Thursday, May 25, 2006

Rusty Warren


I found this in a local charity shop recently for a few pence. A dodgy party record from the early 60's I imagine. Heres a few words I found about Rusty gleaned from the internet-

"Bawdy and risque, the comedy of Rusty Warren was daring and revolutionary; one of the few successful female performers in a business historically dominated by men, Warren pushed the envelope further by dealing explicitly with sex, a taboo topic for any mainstream comic of the 1950s and 1960s regardless of gender.

Born Ilene Goldman in New York in 1931, she was raised in Milton, Massachusetts, and after graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1952, she became a teacher. On the advice of a boyfriend, Warren spent a summer performing in a piano lounge in upstate New York; she immediately fell in love with show business and never returned to academia. Her explicit style began to develop soon after, influenced by underground recordings by Sophie Tucker and Ruth Wallis.

After signing to the Jubilee label, Warren issued her debut record, Songs for Sinners, in 1959. While performing in Toledo, Ohio later that year, she introduced her trademark number, "Knockers Up," a call for women to shed their sexual inhibitions. Her next LP, also dubbed Knockers Up!, followed in 1960; the album became a surprise word-of-mouth smash, reaching the Top Ten and remaining on the charts for over three years. Overnight, Warren became a notorious figure, the queen of the party records; Sin-Sational! and Rusty Warren Bounces Back, both issued in 1961, hit the Top 40, and a fervent cult following emerged."

Discover more about Rusty Warren HERE at her website.

Rusty Warren - I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

Rusty Warren - Frankie & Johnny

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

5 comments:

la peregrina said...

Interesting, Michael. I have never heard of Rusty Warren. Is that her on the cover or is that one of those generic covers they put used for cheaper records in the sixties?

la peregrina said...

Let's try that again.

Interesting, Michael. I have never heard of Rusty Warren. Is that her on the cover or is that one of those generic covers they used for cheaper records in the sixties?

Wastedpapiers said...

I think that is Rusty but she looks more like a blonde here and why is that man playing her nose like a xylophone?

JVK said...

Extraordinary! Surprised to see she has 4 albums on iTunes too.

Russell CJ Duffy said...

i can see that she had some knockers!!
BOOM BOOM.