Ames Brothers - Night Train (2:24)
If the liner notes of this 1960 Ames Brothers LP are accurate, their version of Night Train represents the first vocal version of the song ever recorded. To be honest, until I found this record at the local Goodwill store a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know anyone had ever done a vocal version of the tune. Well, there's James Brown's spectacular 1962 King records version which has vocals but those consist mostly of the name of the song interspersed with city names and that's a different approach than the traditional verse-chorus technique employed here by the Ames Brothers.
The song was originally recorded by Jimmy Forrest in 1952 and loosely based on a riff cooked up by Duke Ellington's sax player Johnny Hodges, who used it on his 1940 release That's The Blues Old Man.
As for the Ames Brothers, you might scratch your head and wonder what the hell they (or their producers) were thinking as their smooth bland vocals don't mesh very well with the brooding and atmospheric instrumental track in the background. The whole thing is such a headscratcher, I thought I'd put it up for your listening enjoyment. Or misery.
Jimmy Forrest used two Ellington songs for Night Train, the bridge is based on Ellington's "Happy-Go-Lucky Local."
Posted by: djackp | October 31, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Ha ha - I imagine SCTV's Five Neat Guys bumbling their way thru this.
Posted by: conrad | November 01, 2012 at 01:16 PM
It's just a twelve-bar blues. And the Ames' performance has a nice big-band sound to it, just like the number.
Posted by: Griff | November 05, 2012 at 04:10 PM
Why the hell didn't you post the entire album? "September Song" is the killer song on this record, and nobody reading this gets to hear it. Chump!
Posted by: Borneo Stew | November 07, 2012 at 07:53 PM
There's a Wynonie Harris version wit woids, that predates 1960, I believe.
Hackensack Slim
Posted by: Hackensack Slim | November 09, 2012 at 04:42 PM
Slim - thanks, I didn't now about that one, but it looks like it came out in 1952!
Wynonie sings Night Train! - via YouTube
Posted by: Listener Greg G. | November 09, 2012 at 05:35 PM
In my nascent boozer days, Miriam Linna (a bad influence in just about every way for me) hepped me to the classic fortified wine of the same name, telling me that this song was actually named after said sauce. To this day, I've never heard another source claim that "Night Train" the song and Night Train the wine were joined at the hip, but to this day, I've never questioned it. This will always be a booze song first and foremost to me, and it will remain so, Mills Bros. or no Mills Bros....
Posted by: Artie Mondello | December 05, 2012 at 09:33 PM