Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Night Train With The Neptunes!

Among the other clips being hosted by innercalm at the moment is this one featuring Hal Hardy of vocal group The Neptunes.



The Neptunes c.1963: Paul Hendricks,Hal Hardy, Robert Dixon, Joe Wade, James Porter Box



The Neptunes began in the 1950s, founded by Tom Holbert and Paul Hendricks, to whom they added Hal as the lead singer, with Robert 'Dickey' Dixon (a professional boxer), Joe Wade (nephew of singer Johnny Bragg), James Porter Box and Henry 'Sonny' Short. On this episode of Night Train!, Hal sang his version of the Ray Charles song What'd I Say?, with his own local Tennessean adlib:

"Tell your momma! tell your brother!
I'm gonna take you back to Murfreesboro'!"
Watch Hal Hardy on Night Train!
Paul Hendricks may be the guitarist playing the distinctive opening riff, and Joe Wade is centre of the backing trio. Later, Hal had a solo hit with House Of Broken Hearts b/w Love Man.
Information from the Night Train To Nashville liner notes. Neptunes photo courtesy of Carissa Dixon-Malone. Video clip of Hal Hardy archived by innercalm. One website that offers the NIght Train! shows on DVD or video (NTSC-VHS?) is The Video Beat. Leave me a copy, I don't get paid 'til the end of the month!...

3 comments:

The Stepfather of Soul said...

I love Hal's version of this tune - he's rocking it, for sure, but he's got great stage presence (I'm loving the cape and the microphone-toss fake-out he does) and a demeanor that made me say upon first viewing, "he looks like Luther Vandross' uncle"!

Rob Whatman said...

It shows the strength of r&b at the time that Hal didn't achieve greater fame, and he is a great performer.

Hal also reminds me of my friend Arif, when we cut his hair like that once at college...

Ron said...

Some guys on my Jeff Beck Appreciation Society Yahoo group are slobbering over that Sunburst Les Paul that Paul Hendricks (?) is playing. We're all impressed by how great the whole band sounds (especially Mr. Hardy)! Thanks for cluing us in.