(1955) Flip 502-B ’’Split Personality’’ Bill Taylor & Smokey Joe

STUDIO SESSION FOR BILL TAYLOR & SMOKEY JOE WITH CLYDE LEOPPARD’S SNEARLY RANCH BOYS AT THE MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE FOR SUN RECORDS 1955 SUN RECORDING STUDIO 706 UNION AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE SUN SESSION: PROBABLY FEBRUARY 1955 SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - SAM C. PHILLIPS “SPLIT PERSONALITY“ Composer: - Stanley Kesler-Bill Taylor Publisher: - . - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated Matrix number: - F 17 - Master (2:21) Recorded: - Probably February 1955 Vocal duet Smokey Joe Baugh and Bill Taylor & Clyde Leoppard Snearly Ranch Boys Released: - March 1955 First appearance: - Flip Records (S) 78rpm standard single Flip 502-B mono SPLIT PERSONALITY / LONELY SWEETHEART Reissued: - 1994 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15802-4-24 mono THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 1 This charming piece of nonsense features Bill Taylor as Dr. Jekyll and Smokey Joe Baugh as Mr. Hyde. As a novelty records, it has more enduring charms than most. The unison part may feature a third vocalist in place of Smokey Joe unless Joe disguised his gravelly voice for the duet. Clyde Leoppard, the nominal leader of the group contributes some rudimentary drumming and Buddy Holobaugh plays his usual aggressive guitar part. In a later era, Bill Taylor went on to become part of Jerry Lee Lewis’s touring group and he wrote a fair number of filler songs on some of Jerry Lee’s later albums, as well as some hits like ’’There Must Be More To Love Than This’’. Taylor went to Texas from Memphis, working with R.D. Hendon and Jimmy Heap, before returning to work with Jerry Lee Lewis. Smokey Joe Baugh and Buddy Holobaugh also went to Texas, but lapsed into obscurity. Clyde Leoppard was last seen serving 99 cents lunches at a greasy spoon behind the Greyhound terminal in Memphis before his little operation fell a victim to urban renewal and he retired to Mississippi. C-composer and steel guitar player Stan Kesler went on to run his own studio and record labels after working for Sam Phillips as resident engineer/producer at the Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, and for a time he took his studio career to Nashville, where he too worked with Jerry Lee Lewis. As a producer, his hits included Sam the Sham’s ’’Woolly Bully’’. (CE) (HD) (MH) Name (Or. No. Of Instruments) Bill Taylor - Vocal Smokey Joe Baugh - Vocal and Piano Stanley Kesler - Steel Guitar Clyde Leoppard - Drums Buddy Holobaugh - Guitar Marcus Van Story - Bass © - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©