The Cats Meow - Jerry Murad's Harmonicats

 

Harlem Nocturne

The Cats Meow

Jerry Murad's Harmonicats

Mercury Records MG20136

1956

From the back cover: A trumpet player has a tough time in this world. He's got to blow so good just to make a dent in the great big world of music. A piano player's got it even tougher. The great big world of music is crawling with piano players. Same for guitarists, drummers, sax men, take your pick. Music is not an easy way to make a living. Just to earn moderate acceptance, you've got to be so confounded good.

Well then, consider the case of the man who would earn his living blowing the common mouth organ. Good? Why a proud, self-respecting musician wouldn't even listen to a good one. A terrific one would be lucky to win an approving smile.

So it's little wonder that you don't need the fingers of more than a single hand to count up the processional harmonicists you've ever heard. And you only need one finger to point out the most popular harmonica player there ever was – Jerry Murad, leader of the incomparable Harmonicats.

Jerry and his colleagues are not only unquestionable master of the row-of-reeds but they have elevated their chosen instrument to unquestioned acceptance as vehicles for the highest and most thrilling virtuosity.

The harmonica is probably the most American of instruments – hardly any American boy grows into a man without having learned the elements of playing it. The best instruments, though, have been made in Germany. So it's nice and incongruous that Jerry, the  instruments prophet, was born in Istanbul, Turkey. But the parents Murad came to America to rear Jerry and his harmonia in bustling Chicago. As a kid, Jerry'd have half the school gathered around him during lunch hour – even the teachers – for a concert on his pocket-sized instrument. When he graduated, he auditioned for the late Borrah Minnevitch, leader of the Harmonica Rascals, and he got the job after playing one tune. Three years later Jerry and two other Rascals, Al Fiore and Don Less, cut away to form their own group, the Harmonicats.

Not long after, a new and fresh-minded record company was forming under the agile name of Mercury. Perhaps it was beginner's luck for both the artist and the company, but the Harmonicats' Peg 'O My Heart is still – and will be for some time to come – one of the most elephantine hits in the history of music anywhere. More than three million roceds have been sold and the figures are still mounting.

In this Long Playing potpourri, Mercury happily presents on of its first and always one offs most unwaveringly popular names for record devotees. So turn out the lights and putout the milk while The 'Cats Meow in a platter of roast-changing paces and moods.

Mickey

Just One More Chance

Near You

Heartaches

The Cat Meow

Souther Cross

Harlem Nocturne

Hora Staccato

Catwalk

Peggy O'Neil

That Girl

It Was Only Make Believe