WRFG’s Route 66 celebrates a time when blues, jazz, and R&B were on the same
page and, often, in the same song. Our primary focus is on the music of the
Jump Blues Era of the 1940s which blended into the early Rock & Roll Era
of the 1950s, and follow on how those styles and artists have evolved over
the years. We also bring you jazz from the era along with the occasional page
from the Great American Songbook.
Listen to Route 66 Sunday from 7:00 to 9:00 A.M. Eastern (U.S.) on
Atlanta’s WRFG 89.3FM. Your independent community radio station is
streaming worldwide over our free mobile app and WRFG.ORG.
Become a WRFG Route 66 Supporter
Follow us on Facebook @ WRFG Route 66 Jumps
Subscribe to our weekly podcast @ MixCloud.Com
You’ll find the podcast for this week at the bottom of this post.
Contact: john.askins@wrfg.org
Our theme this week is This, That, & the Other.
HERE’S THE WRFG ROUTE 66 PLAYLIST FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 2026
Song
Artist
Original Album or Label & Date
Topsy, Part 2 Cozy Cole Love Records 1958
A Bird In The Hand Roy Milton Specialty Records 1954
Walkin’ Around Paul Williams Savoy Records 1948
New Blow-Top Blues Dinah Washington Decca Records 1947
Hy’a Sue Duke Ellington Columbia Records 1948
When That Man Is Dead & Gone Paula West (digital single) 2026
Outta Your League Lizzy & The Triggermen Live at Joe’s Pub 2025
June-teenth Jamboree
Gladys Bentley
Swing Time Records 1953
Boogie’n My Woogie
Gladys Bentley Quintette
Excelsior Records 1945
WHO WAS GLADYS BENTLEY?
Gladys Bentley was one of the first openly gay jazz singers. Starting in the 1920s,
she performed in men’s clothing at speakeasies in New York City. Bentley was never
a top selling R&B artist, but she was a musical trailblazer in her own right.
GLADYS BENTLEY RESOURCES
Biography @ Wikipedia.org
Discography @ discogs.com
National Museum of Black History and Culture
Charlesville Ray Charles & Milt Jackson Soul Brothers 1957
Sax Shack Boogie Amos Milburn Aladdin Records 1950
Ocean Of Tears Roomful of Blues That’s Right 2003
Baby, I Love Your Way Deborah Silver & Count Basie Orch Basie Rocks 2025
B-Yot Illinois Jacquet King Jacquet 1949
Hadacol Bounce
Roy Byrd (Professor Longhair)
Mercury Records 1949
Lovin’ Machine
Wynonie Harris
King Records 1951
Drinkin’ Hadacol
Little Willie Littlefield
Modern Records 1949
WHAT THE HECK WAS HADACOL?
Hadacol was a patent medicine that from the mid-1940s to the early 1950s
that was marketed as a vitamin supplement that was good for the whole family.
In reality, Hadacol’s principal attraction was that it contained 12% alcohol,
supposedly as a preservative.
While the recommended dosage was one tablespoonful taken four times a day in a
half glass of water after meals and at bedtime, some pharmacies in dry counties
in the American south were known to sell Hadacol by the shot and in one county
outside Chicago, you could only buy it in a liquor store.
And like any good intoxicant, Hadacol became the stuff of song and story.
Long Old Road Queen Latifah Bessie – Music from the HBO Film 2015
News All over Town Charles Brown Honey Dripper 1996
Crazy About A Jukebox Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band Time 2026
Be Baba Leba Helen Humes Philo Records 1945
Million Dollar Secret Helen Humes Modern Records 1950
McShann’s Boogie Blues Jay McShann Trio Philo Records 1945
Let Your Tears Fall Baby Wille Mae Thornton Peacock Records 1951
…My Cherry Red Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson King Records 1949
Rocket 88 Rocket 88 Rocket 88 1981
(sign off)
Tag (You’re It) Little Charlie & The Nightcats Nine Lives 2005
WRFG Route 66 