. The result sounded like a cross between a harpsichord and a pit-player for a silent movie. However, on this occasion there weren't so many takers and the single slid into the Hot Hundred for jnst one week at # 89. Imagining that the public had become fickle about the sound Rendezvous decided to rekindle their Ernie Fields strategy result-ing in little B Bumble activity for the rest of the year. When the next B Bumble 45 (a stylish version of Duke FJlington's "Caravan") did emerge, it failed to ignite and the project was close to becoming history. That is until a rival set-up suddenly arrived on the scene. Realising that the company now saw little mileage in pursuing further sides beyond this point, Kim Fowley secured the copyright to an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "March Of The Wooden Soldiers" from the eternally popular Nutcracker Suite. He took the idea to another local entrepreneur H B Barnum, who shared a soft spot for all things flagrant. He picked up on the plot straight away and commissioned a record. It made good sense to keep to the original formula, so Rene Hall, Earl Palmer ami Ernie Freeman were duly booked to play on the session. The master was then leased to the tiny Del Rio label and the finished record appeared credited somewhat incestuously to Jack B Nimble and the Quicks. When Rendezvous got wind of the story, they hauled Kim Fowley in to point out that they could do a much better job of working his idea than Del Rio could. It was a fait accompli as the record was dying on its feet, so Fowley had little choice other than to go along with their plan.
An entirely new recording was swiftly arranged with the usual team intact but on the day of the recording, Ernie Freeman didn't show due to a heavy bout of partying the night before. Not wanting to lose the date, Rene" Hall came up with a solution. He'd spotted a young songwriter and musician hanging around the Gold Star studio who'd idly been taking photographs. He was a character called AH Hazan, whom Rene had previously encountered in that same studio just three years earlier when they'd worked together on a song called "Hi-Tone" that Hazan had written for the up-and-coming Ritchie Valens. Rene" knew he could play piano pretty good, so it was only natural to ask if he might consider helping to salvage the situation. Suffice to say they not only managed to cut an exact copy of the Del Rio original but they ditched the cloying jangle sound on the piano and crisped up the recording generally. They turned in a eraekin" good record and Rendezvous knew they had a hit on their hands.

By sheer chance, Del Rio was already shipping a second Jack B. Nimble single when they discovered what was happening. Moving fast, they struck a deal with Randy Wood in LA and re-released what they were now calling "The Original Nut Rocker" on Dot Records. Despite managing to get it shipped on an international basis, it was too late. Rendezvous had pulled out all the stops achieving not only a Top 30 hit in the States but seeing it all the way to the top in the UK where it became the swansong hit for the Top Rank label. Such was its popularity in Great Britain that the unwitting Oklahoma trio now led by William Bumble Esq., were flown over for live dates.
Meanwhile back in the States, top line copyists were beavering away over newly arranged teen-beat adaptations of every piece of classical music available. It was a sweet and sour situation with the "long-hairs" dreading what these infernal "Bumble" people would tamper with next, whilst those closest to the eye of the storm, like Rent1" Hall and the recovered Ernie Freeman, enjoyed themselves thoroughly as they indulged in some truly over-the-top plagiarism.
Even the titles fell in with the formula, like "Apple Knocker" and "Dawn Cracker", yet in amongst the product, which was now coming thick and fast, there were some high spots like the storming "Rockin" On "N" Off, the delightful "Chicken Chow Mein" and a series of moody and atmospheric B-sides.
Within a year though it was all over. Apart from any signs of the forthcoming British invasion altering public tastes, Rene Hall was now too busy working with Sam Cooke, the Routers and the Marketts to remain involved. Ernie Freeman was handling everything that Reprise could put his way, whilst Ali Hazan had been rewarded with his own single on Philles. Kim Fowley meanwhile had simply got bored, and Rendezvous was about to go out of business.
There were fleeting attempts to revive the format as time went by including ironically, one on Mercury - the company who'd sown the seeds 20 years earlier with that innocent little Jack Fina workout. New product also emerged when a re-release of "Nut Rocker" charted in the UK in 1972 which oddly enough became another swan-song hit - this time for the Stateside label.
Here then is the very first B Bumble and the Stingers CD, a tribute to all those involved - including the original classical composers who must have turned in their graves with each and every release.
Fun music for fun people!!
Stuart Colman February 1995