All ABOARD THE NIGHT TRAIN

So, I collect songs, and one of the songs I collect is "Night Train". Writen by Oscar Washington, Lewis P. Simpkins, and Jimmy Forrest in 1952. I thought that for my first post I would do a review of some of the different versions of Night Train I have collected over the years...

Artist, Album- notes


1. The Oscar Peterson Trio, Night Train- Very groovy, a mellow piano plays the lead, accompanied by a laid back upright bass and awesome jazz drums. Watch out for the sweet bass solo, they for sure take the song somewhere new and awesome.

2. Buddy Morrow and His Orchestra, Night Train- Very big band, I imagine a busty, blonde stripper from the swinging 60's bouncing her booty across the room while throwing her boa round the necks of square white men in thick rimed specticals and rad 3 button suites.


3.Floyd Cramer and His Piano, Night Train- Big band, solo guitar plays nice call and response riff that only happens at the beginning of the song. Floyd plays low keys on the piano, good tones, short version.


4.James Brown, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack From The Who Film "QUADROPHENIA"- The song starts with Brown announcing "all aboard, the night train," a snappy little drum ditty and then the band comes in and moves it. Lead guitar, with great tone, plays the main rhythm line while Brown anounces the stops- "Miami, Florida" "Atlanta, Georgia" "Raleigh, North Carolina." The groove on this song is one when you can't help yourself from moving your hips and doing a little twist. This is the only version of night trian that i have, or have ever heard, that has vocals. This is probably my favorite version of night train. So good!

5.Marvin Berry and the Starlighters (produced by Bones Howe)- "BACK TO THE FUTURE" Soundtrack- Why does music made in the '80s sound like it was made in the '80s? I guess because it was, even though it's supposed to take place in the nineteen 50s. Anyway, I gotta say the B.T.T.F trilogy is very dear to my heart, 88 miles per hour 1.21 gigawatts and a flux compassator, key elements of time travel. The best part of the movie just might be when George Mcfly (Crispin Glover) is dancing to Night Train. Glover does this perfectly alone, nerdy, white dude move, I can't get over it, it's the best!


6.Felix Slatkin, Felix Slatkin Conducts Fantastic Percussion- Very dreamy and cartoonish, but kind of dark with lots of percussion that is littered with bells and whatever you call those ones you hit with malats. I feel like I was having a pretty good dream then I got on Slatkin's night "mare". Definitely the most different out of all versions of Night Train, way to go Felix!


7.Johnny Keating and His Band, Swing Revisited- Live, upbeat tempo, big band, swingy, definitely done by pro's, maybe too well done, kinda of boring and too jazzy. I feel like this would make a good opening for a generic '60s spy movie. But all's not lost on this record, there is a cool swing version of one of my favorite songs "Oh, Lonesome Me," and it's rad!


8.Buddy Morrow and His Orchestra, Dance Date!- Same Morrow version as before, but different album. I played them simultaneously to see if I could sync'em up. Ya know I kinda like my double, just barely out of sync version. Maybe I've come on to the next new thing. It sounds like, and makes me feel almost like I'm on the night train and had too much to drink and I've got the spins, gets me thinking...


9.The Ventures, Walk Don't Run- What can I say? I love guitars, I love the song night train, I love the Ventures. They do such a great job on this one, man this whole album rocks, what can i say? I think this one might beat all!