JO ANN CAMPBELL -I'm Nobody's Baby 1958 End LP Mint-

$

67

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Jo Ann Campbell - "I'm Nobody's Baby", mono, on End 306. This was her first album. 12 songs including the title song, Nervous, Rock and Roll Love, I Ain't Got No Steady Date, I Really Really Love You, Wait a Minute, Your Driving Me Made, more.

Record Grade: Mint-

Cover Grade: VG++, beautiful glossy cover, name written in small letter on back cover

Labels: Gray, red logo, Div. of Roulette Records, Inc.

About the Artist: by Bruce Eder

Jo Ann Campbell occupies a special niche in rock & roll. For starters, she wrote songs, and they were good enough to get released as singles, not buried on her albums. Her most successful records were clearly in a mainstream pop music vein, anticipating the work of teen girl pop singers such as Shelley Fabares, but she could also rock out like Wanda Jackson. A surprising number of her recordings were rough and tough, their obvious "cute" quotient balanced by Campbell's occasional raspy-throated delivery, which betrayed lust, or at least a healthy female libido in need of stroking. And the song that remains the best known today, "Mama, Can I Go Out?" (which never charted but was featured in Alan Freed's jukebox movie Go Johnny Go), is a great tribute to healthy female interest in the opposite sex — which, as we know, was at least half of what rock & roll was ultimately supposed to be about. Campbell took music and dance lessons as a child, and was drum majorette at Fletcher High School in Jacksonville, Florida. At age 16, in 1955, she did a USO tour of Europe as a dancer — such tours didn't pay anything, but gave the participants a chance to travel and see the world while honing their skills as entertainers and performers, and this was precisely what Campbell did. When the tour was over, she felt ready for the big time and headed for New York, where she initially joined the Johnny Conrad Dancers. It was while in New York that she decided to try singing. She was fortunate enough to get featured on television's Colgate Comedy Hour and The Milton Berle Show, and later proved a huge success at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. In 1956, she was signed to the Eldorado label, which had her record an original song, "Come On Baby," as her debut single. This was followed by a more conventional pop standard, Campbell's cover of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." Neither single was a success, however, and by the end of 1957, Campbell had switched to George Goldner's Gone Records label, most famous as the company for which Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers recorded their hits. Campbell's records took on a more rocking beat at Gone, in keeping with the changes overtaking popular music — her 1958 singles included "Rock 'N Roll Love" backed with the far hotter B-side "You're Driving Me Mad," which was good enough to be featured on the 1980s underground compilation Hot Boppin' Girls, Volume 2. She cut one more original that year, "Wassa Matter With You Babe," but neither it nor its follow-up, "I'm Nobody's Baby," managed to chart. Campbell's singing ability was beyond question, however, and coupled with her extraordinary good looks — with her creamy complexion and blonde hair, and expressive eyes, she managed to look lustful and innocent at the same time — she rated a place on the bill at Alan Freed's Brooklyn Paramount Show, the biggest rock & roll and R&B stage show in the nation, and on Freed's package tour, and, in turn, got a featured spot in Freed's jukebox movie Go Johnny Go. There for millions of viewers to discover across the generations was Jo Ann Campbell, introduced by Alan Freed in the film as "our little blonde bombshell," alternately strutting and gliding across screen, pouting sweetly but with a lusty gleam in her eye to the strains of "Mama, Can I Go Out?" It was one of several high points in the movie, even if the single itself, on Gone Records, didn't chart as a result. Campbell's subsequent single that year, the teen lament "I Ain't No Steady Date," did little better, despite a great beat and a cute spoken-word middle section. By 1960, she had moved to ABC Records, where she finally struck a modest hit with "A Kookie Little Paradise," a strange novelty-type song with a ridiculous Tarzan yell over the intro and outro. Her other records of this period continued to show an astonishing degree of maturity in dealing with sexuality, "Amateur Night" being the best example, her voice displaying innocence and lust all at once, this time backed by a tasteful female chorus. Campbell also recorded some slightly harder, bluesier pop, including the Duane Eddy tribute "Duane" (which she wrote) and the late 1958 B-side "Happy New Year Baby"; her voice had a power and a full, throaty rasp when she wanted it that could have made her a rival to Wanda Jackson, but mostly she treaded a very fine line between the hard and soft sides of music and her stage persona. Not all of her stuff was that good ("Bobby Bobby Bobby" would have made Shelley Fabares wince), but a lot of it was, and certain lusty numbers like "Beachcomber" deserve to be heard at least by cultural historians of the era. Campbell charted two more singles: the sweet country-pop of "I'm the Girl from Wolverton Mountain" (which could've been a Dolly Parton song), which became her biggest hit, getting to number 38 in a seven-week run in the summer of 1962; and "Mother Please," which just brushed the pop charts at number 88 in a three-week run in the spring of 1963. By then her life and career were changing rapidly — she married Troy Seals, a country singer (and brother of Dan Seals), and the two began recording for Atlantic as a duet, Jo Ann and Troy, charting a couple of singles in 1964. Campbell retired in the mid-1960s, and most of her exposure since then has been from the movie Go Johnny Go in its periodic showings. Her reputation was sufficient, however, to get her Gone sides reissued on an LP (The Blonde Bombshell) of dubious legality in Europe (where they revere American pop and rock & roll of the 1950s) in the early 1980s, as well as justifying a legitimate reissue of her ABC sides on Murray Hill in the United States.

MY GRADING SYSTEMS: I’ve been told that I grade conservatively. My NM (near mint) is my highest grade for opened records (which would also include unplayed records). It’s a 9 or 10 on a 1-10 scale. M- would be equivalent to an 8; VG++ to a 7; VG+ to a 6; VG to a 5; VG- to a 4; G to a 3; F to a 2 and P to a 1. The same scale applies when I grade covers (jackets). Significant defects are specifically noted and taken into consideration in the grade.

GRADING DESCRIPTIONS

• GRADING Grading is based on the following criteria
• Sealed = store stock new
• Near Mint = like new or near new with only one or two small insignificant defects, a 9 or better on a 1-10 scale
• Mint- = extremely nice. Would be Near Mint, except for a couple of light hairlines or scuffs, which do not affect play
• VG++ = still a very nice record with all or nearly all of its original gloss but may have a few more light, surface marks, hairlines, needle tracks or the like which should not materially effect play
• VG+ = a nice, but used record that may have a series of light scuffs or scratches. It probably plays with a few pops, but has no serious problems.
• VG = a well-used record that still should sound OK when played, but may have moderate surface noise, pops, etc.
• VG- = a very well-worn record that plays through without skipping, but will do until a better copy comes along.
• Good = not actually good at all but probably will play through but with much in the way of surface noise, pops, crackles, etc. Still, will have no cracks, chips or the like
• Fair = you’re getting this record just to own but not to play
• Poor = the sky’s the limit, generally I will discard a record this bad (and sell the cover, jacket or sleeve alone) unless the label holds some particular interest

  VISUAL GRADING: All records are visually graded only unless I state that they are play-graded. Some labels such as RCA, Capitol, Colpix, Atlantic, MGM were pressed on better quality vinyl and will sound better than a record which visually appears the same on labels such as Crown, Score or Design. Recording techniques also varied. The sound on live albums may be far inferior to studio recordings. There may also be defects in the pressing which are invisible. The point is that an album on RCA graded VG+ may sound far better than an album on Crown graded Near Mint. I have no problem issuing a refund if you are dissatisfied with the sound on a record as long as it’s requested as per my stated return policy below. But please don’t be shocked if a record visually graded Near Mint doesn’t sound state of the art. If I base my grade on a PLAY GRADE, I will state this specifically in my grading section.

  COVERS: There are really too many possible defects regarding covers to be as specific in my definitions as I had been with my record grades. But please keep in mind these general grading guidelines:

  • I will give greater weight to the condition of the front cover than back cover when assigning an overall grade
  • No cover with a cut out hole or saw mark will be graded Near Mint even if it is still in factory shrink and there is no other wear
  • I will not reduce the grade of a cover for stickers which are glued to the jacket by the record company (eg. Contains the hit song Expressway to Your Heart); but will reduce the grade for stickers glued on the cover by stores, previous owners, etc.
  • If I write that a cover has a bb hole, I’m talking about a small cut out hole
  • A saw mark is a narrow cut in the perimeter of the cover, could be anywhere and vary in length from 1/2” to 2” at the most.
  • The overall grade takes into consideration any stated defects. For example, if I grade a cover VG+ and then state it has 6” top and bottom seam splits - I’ve already reduced the grade because of the seam splits. If the seams weren’t split, the cover would be graded higher such as VG++ or Mint-.

    Shipping Costs:

    The buyer pays for shipping. For one or two albums, the cost for priority mail in the United States is $6.50. For media rate postage within the U.S. the cost will be $3.50 for one or two albums.

    The cost for shipping a 7” record via 1st class is $2.50 and the cost for shipping a compact disc via 1st class is $3.20.

    Save money when I mail 2 or more records in the same package.

    Insurance is optional but highly recommended for “high ticket” purchases. Insurance is available only on purchases of over $50.00. The cost for insurance is $2.20 for up to $100; $3.20 for up to $200 and $1.00 additional for each additional $100 of insurance. Rates are quoted in my winning bid notices. The shipping charges for box sets, multi-record sets and other items of non-standard size and weight will be quoted.

    International Shipments: Overseas customers are welcome to bid. Postage to the U.K., western Europe and Latin America is $12.00 for airmail and $6.50 for surface for one album. Canada is $6.00 airmail (no surface option). To all other countries, postage is $15.00 airmail and $7.00 surface. 7“ records are $5.50 airmail anywhere in the world. Save on shipping cost per record when I mail two or more records in one package.

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    . I’ve been listing all types of records - mostly LP’s - including 50’s and 60’s rock ‘n’ roll, country, folk jazz, blues, personalities, new wave and punk, surf, psych, spoken word, comedy, etc., etc....... I try to list unusual, unique or obscure records, not the ones that you see all the time. While a majority of my listings are albums, you’ll often find a nice selection of 45’s, EP’s or picture sleeves...and an occasional 78 or two.

    My return policy: I don’t get many returns but customers are important to me so I like to offer a relatively hassle-free return policy. However, in order to return the record or other item, you must notify me by e-mail of your intent shortly after your receipt of the record or other item and within a reasonable time after the auction’s close. Also, the item must be returned in its original condition , i.e. the way it was shipped when it left my hands. While a very high percentage of my records arrive safe and sound (I use professional mailers and a filler or two, more for 78’s), they occasionally are damaged in transit. If that happens, I won’t accept the return of the record or other item - that’s why you have the option of obtaining insurance.

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