Podcasts about Space Riders

“Good speech. Blast him.” Marvel's relatively obscure comic book sci-fi misfits received a huge boost in recognition with their first MCU movie in 2014. Following a sequel and a Telltale series, Square Enix tasked their Eidos Montreal studio with making an action game starring the underdog antiheroes. Leon, Brian, Karl and Leah team up to celebrate the highs and nitpick at the lows of the resulting romp. Along with contributions from the Cane and Rinse community, we also consider the stink that the reception to Marvel's Avengers had left in the air, and how that affected the perception of this rather different experience. http://media.blubrry.com/caneandrinse/caneandrinse.com/podcast/cane_and_rinse_issue_639.mp3   Music featured in this issue: 1. Zero to Hero by Steve Szczepkowski/Yohann Boudreault2. Space Riders with No Names by Steve Szczepkowski/Yohann Boudreault edited by Jay TaylorYou can support Cane and Rinse and in return receive an often extended version of the podcast four weeks early, along with exclusive podcasts, if you subscribe to our Patreon for the minimum of $2 per month (+VAT).  Do you have an opinion about a game we're covering that you'd like read on the podcast? Then venture over to our forum and check out the list of upcoming games we're covering. Whilst there you can join in the conversations with our friendly community in discussing all things relating to videogames, along with lots of other stuff too. Sound good? Then come and say hello at The Cane and Rinse forum

Join John, Cam, and Jesse as the Open Pike Night crew welcomes Star Trek Strange New Worlds director Jordan Canning to the stage for an in-depth interview about her career, the history of Newfoundland cinema, Fraggle Rock, and of course, CHARADES!!!Send your voice hail to OPNSign up for the OPN NewsletterVisit our new website OpenPike.comPlease Check out our MerchSupport us on PatreonFollow @openpike on TwitterFollow OpenPike on InstagramFollow Openpike on Youtube

If you know anything about the world of  NFTs and if you don't, it's totally cool. I'm in this world for about three or four months, so I don't know much either. But what I do know is that Twitter is a holy grail when it comes to getting early information.  Today, I'm talking to someone I've been following on Twitter. I even have my notifications on and this guy I follow whatever he says. He has really good calls on projects and whatever he shares I find really really valuable. He was kind enough to join me today and share his wisdom. His nickname is ThatNFTGuy. So in this episode, we talk about strategies of the world of NFTs; how to find projects, what is good or what is bad, how to avoid scams, and everything about it.   Links from the episode: Etheria - https://etheria.world Bitcoin - https://bitcoin.org Cardano - https://cardano.org Clubhouse - https://www.clubhouse.com OpenSea - https://opensea.io Bored Ape Yacht Club - https://boredapeyachtclub.com Apocalyptic Apes - https://apocalypticapes.com Cooltimes: Twitter - https://twitter.com/cooItimes Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/Cooltimes2000/videos Zeneca: Twitter - https://twitter.com/Zeneca_33 Academy - https://zenacademy.io NFT Catcher Podcast -  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/NFTCatcherPodcast Cool Cats - https://www.coolcatsnft.com Meta Angels - https://www.metaangelsnft.com Little Lemons - https://www.littlelemonfriendsnft.com Star Catchers - https://www.starcatchers.io Wonderpals - https://www.wonderpals.com Space Riders - https://spaceriders.xyz Rubber Duck Bath Party - https://duck.art Sprite Club - https://spriteclubnft.com Crypto Tech Women - https://www.cryptotechwomennft.com   Connect with ThatNFTGuy: Twitter - https://mobile.twitter.com/cryptoismeta Blog - https://wtfarenfts.medium.com   ANATOLY's TOOLS:   Product Development: Helim10 - I use it for  Product Research, Keyword tracking and Listing Optimization .  SPECIAL DEAL: Get 50% your first month or 10% every month: http://bit.ly/CORNERSIIH10  Pickfu - I use it for split testing all of my products and for validation ideas .  SPECIAL DEAL: First split test 50% 0ff  https://www.pickfu.com/10mj   Trademarking: Trademark Angels - For all my trademarking needs.  SPECIAL: Mention Anatoly and 10MJ podcast and get 10% Off your trademark.   HR: Fiverr -  I hire my 3dMockup person and images label designer here on Fiverr - http://bit.ly/10mjFIVERR Upwork - I hire people long term on Upwork - upwork.com  Loom.com - for creating SOP's, I record everything on Loom and give to my VA's Keepa.com - to track historical data such as prices   ANATOLY's  3 Favorite  Business Books: DotCom Secrets by Russel Brunson - I think this is a must read for every online entrepreneurs - http://bit.ly/10MJDotCom 4 hours work week by Tim Ferriss  - This book changed my life and made me become an entrepreneur - http://bit.ly/10MJ4WW The Greatest Salesman In The World  by Og Mandino - Old book but it goes to the core of selling -  http://bit.ly/10MJGREATSM    DISCLAIMER: Some Links are affiliate, it costs you nothing, but helps to keep this podcast on the float   Have questions? Go to https://www.10millionjourney.com Follow us on Instagram: @10millionjourney

Roman Avan (Roman Avanesyan) is an Armenian Techno producer and DJ from Los Angeles, California. Roman transformed his musical background into a deep passion for the Techno genre. He started producing in 2018 and already impressed his audience with his creations, some charting in the Top 10 Beatport Techno charts. Roman turned his musical inspirations from artists such as Boris Brejcha, Acid Pauli, Carl Cox, and Charlotte de Witte into euphoric electronic transcendence while adding his own flavor of banging Techno. His releases often stretch skillfully beyond four-to-the-floor Techno. Always retaining a wide-eyed lucidity, Roman's Techno releases and mix compilations are always intelligent and intensely satisfying. For the near future Roman envisions himself continuing to create more music and influencing more people and fans. While Roman is focusing on production he is am also actively getting into the DJ-ing arena. Roman wants to expand his reach through playing his music and the music of some of his favorite artists and labels! Roman Avan Linktree: https://linktr.ee/RomanAvan SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/romanavan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/romanavanmusic Beatport: https://www.beatport.com/artist/roman-avan/696366 Spotify: https://artists.spotify.com/c/artist/3mCpNzHg76mTRGn2st8tTJ/profile/overview Tracks List Gaga, Mateo! - "Hybrid" (Original Mix) 0:00-6:15 Xenia (UA) - "Painful Desire" (Original Mix) 6:15 - 11:45 BILBONI - "Inverse" (Original Mix) 11:50 - 16:55 Eats Everything, Space 92 - "Space Riders" (Space 92 Remix) 16:55 - 23:50 Roman Avan - "Obeshimi" (Original Mix) 23:50 - 29:50 Sisko Electrofanatik, Stiv Hey - "Contradiction" (Original Mix) 29:50 - 34:40 Drunken Kong - "Dark Moon" (Original Mix) 34:40 - 40:25 Mark Dekoda - "Rain" (Original Mix) 40:25 - 44:55 Dok & Martin - "Equality" (Original Mix) 44:55 - 50:00 Ballarak, T78 - "The Antidote" (Original Mix) 50:00 - 57:53

We loved the movies and now Square Enix has blessed us with a game! Nick and Camille get right into Guardians of the Galaxy by hopping into the Milano and strapping in alongside Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot. We discuss the band of misfits that work together (albeit begrudgingly) and break down a jaw dropping special appearance. Come for the soundtrack, stay for the criticism of 80's haircuts. Join the Patreon squad for bonus episodes, discord access, prizes and even more goodness: https://www.patreon.com/autosavepod Follow @autosavepodcast on Twitter! While you are there say hello to @thisiscamco and @nickandrade89, or reach out to the show over email to say hey: podcast@autosavepod.com If merch is your thing, be sure to check out the store: https://bit.ly/atsmerch You can also join us on twitch, because you never know when we will pop in for a live show: https://www.twitch.tv/autosavepodIf you enjoyed this episode, please rate AutoSave 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.

We loved the movies and now Square Enix has blessed us with a game! Nick and Camille get right into Guardians of the Galaxy by hopping into the Milano and strapping in alongside Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot. We discuss the band of misfits that work together (albeit begrudgingly) and break down a jaw dropping special appearance. Come for the soundtrack, stay for the criticism of 80's haircuts. Join the Patreon squad for bonus episodes, discord access, prizes and even more goodness: https://www.patreon.com/autosavepod Follow @autosavepodcast on Twitter! While you are there say hello to @thisiscamco and @nickandrade89, or reach out to the show over email to say hey: podcast@autosavepod.com If merch is your thing, be sure to check out the store: https://bit.ly/atsmerch You can also join us on twitch, because you never know when we will pop in for a live show: https://www.twitch.tv/autosavepod

In this episode Dave interviews a father and son team from Rochester NY who are big fans of our podcast and Dr. Dave's Pinball Restorations YouTube channel. Scott and his 11 year old son Griffin discuss their current collection and how they enjoy working on them to bring them back to like new condition. The pinball passion is on full display with Griffin talking pinball designers, dates and manufacturers. With young people like Griffin fully engaged in the hobby, there's no fear of pinball going away anytime soon! Also discussed is the generosity and knowledge of the late great Gottlieb System 80 guru Steve Charland who helped Scott and Griffin diagnose and repair some tough issues with games in their collection. Games currently in Scott and Griffin's collection featured this episode: Atari Space Riders, Gottlieb Funland, Bally Paragon, Williams Black Out

Cruzamos el charco hasta Florida para hablar con un Venezolano, Alexis Ziritt que nos propone una space opera psicotrópipostpunkirbiana o lo que más pueda parecerse a experimentar la locura visual que es su Space Riders. Una serie de Black Mask que aterriza de la mano de Gigamesh y que propone romper con todo lo que esperamos de un cómic de ciencia ficción sin olvidar sus bases. Única e increíble, todo un viaje los dispuestos a alucinar en colores literalmente.

Cruzamos el charco hasta Florida para hablar con un Venezolano, Alexis Ziritt que nos propone una space opera psicotrópipostpunkirbiana o lo que más pueda parecerse a experimentar la locura visual que es su Space Riders. Una serie de Black Mask que aterriza de la mano de Gigamesh y que propone romper con todo lo que esperamos de un cómic de ciencia ficción sin olvidar sus bases. Única e increíble, todo un viaje los dispuestos a alucinar en colores literalmente.

CAPÍTULO #251… Prepárate para seis horas de pura viñeta. Nos adentraremos en las oficinas del GCPD para vivir con los agentes su día a día en Gotham Central, una maravillosa serie de Brubaker, Rucka y Lark que no le puede faltar por leer a nadie. Además cruzamos el Atlántico para charlar desde el estado de Florida con Alexis Ziritt, creador de la gran Space Riders que recién ha llegado a nuestro país. Y como siempre, actualidad muy importante, como el adiós de Richar Corben, la adquisición de Skybound por ECC, o los anuncios de Disney en Marvel y Star Wars. ¿Algo más? si , bombazos de novedades como Galdós y la Miseria, El Don, o Matadero Cinco. Gracias por estar al otro lado agentes ¡Nos oímos! NOTICIAS [00:10:24] Fallece Richard Corben James Harren Anuncia Ultraomega ECC se hace con las licencias de Skybound Anunciadas nuevas series Marvel y Star Wars en Disney+ NOVEDADES Y RELECTURAS [00:30:07] Blade Runner Jazz Maynard El Don Americania historias de la frontera Galdós y la miseria El Escorpión Hulk 100 Mercy Cuphead Matadero cinco ANÁLISIS: GOTHAM CENTRAL [01:52:57] Creada a partir de una colaboración previa, los maestros Ed Brubaker y Greg Rucka llamaron a Michael Lark para confeccionar entre los tres lo que sería una de las mejores series de DC comics. Gotham Central nos acerca a los agentes de policía de Gotham a través de un punto de vista realista y que sabe a las mejores series noir y policiacas que se hayan hecho nunca. ENTREVISTA: JAlexis Ziritt [04:31:24] Cruzamos el charco hasta Florida para hablar con un Venezolano, Alexis Ziritt que nos propone una space opera psicotrópipostpunkirbiana o lo que más pueda parecerse a experimentar la locura visual que es su Space Riders. Una serie de Black Mask que aterriza de la mano de Gigamesh y que propone romper con todo lo que esperamos de un cómic de ciencia ficción sin olvidar sus bases. Única e increíble, todo un viaje los dispuestos a alucinar en colores literalmente. CORREO DEL AGENTE [05:31:30] Leemos todos vuestros mensajes dejados en las redes y nuestra sección de la voz de los Agentes de Hydra, ¡Habla pueblo Habla! Muchas gracias por escucharnos y todo vuestro apoyo y participación! Tomos y Grapas es un medio de comunicación donde hablamos de todo lo referente sobre el mundo del cómic, novela gráfica e ilustración.

CAPÍTULO #251… Prepárate para seis horas de pura viñeta. Nos adentraremos en las oficinas del GCPD para vivir con los agentes su día a día en Gotham Central, una maravillosa serie de Brubaker, Rucka y Lark que no le puede faltar por leer a nadie. Además cruzamos el Atlántico para charlar desde el estado de Florida con Alexis Ziritt, creador de la gran Space Riders que recién ha llegado a nuestro país. Y como siempre, actualidad muy importante, como el adiós de Richar Corben, la adquisición de Skybound por ECC, o los anuncios de Disney en Marvel y Star Wars. ¿Algo más? si , bombazos de novedades como Galdós y la Miseria, El Don, o Matadero Cinco. Gracias por estar al otro lado agentes ¡Nos oímos! NOTICIAS [00:10:24] Fallece Richard Corben James Harren Anuncia Ultraomega ECC se hace con las licencias de Skybound Anunciadas nuevas series Marvel y Star Wars en Disney+ NOVEDADES Y RELECTURAS [00:30:07] Blade Runner Jazz Maynard El Don Americania historias de la frontera Galdós y la miseria El Escorpión Hulk 100 Mercy Cuphead Matadero cinco ANÁLISIS: GOTHAM CENTRAL [01:52:57] Creada a partir de una colaboración previa, los maestros Ed Brubaker y Greg Rucka llamaron a Michael Lark para confeccionar entre los tres lo que sería una de las mejores series de DC comics. Gotham Central nos acerca a los agentes de policía de Gotham a través de un punto de vista realista y que sabe a las mejores series noir y policiacas que se hayan hecho nunca. ENTREVISTA: JAlexis Ziritt [04:31:24] Cruzamos el charco hasta Florida para hablar con un Venezolano, Alexis Ziritt que nos propone una space opera psicotrópipostpunkirbiana o lo que más pueda parecerse a experimentar la locura visual que es su Space Riders. Una serie de Black Mask que aterriza de la mano de Gigamesh y que propone romper con todo lo que esperamos de un cómic de ciencia ficción sin olvidar sus bases. Única e increíble, todo un viaje los dispuestos a alucinar en colores literalmente. CORREO DEL AGENTE [05:31:30] Leemos todos vuestros mensajes dejados en las redes y nuestra sección de la voz de los Agentes de Hydra, ¡Habla pueblo Habla! Muchas gracias por escucharnos y todo vuestro apoyo y participación! Tomos y Grapas es un medio de comunicación donde hablamos de todo lo referente sobre el mundo del cómic, novela gráfica e ilustración.

Os dejamos nuestro repaso semanal de novedades y recomendaciones para que tengáis la pila de lecturas siempre ocupada y al día. Viuda negra Marvel Fanfare La gran novela de los 4 Fantásticos Garcia! Érase una vez en Francia Space Riders Evaristo Giant Days Día del cómic Marvel gratis Aristophanmia Sara Swing Iron Man Superior

Os dejamos nuestro repaso semanal de novedades y recomendaciones para que tengáis la pila de lecturas siempre ocupada y al día. Viuda negra Marvel Fanfare La gran novela de los 4 Fantásticos Garcia! Érase una vez en Francia Space Riders Evaristo Giant Days Día del cómic Marvel gratis Aristophanmia Sara Swing Iron Man Superior

CAPÍTULO #249… Viajamos al pasado para descubrir la historia oculta de Marvel, el evangelio según Jonathan Hickman con una serie que ha tardado 7 años en revelarse ante nosotros, SHIELD. Además os acercaremos la rabiosa actualidad entre ciertas dudas de la pertenencia del cómic entre el arte y la pérdida de derechos de Planeta de Los Muertos vivientes. Y para rematar, recomendaciones como ¡García!, Érase una vez en Francia, Space Riders, o La gran novela de los 4 fantásticos . Gracias por estar al otro lado agentes ¡Nos oímos! NOTICIAS [00:10:19] Planeta pierde Walking Dead Finaliza Batman Tierra uno Anuncian Vengadores Mecas Polémica con el cómic y el Arte Próximas novedades Aleta Anuncios indie de Planeta NOVEDADES Y RELECTURAS [00:22:04] Viuda negra Marvel Fanfare La gran novela de los 4 Fantásticos Garcia! Érase una vez en Francia Space Riders Evaristo Giant Days Día del cómic Marvel gratis Aristophanmia Sara Swing Iron Man Superior ANÁLISIS: SHIELD DE JONATHAN HICKMAN Y DUSTIN WEAVER [02:05:58] Con unos parones inhumanos llega por fin la recopilación de esta serie de 12 entregas que ha tardado siete años en finalizar y que nos cuenta los orígenes de Shield, una sociedad secreta centenaria donde las grandes mentes de la humanidad han unido esfuerzos por salvar el planeta. A mediados de los años 50, un misterio revelado y un nuevo cisma se vierte en esta organización. Analizaremos esta estupenda serie de Hickman y Weaver que nos ha sacado de los cánones habituales de la Casa de las ideas. CORREO DEL AGENTE [03:37:39] Leemos todos vuestros mensajes dejados en las redes y nuestra sección de la voz de los Agentes de Hydra, ¡Habla pueblo Habla! Muchas gracias por escucharnos y todo vuestro apoyo y participación! Tomos y Grapas es un medio de comunicación donde hablamos de todo lo referente sobre el mundo del cómic, novela gráfica e ilustración.

CAPÍTULO #249… Viajamos al pasado para descubrir la historia oculta de Marvel, el evangelio según Jonathan Hickman con una serie que ha tardado 7 años en revelarse ante nosotros, SHIELD. Además os acercaremos la rabiosa actualidad entre ciertas dudas de la pertenencia del cómic entre el arte y la pérdida de derechos de Planeta de Los Muertos vivientes. Y para rematar, recomendaciones como ¡García!, Érase una vez en Francia, Space Riders, o La gran novela de los 4 fantásticos . Gracias por estar al otro lado agentes ¡Nos oímos! NOTICIAS [00:10:19] Planeta pierde Walking Dead Finaliza Batman Tierra uno Anuncian Vengadores Mecas Polémica con el cómic y el Arte Próximas novedades Aleta Anuncios indie de Planeta NOVEDADES Y RELECTURAS [00:22:04] Viuda negra Marvel Fanfare La gran novela de los 4 Fantásticos Garcia! Érase una vez en Francia Space Riders Evaristo Giant Days Día del cómic Marvel gratis Aristophanmia Sara Swing Iron Man Superior ANÁLISIS: SHIELD DE JONATHAN HICKMAN Y DUSTIN WEAVER [02:05:58] Con unos parones inhumanos llega por fin la recopilación de esta serie de 12 entregas que ha tardado siete años en finalizar y que nos cuenta los orígenes de Shield, una sociedad secreta centenaria donde las grandes mentes de la humanidad han unido esfuerzos por salvar el planeta. A mediados de los años 50, un misterio revelado y un nuevo cisma se vierte en esta organización. Analizaremos esta estupenda serie de Hickman y Weaver que nos ha sacado de los cánones habituales de la Casa de las ideas. CORREO DEL AGENTE [03:37:39] Leemos todos vuestros mensajes dejados en las redes y nuestra sección de la voz de los Agentes de Hydra, ¡Habla pueblo Habla! Muchas gracias por escucharnos y todo vuestro apoyo y participación! Tomos y Grapas es un medio de comunicación donde hablamos de todo lo referente sobre el mundo del cómic, novela gráfica e ilustración.

There are very few comics I read, and then IMMEDIATELY re-read. This was one of them. Let's talk about it.

While Dave and George are interviewing Tommy Skinner ( This Flippin Podcast) about Fathom, he tells us a story about two different conversion kits he imported from Germany. The kits are Lady Death and Space Riders. These retheme kits were available in the late 70's and early 80's. Dave gives a shout out to artist Joel DeGuzman. The discussion turns to playfield manufacturing and Deeproot finds its way into the conversation. This is a mini episode that will not only inform but entertain.

logo 2 @ ™ PΔTRICK_DJ´S ✈ TECHNѺLѺGY. SPACESYNTH SET ( The Returns of Space Riders). All the reserved rights of their respective Authors. Promotional use Only. Mixed by ™ PΔTRICK_DJ´S ✈ TECHNѺLѺGY. ( MIЖ PRѺDUCTIѺNS )

Welcome to episode forty-seven of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. This one looks at "Goodnight My Love" by Jesse Belvin, and at the many groups he performed with, and his untimely death. . Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.  Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus podcast, on "In the Still of the Night" by the Five Satins.----more---- Resources As always, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. My principal source for this episode was this CD, whose liner notes provided the framework to which I added all the other information from a myriad other books and websites, including but not limited to Jackie Wilson Lovers, Marv Goldberg's website, and Etta James' autobiography. But as I discuss in this episode this is one of those where I've pulled together information from so many sources, a full list would probably be longer than the episode itself. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   Before we begin, a quick content warning. This episode contains material dealing with the immediate aftermath of a death in a car crash. While I am not explicit, this might be upsetting for some. Jesse Belvin is a name that not many people recognise these days -- he's a footnote in the biographies of people like Sam Cooke or the Penguins, someone whose contribution to music history is usually summed up in a line or two in a book about someone else. The problem is that Jesse Belvin was simply too good, and too prolific, to have a normal career. He put out a truly astonishing number of records as a songwriter, performer, and group leader, under so many different names that it's impossible to figure out the true extent of his career. And people like that don't end up having scholarly books written about them. And when you do find something that actually talks about Belvin himself, you find wild inaccuracies. For example, in researching this episode, I found over and over again that people claimed that Barry White played piano on the song we're looking at today, "Goodnight My Love". Now, White lived in the same neigbourhood as Belvin, and they attended the same school, so on the face of it that seems plausible. It seems plausible, at least, until you realise that Barry White was eleven when "Goodnight My Love" came out. Even so, on the offchance, I tracked down an interview with White where he confirmed that no, he was not playing piano on doo-wop classics before he hit puberty. But that kind of misinformation is all over everything to do with Jesse Belvin. The end result of this is that Jesse Belvin is someone who exists in the gaps of other people's histories, and this episode is an attempt to create a picture out of what you find when looking at the stories of other musicians. As a result, it will almost certainly be less accurate than some other episodes. There's so little information about Belvin that if you didn't know anything about him, you'd assume he was some unimportant, minor, figure. But in 1950s R&B -- among musicians, especially those on the West Coast -- there was no bigger name than Jesse Belvin. He had the potential to be bigger than anyone, and he would have been, had he lived. He was Stevie Wonder's favourite singer of all time, and Etta James argued to her dying day that it was a travesty that she was in the rock and roll hall of fame while he wasn't. Sam Cooke explicitly tried to model his career after Belvin, to the extent that after Cooke's death, his widow kept all of Cooke's records separate from her other albums -- except Belvin's, which she kept with Cooke's. Marv Goldberg, who is by far the pre-eminent expert on forties and fifties black vocal group music, refers to Belvin as the genre's "most revered stylist". And at the time he died, he was on the verge of finally becoming as well known as he deserved to be. So let's talk about the life -- and the tragic death -- of Mr Easy himself: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, "Goodnight My Love"] Like so many greats of R&B and jazz, Belvin had attended Jefferson High School and studied music under the great teacher Samuel Browne, who is one of the great unsung heroes of rock and roll music. One of the other people that Browne had taught was the great rhythm and blues saxophone player Big Jay McNeely. McNeely was one of the all-time great saxophone honkers, inspired mostly by Illinois Jacquet, and he had become the lead tenor saxophone player with Johnny Otis' band at the Barrelhouse Club, and played on records like Otis' "Barrel House Stomp": [Excerpt: Johnny Otis, "Barrel House Stomp"] As with many of the musicians Otis worked with, McNeely soon went on to a solo career of his own, and he formed a vocal group, "Three Dots and a Dash". Three Dots and a Dash backed McNeely's saxophone on a number of records, and McNeely invited Belvin to join them as lead singer. Belvin's first recording with the group was on "All That Wine is Gone", an answer record to "Drinking Wine Spo-De-O-Dee". [Excerpt: Big Jay McNeely with Three Dots and a Dash, "All That Wine is Gone"] After recording two singles with McNeely, Belvin went off to make his own records, signing to Specialty Records. His first solo single, "Baby Don't Go", was not especially successful, so he teamed up with the songwriter Marvin Phillips in a duo called Jesse and Marvin. The two of them had a hit with the song "Dream Girl": [Excerpt: Jesse and Marvin, "Dream Girl"] "Dream Girl" went to number two on the R&B charts, and it looked like Jesse and Marvin were about to have a massive career. But shortly afterwards, Belvin was drafted. It was while he was in the armed forces that “Earth Angel” became a hit -- a song he co-wrote, and which we discussed in a previous episode, which I'll link in the show notes. Like many of the songs Belvin wrote, he ended up not getting credit for that one -- but unlike most of the others, he went to court over it and got some royalties in the end. Marvin decided to continue the duo without Jesse, renaming it "Marvin and Johnny", and moved over to Modern Records, but he didn't stick with a single "Johnny". Instead "Johnny" would be whoever was around, sometimes Marvin himself double-tracked. He had several minor hit singles as "Marvin and Johnny", including "Cherry Pie", on which the role of "Johnny" was played by Emory Perry: [Excerpt: Marvin and Johnny, "Cherry Pie"] "Cherry Pie" was a massive hit, but none of Marvin and Johnny's other records matched its success. However, on some of the follow-ups, Jesse Belvin returned as one of the Johnnies, notably on a cover version of "Ko Ko Mo", which didn't manage to outsell either the original or Perry Como's version: [Excerpt: Marvin and Johnny, "Ko Ko Mo"] Meanwhile, his time in the armed forces had set Belvin's career back, and when he came out he started recording for every label, and under every band name, he could. Most of the time, he would also be writing the songs, but he didn't get label credit on most of them, because he would just sell all his rights to the songs for a hundred dollars. Why not? There was always another song. As well as recording as Marvin and Johnny for Modern Records, he also sang with the Californians on Federal: [Excerpt: The Californians, "My Angel"] The Sheiks, also on Federal : [Excerpt: The Sheiks, "So Fine"] The Gassers, on Cash: [Excerpt: The Gassers, "Hum De Dum"] As well as recording under his own name on both Specialty and on John Dolphin's Hollywood Records. But his big project at the time was the Cliques, a duo he formed with Eugene Church, who recorded for Modern. Their track, "The Girl in My Dreams" was the closest thing he'd had to a big success since the similarly-named "Dream Girl" several years earlier: [Excerpt: The Cliques, "The Girl in my Dreams"] That went to number forty-five on the pop chart -- not a massive hit, but a clear commercial success. And so, of course, at this point Belvin ditched the Cliques name, rather than follow up on the minor hit, and started making records as a solo artist instead. He signed to Modern Records as a solo artist, and went into the studio to record a new song. Now, I am going to be careful how I phrase this, because John Marascalco, who is credited as the co-writer of "Goodnight My Love", is still alive. And I want to stress that Marascalco is, by all accounts, an actual songwriter who has written songs for people like Little Richard and Harry Nilsson. But there have also been accusations that at least some of his songwriting credits were not deserved -- in particular the song "Bertha Lou" by Johnny Faire: [Excerpt: Johnny Faire, "Bertha Lou"] Johnny Faire, whose real name was Donnie Brooks, recorded that with the Burnette brothers, and always said that the song was written, not by Marascalco, but by Johnny Burnette, who sold his rights to the song to Marascalco for fifty dollars -- Burnette's son Rocky backs up the claim. Now, in the case of "Goodnight My Love", the credited writers are George Motola and Marascalco, but the story as it's normally told goes as follows -- Motola had written the bulk of the song several years earlier, but had never completed it. He brought it into the studio, and Jesse Belvin came up with the bridge -- but he said that rather than take credit, he just wanted Motola to give him four hundred dollars. Motola didn't have four hundred dollars on him, but Marascalco, who was also at the session and is the credited producer, said he could get it for Belvin, and took the credit himself. That's the story, and it would fit with both the rumour that Marascalco had bought an entire song from Johnny Burnette and with Belvin's cavalier attitude towards credit. On the other hand, Marascalco was also apparently particularly good at rewriting and finishing other people's half-finished songs, and so it's entirely plausible that he could have done the finishing-up job himself. Either way, the finished song became one of the most well-known songs of the fifties: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, "Goodnight My Love"] Belvin's version of the song went to number seven in the R&B charts, but its impact went beyond its immediate chart success. Alan Freed started to use the song as the outro music for his radio show, making it familiar to an entire generation of American music lovers. The result was that the song became a standard, recorded by everyone from James Brown to Gloria Estefan, the Four Seasons to Harry Connick Jr. If John Marascalco *did* buy Jesse Belvin's share of the songwriting, that was about the best four hundred dollars he could possibly have spent. Over the next year, Belvin recorded a host of other singles as a solo artist, none of which matched the level of success he'd seen with "Goodnight My Love”, but which are the artistic foundation on which his reputation now rests. The stylistic range of these records is quite astonishing, from Latin pop like "Senorita", to doo-wop novelty songs like "My Satellite", a song whose melody owes something to "Hound Dog", credited to Jesse Belvin and the Space Riders, and released to cash in on the space craze that had started with the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin and the Space Riders, "My Satellite"] That featured Alex Hodge of the Platters on backing vocals. Hodge's brother Gaynel Hodge, who like Belvin would form groups at the drop of a hat, joined Jesse in yet another of the many groups he formed. The Saxons consisted of Belvin, Gaynel Hodge, Eugene Church (who had been in the Cliques with Belvin) and another former Jefferson High student, Belvin's friend Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Watson would later become well known for his seventies "gangster of love" persona and funk records, but at this point he was mostly making hard electric blues records like "Three Hours Past Midnight": [Excerpt: "Three Hours Past Midnight", Johnny "Guitar" Watson] But when he worked with Belvin in the Saxons and other groups, he recorded much more straightforward doo-wop and rock and roll, like this example, "Is It True": [Excerpt: The Saxons, "Is It True"] The Saxons also recorded as the Capris (though with Alex Hodge rather than Gaynel in that lineup of the group) and, just to annoy everyone who cares about this stuff and drive us all into nervous breakdowns, there was another group, also called the Saxons, who also recorded as the Capris, on the same label -- at least one single actually came out with one of the groups on one side and the other on the other. Indeed, the side featuring our Saxons had previously been released as a Jesse Belvin solo record. Anyway, I hope in this first half of the story I've given some idea of just how many different groups Jesse Belvin recorded with, and under how many different names, though I haven't listed even half of them. This is someone who seemed to form a new group every time he crossed the street, and make records with most of them, and a surprising number of them had become hits -- and "Goodnight My Love" and "Earth Angel" had become the kind of monster perennial standard that most musicians dream of ever writing. And, of course, Belvin had become the kind of musician that most record companies and publishers dream of finding -- the kind who will happily make hit records and sell the rights for a handful of dollars. That was soon to change. Belvin was married; I haven't been able to find out exactly when he married, but his wife also became his songwriting partner and his manager, and in 1958 she seemed to finally take control of his career for him. But before she did, there was one last pickup group hit to make. Frankie Ervin had been Charles Brown's replacement in Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, and had also sung briefly with Johnny Otis and Preston Love. While with Brown's group, he'd developed a reputation for being able to perform novelty cash-in records -- he'd made "Dragnet Blues", which had resulted in a lawsuit from the makers of the TV show Dragnet, and he'd also done his Johnny Ace impression on "Johnny Ace's Last Letter", a single that had been rush-released by the Blazers after Johnny Ace's death: [Excerpt: Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, "Johnny Ace's Last Letter"] Ervin was looking for a solo career after leaving the Blazers, and he was put in touch with George Motola, who had a suggestion for him. A white group from Texas called The Slades had recorded a track called "You Cheated", which looked like it could possibly be a big hit -- except that the label it was on wasn't willing to come to terms with some of the big distributors over how much they were charging per record: [The Slades, "You Cheated"] Motola wanted to record a soundalike version of the song with Jesse Belvin as the lead singer, but Belvin had just signed a record contract with RCA, and didn't want to put out lead vocals on another label. Would Ervin like to put out the song as a solo record? Ervin hated the song -- he didn't like doo-wop generally, and he thought the song was a particularly bad example of the genre -- but a gig was a gig, and it'd be a solo record under his own name. Ervin agreed to do it, and Motola got Jesse Belvin to put together a scratch vocal group for the session. Belvin found Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Tommy "Buster" Williams at a local ballroom and got them to come along, and on the way to the session they ran into "Handsome" Mel Williams and pulled him in. They were just going to be the uncredited backing vocalists on a Frankie Ervin record, and didn't spend much time thinking about what was clearly a soundalike cash-in. But when it came out it was credited as "The Shields" rather than Frankie Ervin: [Excerpt: The Shields, "You Cheated"] That's Belvin singing that wonderful falsetto part. Frankie Ervin was naturally annoyed that he wasn't given the label credit for the record. The recording was made as an independent production but leased to Dot Records, and somewhere along the line someone decided that it was better to have a generic group name rather than promote it as by a solo singer who might get ideas about wanting money. In a nice bit of irony, the Shields managed to reverse the normal course of the music industry -- this time a soundalike record by a black group managed to outsell the original by a white group. "You Cheated" ended up making number twelve on the pop charts -- a massive hit for an unknown doo-wop group at the time. Ervin started touring and making TV appearances as the Shields, backed by some random singers the record label had pulled together -- the rest of the vocalists on the record had been people who were under contract to other labels, and so couldn't make TV appearances. But the original Shields members reunited for the followup single, "Nature Boy", where they were joined by the members of the Turks, who were yet another group that Belvin was recording with, and who included both Hodge brothers: [Excerpt: "Nature Boy", the Shields] That, according to Ervin, also sold a million copies, but it was nothing like as successful as "You Cheated". The record label were getting sick of Ervin wanting credit and royalties and other things they didn't like singers, especially black ones, asking for. So the third Shields record only featured Belvin out of the original lineup, and subsequent recordings didn't even feature him. But while Belvin had accidentally put together yet another million-selling group, he had also moved on to bigger things. His wife had now firmly taken control of his career, and they had a plan. Belvin had signed to a major label -- RCA, the same label that Elvis Presley was on -- and he was going to make a play for the big time. He could still keep making doo-wop records with Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Eugene Church and the Hodge brothers and whoever else, if he felt like it, but his solo career was going to be something else. He was going to go for the same market as Nat "King" Cole, and become a smooth ballad singer. He was going to be a huge star, and he actually got to record an album, Just Jesse Belvin. The first single off that album was "Guess Who?", a song written by his wife Jo Anne, based on a love letter she had written to him: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, "Guess Who?"] That song made the top forty -- hitting number thirty-three on the pop chart and managed to reach number seven on the R&B charts. More importantly, it gained Grammy nominations for both best R&B performance and best male vocal performance. He lost to Dinah Washington and Frank Sinatra, and it's not as if losing to Dinah Washington or Frank Sinatra would have been an embarrassment. But by the time he lost those Grammies, Jesse was already dead, and so was Jo Anne. And here we get into the murkiest part of the story. There are a lot of rumours floating around about Jesse Belvin's death, and a lot of misinformation is out there, and frankly I've not been able to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. When someone you love dies young, especially if that someone is a public figure, there's a tendency to look for complex explanations, and there's also a tendency to exaggerate stories in the telling. That's just human nature. And in some cases, that tendency is exploited by people out to make money. And Jesse and Jo Anne Belvin were both black people who died in the deep South, and so no real investigation was ever carried out. That means that by now, with almost everyone who was involved dead, it's impossible to tell what really happened. Almost every single sentence of what follows may be false. It's my best guess as to the order of events and what happened, based on the limited information out there. On February the sixth, 1960, there was a concert in Little Rock Arkansas, at the Robinson Auditorium. Billed as "the first rock and roll show of 1960", the headliner was Jackie Wilson, a friend of Belvin's. Jesse had just recorded his second album, "Mr Easy", which would be coming out soon, and while he was still relatively low on the bill, he was a rising star. That album was the one that was going to consolidate Belvin's turn towards pop balladry in the Nat "King" Cole style, but it would end up being a posthumous release: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin with the Marty Paich Orchestra, "Blues in the Night"] It was an all-black lineup on stage, but according to some reports it was an integrated audience. In fact some reports go so far as to say it was the first integrated audience ever in Little Rock. Little Rock was not a place where the white people were fans of integration -- in fact they were so against it that the National Guard had had to be called in only two years earlier to protect black children when the first school in Little Rock had been integrated. And so apparently there was some racial abuse shouted by members of the audience. But it was nothing that the musicians hadn't dealt with before. After the show they all drove on towards Dallas. Jackie Wilson had some car problems on the way, and got to their stop in Dallas later than he was expecting to. The Belvins hadn't arrived yet, and so Wilson called Jesse's mother in LA, asking if she'd heard from them. She hadn't. Shortly after setting off, the car with Jesse and Jo Anne in had been in a crash. Jesse and the drivers of both cars had been killed instantly. Kirk Davis, Belvin's guitarist on that tour, who had apparently been asleep in the back seat, was seriously injured but eventually came out of his coma. And Jesse had apparently reacted fast enough to shield his wife from the worst of the accident. But she was still unconscious, and seriously injured. The survivors were rushed to the hospital, where, according to Etta James, who heard the story from Jackie Wilson, they refused to treat Jo Anne Belvin until they knew that they would get money. She remained untreated until someone got in touch with Wilson, who drove down from Dallas Texas to Hope, Arkansas, where the hospital was, with the cash. But she died of her injuries a few days later. Now, here's the thing -- within a fortnight of the accident, there were rumours circulating widely enough to have been picked up by the newspapers that Belvin's car had had its tyres slashed. There were also stories, never confirmed, that Belvin had received death threats before the show. And Jackie Wilson had also had car trouble that night -- and according to some sources so had at least one other musician on the bill. So it's possible that the car was sabotaged. On the other hand, Belvin's driver, Charles Shackleford, had got the job with Belvin after being fired by Ray Charles. He was fired, according to Charles, because he kept staying awake watching the late-night shows, not getting enough sleep, and driving dangerously enough to scare Ray Charles -- who was fearless enough that he used to ride motorbikes despite being totally blind. So when Jesse and Jo Anne Belvin died, they could have been the victims of a racist murder, or they could just have been horribly unlucky. But we'll never know for sure, because the institutional racism at the time meant that there was no investigation. When they died, they left behind two children under the age of five, who were brought up by Jesse's mother. The oldest, Jesse Belvin Jr, became a singer himself, often performing material written or made famous by his father: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin Jr, "Goodnight My Love"] Jesse Jr. devoted his life to finding out what actually happened to his parents, but never found any answers.

Welcome to episode forty-seven of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. This one looks at “Goodnight My Love” by Jesse Belvin, and at the many groups he performed with, and his untimely death. . Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.  Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus podcast, on “In the Still of the Night” by the Five Satins.—-more—- Resources As always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. My principal source for this episode was this CD, whose liner notes provided the framework to which I added all the other information from a myriad other books and websites, including but not limited to Jackie Wilson Lovers, Marv Goldberg’s website, and Etta James’ autobiography. But as I discuss in this episode this is one of those where I’ve pulled together information from so many sources, a full list would probably be longer than the episode itself. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   Before we begin, a quick content warning. This episode contains material dealing with the immediate aftermath of a death in a car crash. While I am not explicit, this might be upsetting for some. Jesse Belvin is a name that not many people recognise these days — he’s a footnote in the biographies of people like Sam Cooke or the Penguins, someone whose contribution to music history is usually summed up in a line or two in a book about someone else. The problem is that Jesse Belvin was simply too good, and too prolific, to have a normal career. He put out a truly astonishing number of records as a songwriter, performer, and group leader, under so many different names that it’s impossible to figure out the true extent of his career. And people like that don’t end up having scholarly books written about them. And when you do find something that actually talks about Belvin himself, you find wild inaccuracies. For example, in researching this episode, I found over and over again that people claimed that Barry White played piano on the song we’re looking at today, “Goodnight My Love”. Now, White lived in the same neigbourhood as Belvin, and they attended the same school, so on the face of it that seems plausible. It seems plausible, at least, until you realise that Barry White was eleven when “Goodnight My Love” came out. Even so, on the offchance, I tracked down an interview with White where he confirmed that no, he was not playing piano on doo-wop classics before he hit puberty. But that kind of misinformation is all over everything to do with Jesse Belvin. The end result of this is that Jesse Belvin is someone who exists in the gaps of other people’s histories, and this episode is an attempt to create a picture out of what you find when looking at the stories of other musicians. As a result, it will almost certainly be less accurate than some other episodes. There’s so little information about Belvin that if you didn’t know anything about him, you’d assume he was some unimportant, minor, figure. But in 1950s R&B — among musicians, especially those on the West Coast — there was no bigger name than Jesse Belvin. He had the potential to be bigger than anyone, and he would have been, had he lived. He was Stevie Wonder’s favourite singer of all time, and Etta James argued to her dying day that it was a travesty that she was in the rock and roll hall of fame while he wasn’t. Sam Cooke explicitly tried to model his career after Belvin, to the extent that after Cooke’s death, his widow kept all of Cooke’s records separate from her other albums — except Belvin’s, which she kept with Cooke’s. Marv Goldberg, who is by far the pre-eminent expert on forties and fifties black vocal group music, refers to Belvin as the genre’s “most revered stylist”. And at the time he died, he was on the verge of finally becoming as well known as he deserved to be. So let’s talk about the life — and the tragic death — of Mr Easy himself: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, “Goodnight My Love”] Like so many greats of R&B and jazz, Belvin had attended Jefferson High School and studied music under the great teacher Samuel Browne, who is one of the great unsung heroes of rock and roll music. One of the other people that Browne had taught was the great rhythm and blues saxophone player Big Jay McNeely. McNeely was one of the all-time great saxophone honkers, inspired mostly by Illinois Jacquet, and he had become the lead tenor saxophone player with Johnny Otis’ band at the Barrelhouse Club, and played on records like Otis’ “Barrel House Stomp”: [Excerpt: Johnny Otis, “Barrel House Stomp”] As with many of the musicians Otis worked with, McNeely soon went on to a solo career of his own, and he formed a vocal group, “Three Dots and a Dash”. Three Dots and a Dash backed McNeely’s saxophone on a number of records, and McNeely invited Belvin to join them as lead singer. Belvin’s first recording with the group was on “All That Wine is Gone”, an answer record to “Drinking Wine Spo-De-O-Dee”. [Excerpt: Big Jay McNeely with Three Dots and a Dash, “All That Wine is Gone”] After recording two singles with McNeely, Belvin went off to make his own records, signing to Specialty Records. His first solo single, “Baby Don’t Go”, was not especially successful, so he teamed up with the songwriter Marvin Phillips in a duo called Jesse and Marvin. The two of them had a hit with the song “Dream Girl”: [Excerpt: Jesse and Marvin, “Dream Girl”] “Dream Girl” went to number two on the R&B charts, and it looked like Jesse and Marvin were about to have a massive career. But shortly afterwards, Belvin was drafted. It was while he was in the armed forces that “Earth Angel” became a hit — a song he co-wrote, and which we discussed in a previous episode, which I’ll link in the show notes. Like many of the songs Belvin wrote, he ended up not getting credit for that one — but unlike most of the others, he went to court over it and got some royalties in the end. Marvin decided to continue the duo without Jesse, renaming it “Marvin and Johnny”, and moved over to Modern Records, but he didn’t stick with a single “Johnny”. Instead “Johnny” would be whoever was around, sometimes Marvin himself double-tracked. He had several minor hit singles as “Marvin and Johnny”, including “Cherry Pie”, on which the role of “Johnny” was played by Emory Perry: [Excerpt: Marvin and Johnny, “Cherry Pie”] “Cherry Pie” was a massive hit, but none of Marvin and Johnny’s other records matched its success. However, on some of the follow-ups, Jesse Belvin returned as one of the Johnnies, notably on a cover version of “Ko Ko Mo”, which didn’t manage to outsell either the original or Perry Como’s version: [Excerpt: Marvin and Johnny, “Ko Ko Mo”] Meanwhile, his time in the armed forces had set Belvin’s career back, and when he came out he started recording for every label, and under every band name, he could. Most of the time, he would also be writing the songs, but he didn’t get label credit on most of them, because he would just sell all his rights to the songs for a hundred dollars. Why not? There was always another song. As well as recording as Marvin and Johnny for Modern Records, he also sang with the Californians on Federal: [Excerpt: The Californians, “My Angel”] The Sheiks, also on Federal : [Excerpt: The Sheiks, “So Fine”] The Gassers, on Cash: [Excerpt: The Gassers, “Hum De Dum”] As well as recording under his own name on both Specialty and on John Dolphin’s Hollywood Records. But his big project at the time was the Cliques, a duo he formed with Eugene Church, who recorded for Modern. Their track, “The Girl in My Dreams” was the closest thing he’d had to a big success since the similarly-named “Dream Girl” several years earlier: [Excerpt: The Cliques, “The Girl in my Dreams”] That went to number forty-five on the pop chart — not a massive hit, but a clear commercial success. And so, of course, at this point Belvin ditched the Cliques name, rather than follow up on the minor hit, and started making records as a solo artist instead. He signed to Modern Records as a solo artist, and went into the studio to record a new song. Now, I am going to be careful how I phrase this, because John Marascalco, who is credited as the co-writer of “Goodnight My Love”, is still alive. And I want to stress that Marascalco is, by all accounts, an actual songwriter who has written songs for people like Little Richard and Harry Nilsson. But there have also been accusations that at least some of his songwriting credits were not deserved — in particular the song “Bertha Lou” by Johnny Faire: [Excerpt: Johnny Faire, “Bertha Lou”] Johnny Faire, whose real name was Donnie Brooks, recorded that with the Burnette brothers, and always said that the song was written, not by Marascalco, but by Johnny Burnette, who sold his rights to the song to Marascalco for fifty dollars — Burnette’s son Rocky backs up the claim. Now, in the case of “Goodnight My Love”, the credited writers are George Motola and Marascalco, but the story as it’s normally told goes as follows — Motola had written the bulk of the song several years earlier, but had never completed it. He brought it into the studio, and Jesse Belvin came up with the bridge — but he said that rather than take credit, he just wanted Motola to give him four hundred dollars. Motola didn’t have four hundred dollars on him, but Marascalco, who was also at the session and is the credited producer, said he could get it for Belvin, and took the credit himself. That’s the story, and it would fit with both the rumour that Marascalco had bought an entire song from Johnny Burnette and with Belvin’s cavalier attitude towards credit. On the other hand, Marascalco was also apparently particularly good at rewriting and finishing other people’s half-finished songs, and so it’s entirely plausible that he could have done the finishing-up job himself. Either way, the finished song became one of the most well-known songs of the fifties: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, “Goodnight My Love”] Belvin’s version of the song went to number seven in the R&B charts, but its impact went beyond its immediate chart success. Alan Freed started to use the song as the outro music for his radio show, making it familiar to an entire generation of American music lovers. The result was that the song became a standard, recorded by everyone from James Brown to Gloria Estefan, the Four Seasons to Harry Connick Jr. If John Marascalco *did* buy Jesse Belvin’s share of the songwriting, that was about the best four hundred dollars he could possibly have spent. Over the next year, Belvin recorded a host of other singles as a solo artist, none of which matched the level of success he’d seen with “Goodnight My Love”, but which are the artistic foundation on which his reputation now rests. The stylistic range of these records is quite astonishing, from Latin pop like “Senorita”, to doo-wop novelty songs like “My Satellite”, a song whose melody owes something to “Hound Dog”, credited to Jesse Belvin and the Space Riders, and released to cash in on the space craze that had started with the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin and the Space Riders, “My Satellite”] That featured Alex Hodge of the Platters on backing vocals. Hodge’s brother Gaynel Hodge, who like Belvin would form groups at the drop of a hat, joined Jesse in yet another of the many groups he formed. The Saxons consisted of Belvin, Gaynel Hodge, Eugene Church (who had been in the Cliques with Belvin) and another former Jefferson High student, Belvin’s friend Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Watson would later become well known for his seventies “gangster of love” persona and funk records, but at this point he was mostly making hard electric blues records like “Three Hours Past Midnight”: [Excerpt: “Three Hours Past Midnight”, Johnny “Guitar” Watson] But when he worked with Belvin in the Saxons and other groups, he recorded much more straightforward doo-wop and rock and roll, like this example, “Is It True”: [Excerpt: The Saxons, “Is It True”] The Saxons also recorded as the Capris (though with Alex Hodge rather than Gaynel in that lineup of the group) and, just to annoy everyone who cares about this stuff and drive us all into nervous breakdowns, there was another group, also called the Saxons, who also recorded as the Capris, on the same label — at least one single actually came out with one of the groups on one side and the other on the other. Indeed, the side featuring our Saxons had previously been released as a Jesse Belvin solo record. Anyway, I hope in this first half of the story I’ve given some idea of just how many different groups Jesse Belvin recorded with, and under how many different names, though I haven’t listed even half of them. This is someone who seemed to form a new group every time he crossed the street, and make records with most of them, and a surprising number of them had become hits — and “Goodnight My Love” and “Earth Angel” had become the kind of monster perennial standard that most musicians dream of ever writing. And, of course, Belvin had become the kind of musician that most record companies and publishers dream of finding — the kind who will happily make hit records and sell the rights for a handful of dollars. That was soon to change. Belvin was married; I haven’t been able to find out exactly when he married, but his wife also became his songwriting partner and his manager, and in 1958 she seemed to finally take control of his career for him. But before she did, there was one last pickup group hit to make. Frankie Ervin had been Charles Brown’s replacement in Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, and had also sung briefly with Johnny Otis and Preston Love. While with Brown’s group, he’d developed a reputation for being able to perform novelty cash-in records — he’d made “Dragnet Blues”, which had resulted in a lawsuit from the makers of the TV show Dragnet, and he’d also done his Johnny Ace impression on “Johnny Ace’s Last Letter”, a single that had been rush-released by the Blazers after Johnny Ace’s death: [Excerpt: Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, “Johnny Ace’s Last Letter”] Ervin was looking for a solo career after leaving the Blazers, and he was put in touch with George Motola, who had a suggestion for him. A white group from Texas called The Slades had recorded a track called “You Cheated”, which looked like it could possibly be a big hit — except that the label it was on wasn’t willing to come to terms with some of the big distributors over how much they were charging per record: [The Slades, “You Cheated”] Motola wanted to record a soundalike version of the song with Jesse Belvin as the lead singer, but Belvin had just signed a record contract with RCA, and didn’t want to put out lead vocals on another label. Would Ervin like to put out the song as a solo record? Ervin hated the song — he didn’t like doo-wop generally, and he thought the song was a particularly bad example of the genre — but a gig was a gig, and it’d be a solo record under his own name. Ervin agreed to do it, and Motola got Jesse Belvin to put together a scratch vocal group for the session. Belvin found Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Tommy “Buster” Williams at a local ballroom and got them to come along, and on the way to the session they ran into “Handsome” Mel Williams and pulled him in. They were just going to be the uncredited backing vocalists on a Frankie Ervin record, and didn’t spend much time thinking about what was clearly a soundalike cash-in. But when it came out it was credited as “The Shields” rather than Frankie Ervin: [Excerpt: The Shields, “You Cheated”] That’s Belvin singing that wonderful falsetto part. Frankie Ervin was naturally annoyed that he wasn’t given the label credit for the record. The recording was made as an independent production but leased to Dot Records, and somewhere along the line someone decided that it was better to have a generic group name rather than promote it as by a solo singer who might get ideas about wanting money. In a nice bit of irony, the Shields managed to reverse the normal course of the music industry — this time a soundalike record by a black group managed to outsell the original by a white group. “You Cheated” ended up making number twelve on the pop charts — a massive hit for an unknown doo-wop group at the time. Ervin started touring and making TV appearances as the Shields, backed by some random singers the record label had pulled together — the rest of the vocalists on the record had been people who were under contract to other labels, and so couldn’t make TV appearances. But the original Shields members reunited for the followup single, “Nature Boy”, where they were joined by the members of the Turks, who were yet another group that Belvin was recording with, and who included both Hodge brothers: [Excerpt: “Nature Boy”, the Shields] That, according to Ervin, also sold a million copies, but it was nothing like as successful as “You Cheated”. The record label were getting sick of Ervin wanting credit and royalties and other things they didn’t like singers, especially black ones, asking for. So the third Shields record only featured Belvin out of the original lineup, and subsequent recordings didn’t even feature him. But while Belvin had accidentally put together yet another million-selling group, he had also moved on to bigger things. His wife had now firmly taken control of his career, and they had a plan. Belvin had signed to a major label — RCA, the same label that Elvis Presley was on — and he was going to make a play for the big time. He could still keep making doo-wop records with Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Eugene Church and the Hodge brothers and whoever else, if he felt like it, but his solo career was going to be something else. He was going to go for the same market as Nat “King” Cole, and become a smooth ballad singer. He was going to be a huge star, and he actually got to record an album, Just Jesse Belvin. The first single off that album was “Guess Who?”, a song written by his wife Jo Anne, based on a love letter she had written to him: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, “Guess Who?”] That song made the top forty — hitting number thirty-three on the pop chart and managed to reach number seven on the R&B charts. More importantly, it gained Grammy nominations for both best R&B performance and best male vocal performance. He lost to Dinah Washington and Frank Sinatra, and it’s not as if losing to Dinah Washington or Frank Sinatra would have been an embarrassment. But by the time he lost those Grammies, Jesse was already dead, and so was Jo Anne. And here we get into the murkiest part of the story. There are a lot of rumours floating around about Jesse Belvin’s death, and a lot of misinformation is out there, and frankly I’ve not been able to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. When someone you love dies young, especially if that someone is a public figure, there’s a tendency to look for complex explanations, and there’s also a tendency to exaggerate stories in the telling. That’s just human nature. And in some cases, that tendency is exploited by people out to make money. And Jesse and Jo Anne Belvin were both black people who died in the deep South, and so no real investigation was ever carried out. That means that by now, with almost everyone who was involved dead, it’s impossible to tell what really happened. Almost every single sentence of what follows may be false. It’s my best guess as to the order of events and what happened, based on the limited information out there. On February the sixth, 1960, there was a concert in Little Rock Arkansas, at the Robinson Auditorium. Billed as “the first rock and roll show of 1960”, the headliner was Jackie Wilson, a friend of Belvin’s. Jesse had just recorded his second album, “Mr Easy”, which would be coming out soon, and while he was still relatively low on the bill, he was a rising star. That album was the one that was going to consolidate Belvin’s turn towards pop balladry in the Nat “King” Cole style, but it would end up being a posthumous release: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin with the Marty Paich Orchestra, “Blues in the Night”] It was an all-black lineup on stage, but according to some reports it was an integrated audience. In fact some reports go so far as to say it was the first integrated audience ever in Little Rock. Little Rock was not a place where the white people were fans of integration — in fact they were so against it that the National Guard had had to be called in only two years earlier to protect black children when the first school in Little Rock had been integrated. And so apparently there was some racial abuse shouted by members of the audience. But it was nothing that the musicians hadn’t dealt with before. After the show they all drove on towards Dallas. Jackie Wilson had some car problems on the way, and got to their stop in Dallas later than he was expecting to. The Belvins hadn’t arrived yet, and so Wilson called Jesse’s mother in LA, asking if she’d heard from them. She hadn’t. Shortly after setting off, the car with Jesse and Jo Anne in had been in a crash. Jesse and the drivers of both cars had been killed instantly. Kirk Davis, Belvin’s guitarist on that tour, who had apparently been asleep in the back seat, was seriously injured but eventually came out of his coma. And Jesse had apparently reacted fast enough to shield his wife from the worst of the accident. But she was still unconscious, and seriously injured. The survivors were rushed to the hospital, where, according to Etta James, who heard the story from Jackie Wilson, they refused to treat Jo Anne Belvin until they knew that they would get money. She remained untreated until someone got in touch with Wilson, who drove down from Dallas Texas to Hope, Arkansas, where the hospital was, with the cash. But she died of her injuries a few days later. Now, here’s the thing — within a fortnight of the accident, there were rumours circulating widely enough to have been picked up by the newspapers that Belvin’s car had had its tyres slashed. There were also stories, never confirmed, that Belvin had received death threats before the show. And Jackie Wilson had also had car trouble that night — and according to some sources so had at least one other musician on the bill. So it’s possible that the car was sabotaged. On the other hand, Belvin’s driver, Charles Shackleford, had got the job with Belvin after being fired by Ray Charles. He was fired, according to Charles, because he kept staying awake watching the late-night shows, not getting enough sleep, and driving dangerously enough to scare Ray Charles — who was fearless enough that he used to ride motorbikes despite being totally blind. So when Jesse and Jo Anne Belvin died, they could have been the victims of a racist murder, or they could just have been horribly unlucky. But we’ll never know for sure, because the institutional racism at the time meant that there was no investigation. When they died, they left behind two children under the age of five, who were brought up by Jesse’s mother. The oldest, Jesse Belvin Jr, became a singer himself, often performing material written or made famous by his father: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin Jr, “Goodnight My Love”] Jesse Jr. devoted his life to finding out what actually happened to his parents, but never found any answers.

Welcome to episode forty-seven of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. This one looks at “Goodnight My Love” by Jesse Belvin, and at the many groups he performed with, and his untimely death. . Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.  Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus podcast, on “In the Still of the Night” by the Five Satins.—-more—- Resources As always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. My principal source for this episode was this CD, whose liner notes provided the framework to which I added all the other information from a myriad other books and websites, including but not limited to Jackie Wilson Lovers, Marv Goldberg’s website, and Etta James’ autobiography. But as I discuss in this episode this is one of those where I’ve pulled together information from so many sources, a full list would probably be longer than the episode itself. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   Before we begin, a quick content warning. This episode contains material dealing with the immediate aftermath of a death in a car crash. While I am not explicit, this might be upsetting for some. Jesse Belvin is a name that not many people recognise these days — he’s a footnote in the biographies of people like Sam Cooke or the Penguins, someone whose contribution to music history is usually summed up in a line or two in a book about someone else. The problem is that Jesse Belvin was simply too good, and too prolific, to have a normal career. He put out a truly astonishing number of records as a songwriter, performer, and group leader, under so many different names that it’s impossible to figure out the true extent of his career. And people like that don’t end up having scholarly books written about them. And when you do find something that actually talks about Belvin himself, you find wild inaccuracies. For example, in researching this episode, I found over and over again that people claimed that Barry White played piano on the song we’re looking at today, “Goodnight My Love”. Now, White lived in the same neigbourhood as Belvin, and they attended the same school, so on the face of it that seems plausible. It seems plausible, at least, until you realise that Barry White was eleven when “Goodnight My Love” came out. Even so, on the offchance, I tracked down an interview with White where he confirmed that no, he was not playing piano on doo-wop classics before he hit puberty. But that kind of misinformation is all over everything to do with Jesse Belvin. The end result of this is that Jesse Belvin is someone who exists in the gaps of other people’s histories, and this episode is an attempt to create a picture out of what you find when looking at the stories of other musicians. As a result, it will almost certainly be less accurate than some other episodes. There’s so little information about Belvin that if you didn’t know anything about him, you’d assume he was some unimportant, minor, figure. But in 1950s R&B — among musicians, especially those on the West Coast — there was no bigger name than Jesse Belvin. He had the potential to be bigger than anyone, and he would have been, had he lived. He was Stevie Wonder’s favourite singer of all time, and Etta James argued to her dying day that it was a travesty that she was in the rock and roll hall of fame while he wasn’t. Sam Cooke explicitly tried to model his career after Belvin, to the extent that after Cooke’s death, his widow kept all of Cooke’s records separate from her other albums — except Belvin’s, which she kept with Cooke’s. Marv Goldberg, who is by far the pre-eminent expert on forties and fifties black vocal group music, refers to Belvin as the genre’s “most revered stylist”. And at the time he died, he was on the verge of finally becoming as well known as he deserved to be. So let’s talk about the life — and the tragic death — of Mr Easy himself: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, “Goodnight My Love”] Like so many greats of R&B and jazz, Belvin had attended Jefferson High School and studied music under the great teacher Samuel Browne, who is one of the great unsung heroes of rock and roll music. One of the other people that Browne had taught was the great rhythm and blues saxophone player Big Jay McNeely. McNeely was one of the all-time great saxophone honkers, inspired mostly by Illinois Jacquet, and he had become the lead tenor saxophone player with Johnny Otis’ band at the Barrelhouse Club, and played on records like Otis’ “Barrel House Stomp”: [Excerpt: Johnny Otis, “Barrel House Stomp”] As with many of the musicians Otis worked with, McNeely soon went on to a solo career of his own, and he formed a vocal group, “Three Dots and a Dash”. Three Dots and a Dash backed McNeely’s saxophone on a number of records, and McNeely invited Belvin to join them as lead singer. Belvin’s first recording with the group was on “All That Wine is Gone”, an answer record to “Drinking Wine Spo-De-O-Dee”. [Excerpt: Big Jay McNeely with Three Dots and a Dash, “All That Wine is Gone”] After recording two singles with McNeely, Belvin went off to make his own records, signing to Specialty Records. His first solo single, “Baby Don’t Go”, was not especially successful, so he teamed up with the songwriter Marvin Phillips in a duo called Jesse and Marvin. The two of them had a hit with the song “Dream Girl”: [Excerpt: Jesse and Marvin, “Dream Girl”] “Dream Girl” went to number two on the R&B charts, and it looked like Jesse and Marvin were about to have a massive career. But shortly afterwards, Belvin was drafted. It was while he was in the armed forces that “Earth Angel” became a hit — a song he co-wrote, and which we discussed in a previous episode, which I’ll link in the show notes. Like many of the songs Belvin wrote, he ended up not getting credit for that one — but unlike most of the others, he went to court over it and got some royalties in the end. Marvin decided to continue the duo without Jesse, renaming it “Marvin and Johnny”, and moved over to Modern Records, but he didn’t stick with a single “Johnny”. Instead “Johnny” would be whoever was around, sometimes Marvin himself double-tracked. He had several minor hit singles as “Marvin and Johnny”, including “Cherry Pie”, on which the role of “Johnny” was played by Emory Perry: [Excerpt: Marvin and Johnny, “Cherry Pie”] “Cherry Pie” was a massive hit, but none of Marvin and Johnny’s other records matched its success. However, on some of the follow-ups, Jesse Belvin returned as one of the Johnnies, notably on a cover version of “Ko Ko Mo”, which didn’t manage to outsell either the original or Perry Como’s version: [Excerpt: Marvin and Johnny, “Ko Ko Mo”] Meanwhile, his time in the armed forces had set Belvin’s career back, and when he came out he started recording for every label, and under every band name, he could. Most of the time, he would also be writing the songs, but he didn’t get label credit on most of them, because he would just sell all his rights to the songs for a hundred dollars. Why not? There was always another song. As well as recording as Marvin and Johnny for Modern Records, he also sang with the Californians on Federal: [Excerpt: The Californians, “My Angel”] The Sheiks, also on Federal : [Excerpt: The Sheiks, “So Fine”] The Gassers, on Cash: [Excerpt: The Gassers, “Hum De Dum”] As well as recording under his own name on both Specialty and on John Dolphin’s Hollywood Records. But his big project at the time was the Cliques, a duo he formed with Eugene Church, who recorded for Modern. Their track, “The Girl in My Dreams” was the closest thing he’d had to a big success since the similarly-named “Dream Girl” several years earlier: [Excerpt: The Cliques, “The Girl in my Dreams”] That went to number forty-five on the pop chart — not a massive hit, but a clear commercial success. And so, of course, at this point Belvin ditched the Cliques name, rather than follow up on the minor hit, and started making records as a solo artist instead. He signed to Modern Records as a solo artist, and went into the studio to record a new song. Now, I am going to be careful how I phrase this, because John Marascalco, who is credited as the co-writer of “Goodnight My Love”, is still alive. And I want to stress that Marascalco is, by all accounts, an actual songwriter who has written songs for people like Little Richard and Harry Nilsson. But there have also been accusations that at least some of his songwriting credits were not deserved — in particular the song “Bertha Lou” by Johnny Faire: [Excerpt: Johnny Faire, “Bertha Lou”] Johnny Faire, whose real name was Donnie Brooks, recorded that with the Burnette brothers, and always said that the song was written, not by Marascalco, but by Johnny Burnette, who sold his rights to the song to Marascalco for fifty dollars — Burnette’s son Rocky backs up the claim. Now, in the case of “Goodnight My Love”, the credited writers are George Motola and Marascalco, but the story as it’s normally told goes as follows — Motola had written the bulk of the song several years earlier, but had never completed it. He brought it into the studio, and Jesse Belvin came up with the bridge — but he said that rather than take credit, he just wanted Motola to give him four hundred dollars. Motola didn’t have four hundred dollars on him, but Marascalco, who was also at the session and is the credited producer, said he could get it for Belvin, and took the credit himself. That’s the story, and it would fit with both the rumour that Marascalco had bought an entire song from Johnny Burnette and with Belvin’s cavalier attitude towards credit. On the other hand, Marascalco was also apparently particularly good at rewriting and finishing other people’s half-finished songs, and so it’s entirely plausible that he could have done the finishing-up job himself. Either way, the finished song became one of the most well-known songs of the fifties: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, “Goodnight My Love”] Belvin’s version of the song went to number seven in the R&B charts, but its impact went beyond its immediate chart success. Alan Freed started to use the song as the outro music for his radio show, making it familiar to an entire generation of American music lovers. The result was that the song became a standard, recorded by everyone from James Brown to Gloria Estefan, the Four Seasons to Harry Connick Jr. If John Marascalco *did* buy Jesse Belvin’s share of the songwriting, that was about the best four hundred dollars he could possibly have spent. Over the next year, Belvin recorded a host of other singles as a solo artist, none of which matched the level of success he’d seen with “Goodnight My Love”, but which are the artistic foundation on which his reputation now rests. The stylistic range of these records is quite astonishing, from Latin pop like “Senorita”, to doo-wop novelty songs like “My Satellite”, a song whose melody owes something to “Hound Dog”, credited to Jesse Belvin and the Space Riders, and released to cash in on the space craze that had started with the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin and the Space Riders, “My Satellite”] That featured Alex Hodge of the Platters on backing vocals. Hodge’s brother Gaynel Hodge, who like Belvin would form groups at the drop of a hat, joined Jesse in yet another of the many groups he formed. The Saxons consisted of Belvin, Gaynel Hodge, Eugene Church (who had been in the Cliques with Belvin) and another former Jefferson High student, Belvin’s friend Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Watson would later become well known for his seventies “gangster of love” persona and funk records, but at this point he was mostly making hard electric blues records like “Three Hours Past Midnight”: [Excerpt: “Three Hours Past Midnight”, Johnny “Guitar” Watson] But when he worked with Belvin in the Saxons and other groups, he recorded much more straightforward doo-wop and rock and roll, like this example, “Is It True”: [Excerpt: The Saxons, “Is It True”] The Saxons also recorded as the Capris (though with Alex Hodge rather than Gaynel in that lineup of the group) and, just to annoy everyone who cares about this stuff and drive us all into nervous breakdowns, there was another group, also called the Saxons, who also recorded as the Capris, on the same label — at least one single actually came out with one of the groups on one side and the other on the other. Indeed, the side featuring our Saxons had previously been released as a Jesse Belvin solo record. Anyway, I hope in this first half of the story I’ve given some idea of just how many different groups Jesse Belvin recorded with, and under how many different names, though I haven’t listed even half of them. This is someone who seemed to form a new group every time he crossed the street, and make records with most of them, and a surprising number of them had become hits — and “Goodnight My Love” and “Earth Angel” had become the kind of monster perennial standard that most musicians dream of ever writing. And, of course, Belvin had become the kind of musician that most record companies and publishers dream of finding — the kind who will happily make hit records and sell the rights for a handful of dollars. That was soon to change. Belvin was married; I haven’t been able to find out exactly when he married, but his wife also became his songwriting partner and his manager, and in 1958 she seemed to finally take control of his career for him. But before she did, there was one last pickup group hit to make. Frankie Ervin had been Charles Brown’s replacement in Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, and had also sung briefly with Johnny Otis and Preston Love. While with Brown’s group, he’d developed a reputation for being able to perform novelty cash-in records — he’d made “Dragnet Blues”, which had resulted in a lawsuit from the makers of the TV show Dragnet, and he’d also done his Johnny Ace impression on “Johnny Ace’s Last Letter”, a single that had been rush-released by the Blazers after Johnny Ace’s death: [Excerpt: Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, “Johnny Ace’s Last Letter”] Ervin was looking for a solo career after leaving the Blazers, and he was put in touch with George Motola, who had a suggestion for him. A white group from Texas called The Slades had recorded a track called “You Cheated”, which looked like it could possibly be a big hit — except that the label it was on wasn’t willing to come to terms with some of the big distributors over how much they were charging per record: [The Slades, “You Cheated”] Motola wanted to record a soundalike version of the song with Jesse Belvin as the lead singer, but Belvin had just signed a record contract with RCA, and didn’t want to put out lead vocals on another label. Would Ervin like to put out the song as a solo record? Ervin hated the song — he didn’t like doo-wop generally, and he thought the song was a particularly bad example of the genre — but a gig was a gig, and it’d be a solo record under his own name. Ervin agreed to do it, and Motola got Jesse Belvin to put together a scratch vocal group for the session. Belvin found Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Tommy “Buster” Williams at a local ballroom and got them to come along, and on the way to the session they ran into “Handsome” Mel Williams and pulled him in. They were just going to be the uncredited backing vocalists on a Frankie Ervin record, and didn’t spend much time thinking about what was clearly a soundalike cash-in. But when it came out it was credited as “The Shields” rather than Frankie Ervin: [Excerpt: The Shields, “You Cheated”] That’s Belvin singing that wonderful falsetto part. Frankie Ervin was naturally annoyed that he wasn’t given the label credit for the record. The recording was made as an independent production but leased to Dot Records, and somewhere along the line someone decided that it was better to have a generic group name rather than promote it as by a solo singer who might get ideas about wanting money. In a nice bit of irony, the Shields managed to reverse the normal course of the music industry — this time a soundalike record by a black group managed to outsell the original by a white group. “You Cheated” ended up making number twelve on the pop charts — a massive hit for an unknown doo-wop group at the time. Ervin started touring and making TV appearances as the Shields, backed by some random singers the record label had pulled together — the rest of the vocalists on the record had been people who were under contract to other labels, and so couldn’t make TV appearances. But the original Shields members reunited for the followup single, “Nature Boy”, where they were joined by the members of the Turks, who were yet another group that Belvin was recording with, and who included both Hodge brothers: [Excerpt: “Nature Boy”, the Shields] That, according to Ervin, also sold a million copies, but it was nothing like as successful as “You Cheated”. The record label were getting sick of Ervin wanting credit and royalties and other things they didn’t like singers, especially black ones, asking for. So the third Shields record only featured Belvin out of the original lineup, and subsequent recordings didn’t even feature him. But while Belvin had accidentally put together yet another million-selling group, he had also moved on to bigger things. His wife had now firmly taken control of his career, and they had a plan. Belvin had signed to a major label — RCA, the same label that Elvis Presley was on — and he was going to make a play for the big time. He could still keep making doo-wop records with Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Eugene Church and the Hodge brothers and whoever else, if he felt like it, but his solo career was going to be something else. He was going to go for the same market as Nat “King” Cole, and become a smooth ballad singer. He was going to be a huge star, and he actually got to record an album, Just Jesse Belvin. The first single off that album was “Guess Who?”, a song written by his wife Jo Anne, based on a love letter she had written to him: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin, “Guess Who?”] That song made the top forty — hitting number thirty-three on the pop chart and managed to reach number seven on the R&B charts. More importantly, it gained Grammy nominations for both best R&B performance and best male vocal performance. He lost to Dinah Washington and Frank Sinatra, and it’s not as if losing to Dinah Washington or Frank Sinatra would have been an embarrassment. But by the time he lost those Grammies, Jesse was already dead, and so was Jo Anne. And here we get into the murkiest part of the story. There are a lot of rumours floating around about Jesse Belvin’s death, and a lot of misinformation is out there, and frankly I’ve not been able to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. When someone you love dies young, especially if that someone is a public figure, there’s a tendency to look for complex explanations, and there’s also a tendency to exaggerate stories in the telling. That’s just human nature. And in some cases, that tendency is exploited by people out to make money. And Jesse and Jo Anne Belvin were both black people who died in the deep South, and so no real investigation was ever carried out. That means that by now, with almost everyone who was involved dead, it’s impossible to tell what really happened. Almost every single sentence of what follows may be false. It’s my best guess as to the order of events and what happened, based on the limited information out there. On February the sixth, 1960, there was a concert in Little Rock Arkansas, at the Robinson Auditorium. Billed as “the first rock and roll show of 1960”, the headliner was Jackie Wilson, a friend of Belvin’s. Jesse had just recorded his second album, “Mr Easy”, which would be coming out soon, and while he was still relatively low on the bill, he was a rising star. That album was the one that was going to consolidate Belvin’s turn towards pop balladry in the Nat “King” Cole style, but it would end up being a posthumous release: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin with the Marty Paich Orchestra, “Blues in the Night”] It was an all-black lineup on stage, but according to some reports it was an integrated audience. In fact some reports go so far as to say it was the first integrated audience ever in Little Rock. Little Rock was not a place where the white people were fans of integration — in fact they were so against it that the National Guard had had to be called in only two years earlier to protect black children when the first school in Little Rock had been integrated. And so apparently there was some racial abuse shouted by members of the audience. But it was nothing that the musicians hadn’t dealt with before. After the show they all drove on towards Dallas. Jackie Wilson had some car problems on the way, and got to their stop in Dallas later than he was expecting to. The Belvins hadn’t arrived yet, and so Wilson called Jesse’s mother in LA, asking if she’d heard from them. She hadn’t. Shortly after setting off, the car with Jesse and Jo Anne in had been in a crash. Jesse and the drivers of both cars had been killed instantly. Kirk Davis, Belvin’s guitarist on that tour, who had apparently been asleep in the back seat, was seriously injured but eventually came out of his coma. And Jesse had apparently reacted fast enough to shield his wife from the worst of the accident. But she was still unconscious, and seriously injured. The survivors were rushed to the hospital, where, according to Etta James, who heard the story from Jackie Wilson, they refused to treat Jo Anne Belvin until they knew that they would get money. She remained untreated until someone got in touch with Wilson, who drove down from Dallas Texas to Hope, Arkansas, where the hospital was, with the cash. But she died of her injuries a few days later. Now, here’s the thing — within a fortnight of the accident, there were rumours circulating widely enough to have been picked up by the newspapers that Belvin’s car had had its tyres slashed. There were also stories, never confirmed, that Belvin had received death threats before the show. And Jackie Wilson had also had car trouble that night — and according to some sources so had at least one other musician on the bill. So it’s possible that the car was sabotaged. On the other hand, Belvin’s driver, Charles Shackleford, had got the job with Belvin after being fired by Ray Charles. He was fired, according to Charles, because he kept staying awake watching the late-night shows, not getting enough sleep, and driving dangerously enough to scare Ray Charles — who was fearless enough that he used to ride motorbikes despite being totally blind. So when Jesse and Jo Anne Belvin died, they could have been the victims of a racist murder, or they could just have been horribly unlucky. But we’ll never know for sure, because the institutional racism at the time meant that there was no investigation. When they died, they left behind two children under the age of five, who were brought up by Jesse’s mother. The oldest, Jesse Belvin Jr, became a singer himself, often performing material written or made famous by his father: [Excerpt: Jesse Belvin Jr, “Goodnight My Love”] Jesse Jr. devoted his life to finding out what actually happened to his parents, but never found any answers.

Welcome to the second installment of "I Might Be Wrong". This week Stacey chats with comedian, actor, writer, wonderful human Dan Beirne (Fargo, The Handmaids Tale, Space Riders etc). We chat and pull Dan's Tarots. ENJOY! Follow DAN! : @DanBeirne Thanks to our sponsors #ZipRecruiter #DailyHarvest & Brooklinen

On this Book Club special, The Pals read Black Mask's Space Riders from Alexis Ziritt and Fabian Rangel Jr! And SURPRISE they're pretty divided! PLUS: Darkseid is? The Comics Pals is a weekly comic book podcast where a group of comic book journalists and friends get together to talk comics. The Pals: Sean: twitter.com/SeansSoapbox Pete: twitter.com/Loud_Pete Cale: twitter.com/Totointow Marco: twitter.com/MrMarcoAnimoto Phil: twitter.com/Cyborgbebop

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The Spill Zone by Scott Westerfeld, Alex Puvilland, and Hilary Sycamore from :01 First Second, Batman #26 by Tom King, Mikel Janin, and June Chung, HeroClix, stratifying art, Craig Yoe, All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #5 and Chris Samnee, James Harren and Seven to Eternity, Space Riders by Fabian Rangel Jr. and Alexis Ziritt from Black Mask, The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights by Michael Uslan, Keith Burns, and Tony Avina from Dynamite!, more on Goodwin and Simonson's Manhunter, Blood Brothers: Hermanos de Sangre #1 by Fabian Rangel Jr. and Javier Caba from Dynamite!, Valiant, Deathstroke #21 by Christopher Priest and Diogenes Neves, Brian Michael Bendis' Defenders, patron questions, plus a whole mess more!

This week's episode is a lighthearted chat with writer Fabian Rangel, Jr. He discusses the transition from touring with a punk band to his breakout comic, "Space Riders" with Alexis Ziritt. He and Wendi discuss the difficulties of learning new skills in new mediums, the evolution of werewolf movies and his new book, "'Namwolf", the sexy car designs of "Helena Crash", the great work going on at Black Mask Comics and so much more. You can find other great podcasts  on the network as well as comic and entertainment news by jumping on twitter and following @taylornetwork

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Fabian Rangel Jr, the writer of Doc Unknown, Namwolf, Space Riders, and Blood Brothers.  These are some exciting times for Fabian. Doc Unknown will be collected in a new hardcover from Dark Horse Comics this July.  Namwolf starts up on April 19th from Albatross Funnybooks.   Dynamite Entertainment will be serializing Blood Brothers beginning in June. And RIGHT NOW! You can go to your local comic book shop and pick up the first issue of Space Riders Volume 2 from Black Mask Studios.  If you haven’t checked out his work yet, you will have ample opportunity to do so in the coming months.  It is something I highly recommend.   Fabian can be found online on Twitter. SUBSCRIBE: RSS | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher Music by Eric Matyas (www.soundimage.org)  

Recorded on November 13, 2016. Episode 338: Space Riders From the galactic core to the outer quadrants, one name strikes terror in the hearts of evil beings everywhere: The Space Riders! Sailing the cosmos in the Skullship Santa Muerte, Capitan Peligro and his fearless crew deal harsh justice to the scum of the galaxy while … Continue reading

This week on Super Skull, 90's music, Space Riders, and spies. Our big picks this week were: * The Storyteller: Dragons #1 * Totally Awesome Hulk #1 * Sheriff of Babylon #1

Kyle is joined by the Space Riders creative team to talk the series. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pagesandpanels/support

This week we're digging into our "boxes"  - The Isotope Comics Lounge  - Smoke & Guns  - AiT/Planet Lar  - Supreme: Blue Rose  - Zodiac Starforce  - Plutona  - Injection  - Rat Queens  - Grayson  - Ragnarok  - Battleworld: Runaways  - Battleworld: A-Force  - Atomic Robo  - Questionable Content  - Orc Stain  - Skullkickers  - The Losers  - Re-Animator  - Grumpy Cat  - Garfield & Garfunkel  - Uzumaki  - Kaptara  - God Hates Astronauts  - Scud The Disposable Assassin  - Space Riders  - Rowans Ruin  - Lumberjanes  - Bombshells  - Survivor's Club  - Paper Girls  - SHIELD: Agent Carter, Fury, Quake, Mockingbird, The Cavalry  - The Filth  - Archie  - Jughead  - We Stand On Guard  - Phonogram  - Doctor Strange  - I Zombie  - Mage We'll be taking a couple weeks off and then returning with an insane amount of Matt Fraction comics in our brains

Kayla Lorette is one of Canada's all-time best improvisers and she is also a great writer, actor, all of it. She tours the world with her improv troupe The Sufferettes (with Becky Johnson), you can catch her on Space Riders as the evil bad guy, and she's been writing for Bruce McCulloch's new show, Young Drunk Punk. We had a blast sitting and talking about mist and trying to figure out what the Steam Punk's M.O. is. Please enjoy along with us!   Follow Kayla on Twitter @KaylaLorette   Follow the show on Twitter @UtopiaToMe   Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisLockeFun  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Little is a multi-talented stand up, sketch, and improv and constantly writing crazy stuff comedian. You've seen him on Just For Laughs, Conan, Mr. D, Picnicface, Space Riders, and Dad Drives. We recorded this live at Sled Island in Calgary and we were tired, wired, and drinking beer but I think it was a lot of fun! Please enjoy!   Follow Mark on Twitter: @markmarklittle   Follow the show on Twitter @UtopiaToMe   Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisLockeFun  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week its a round table of what are you reading and Donny is joined by Jim Deitz, Luke Foster and Farrah Ware. we discuss our every first issues that got us into comic books,we also talked a little Secret Wars, Convergence and a few tie-ins from each event,squirrel girl,Ivan the time walker,Fresh Romance by Janelle Asselin, Space Riders #1 by Black Mask Studios, Mad Max Fury road Nux and Immortan Joe, Brian Wood's take on Moon Knight, more of Donny's Dark Horse Star Wars omnibus obsession, Jem & the Holograms #1+2 from IDW as well as the trailer and Curb Stomp #1 by the team of Ryan Ferrier, Devaki Neogi and Neil Lalonde. Twitter: @sundaycomicspod http://taylornetworkofpodcasts.com/

This week on the Major Spoielrs Podcast: Archie turns to Kickstarter, Convergence, Archie vs. Predator, and more go under the microscope, and we take a look at the first volume of the 12th Doctor. Get involved with the Major Spoilers Podcast Network LINK Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure The Major Spoilers Podcast continues far into the future! NEWS Archie Comics heads to Kickstarter LINK REVIEWS STEPHEN Convergence: Speed Force #2 Writer: Tony Bedard Artist: Sean Parsons, Tom Grummett Publisher: DC Comics Cover Price: $3.99 STARRING HEROES FROM THE PRE-FLASHPOINT DCU! Wally West desperately tries to protect his children and his city from the brutal assault of the Flashpoint Wonder Woman as the next phase of Convergence begins! MATTHEW Archie vs. Predator #2 Archie and the gang head back to Riverdale, but the vicious extraterrestrial Predator is in hot pursuit! When the kids determine that Betty and Veronica are the targets, they devise a secret weapon—Jughead in drag! * Variant covers by Dustin Nguyen (Batman Eternal, Adventure Time) and Robert Hack (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina)! * IT’S OPEN SEASON ON ARCHIE! Writer:Alex de Campi Penciller:Fernando Ruiz Inker:Rich Koslowski Colorist:Jason Millet Cover Artist:Dan Parent Price:$3.99 RODRIGO Space Riders #2 Artist: Alexis Ziritt Writer: Fabian Rangel Jr. Letters: Ryan Ferrier After the mind shattering events of Vortex of Madness, the Space Riders find themselves crash-landed on an unknown planet. They encounter an alien warrior tribe, as well as the beautiful and fierce Dona Barbara. Also in this issue, our heroes find themselves in the presence of a Space God. Ride along as Capitan Peligro and his crew escape from the haunted planet! Alexis Ziritt's (The Package) insane art is both a throwback to classics like Jack Kirby, Fltecher Hanks, and Heavy Metal Magazine, while still having a modern sensibility that showcases his own unique style . Writer Fabian Rangel Jr. (Doc Unknown) manages to tame that craziness and tell a compelling and very human story. Space Riders becomes that rare middle ground that has something for everyone while never compromising. ZACH Mythic #1 Story By: Phil Hester Art By: John McCrea Price: $1.99 Science is a lie, an opiate for the masses. The truth is, magic makes the world go ‘round. And when magic breaks, MYTHIC fixes it. Apache shaman Waterson, Greek immortal Cassandra, and cell phone salesman Nate Jayadarma are the crack field team assigned with keeping the gears of the supernatural world turning, and more importantly, keeping you from ever knowing about it. Join Eisner nominee PHIL HESTER (Green Arrow, The Coffin) and Eisner winner JOHN McCREA (Hitman, The Boys) on their latest expedition to the dark heart of weird comics Major Spoilers Poll of the Week: By now, you’ve probably heard the news that NBC has decided to pass on a second season of Constantine. Fans, and producers, are both hoping the show will land at another network, leading us all to a happily ever after moment. But what network? With CW running many of the Warner Bros./DC Comics properties, it seems to be the front runner, though SyFy’s name has been dropped a time or two due to the NBC tie, as well ask the coming Krypton series. DISCUSSION: The Twelfth Doctor Volume 1 ARTIST: Dave Taylor, Mariano Laclaustra PUBLISHER: Titan Comics PAGECOUNT:​ 128pp​ FORMAT: HC ISBN: 9781782761778 PRICE: $19.99​/$22.95​ CAN The Twelfth Doctor has just regenerated​ - ​but the universe won't give him a minute's rest. Not when there's a violent star on the warpath on a terraformed ice planet - or an ancient alien, masquerading as the goddess Kali murdering her way towards resurrection in the year 2314. Contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com Call the Major Spoilers Hotline at (785) 727-1939. The Major Spoilers Store is located at majorspoilers.bigcartel.com A big Thank You goes out to everyone who downloads, subscribes, listens, and supports this show. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to our ramblings each week. Tell your friends about the podcast, get them to subscribe and, be sure to visit the Major Spoilers site and forums.

This week on the Major Spoielrs Podcast: Archie turns to Kickstarter, Convergence, Archie vs. Predator, and more go under the microscope, and we take a look at the first volume of the 12th Doctor. Get involved with the Major Spoilers Podcast Network LINK Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure The Major Spoilers Podcast continues far into the future! NEWS Archie Comics heads to Kickstarter LINK REVIEWS STEPHEN Convergence: Speed Force #2 Writer: Tony Bedard Artist: Sean Parsons, Tom Grummett Publisher: DC Comics Cover Price: $3.99 STARRING HEROES FROM THE PRE-FLASHPOINT DCU! Wally West desperately tries to protect his children and his city from the brutal assault of the Flashpoint Wonder Woman as the next phase of Convergence begins! MATTHEW Archie vs. Predator #2 Archie and the gang head back to Riverdale, but the vicious extraterrestrial Predator is in hot pursuit! When the kids determine that Betty and Veronica are the targets, they devise a secret weapon—Jughead in drag! * Variant covers by Dustin Nguyen (Batman Eternal, Adventure Time) and Robert Hack (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina)! * IT’S OPEN SEASON ON ARCHIE! Writer:Alex de Campi Penciller:Fernando Ruiz Inker:Rich Koslowski Colorist:Jason Millet Cover Artist:Dan Parent Price:$3.99 RODRIGO Space Riders #2 Artist: Alexis Ziritt Writer: Fabian Rangel Jr. Letters: Ryan Ferrier After the mind shattering events of Vortex of Madness, the Space Riders find themselves crash-landed on an unknown planet. They encounter an alien warrior tribe, as well as the beautiful and fierce Dona Barbara. Also in this issue, our heroes find themselves in the presence of a Space God. Ride along as Capitan Peligro and his crew escape from the haunted planet! Alexis Ziritt's (The Package) insane art is both a throwback to classics like Jack Kirby, Fltecher Hanks, and Heavy Metal Magazine, while still having a modern sensibility that showcases his own unique style . Writer Fabian Rangel Jr. (Doc Unknown) manages to tame that craziness and tell a compelling and very human story. Space Riders becomes that rare middle ground that has something for everyone while never compromising. ZACH Mythic #1 Story By: Phil Hester Art By: John McCrea Price: $1.99 Science is a lie, an opiate for the masses. The truth is, magic makes the world go ‘round. And when magic breaks, MYTHIC fixes it. Apache shaman Waterson, Greek immortal Cassandra, and cell phone salesman Nate Jayadarma are the crack field team assigned with keeping the gears of the supernatural world turning, and more importantly, keeping you from ever knowing about it. Join Eisner nominee PHIL HESTER (Green Arrow, The Coffin) and Eisner winner JOHN McCREA (Hitman, The Boys) on their latest expedition to the dark heart of weird comics Major Spoilers Poll of the Week: By now, you’ve probably heard the news that NBC has decided to pass on a second season of Constantine. Fans, and producers, are both hoping the show will land at another network, leading us all to a happily ever after moment. But what network? With CW running many of the Warner Bros./DC Comics properties, it seems to be the front runner, though SyFy’s name has been dropped a time or two due to the NBC tie, as well ask the coming Krypton series. DISCUSSION: The Twelfth Doctor Volume 1 ARTIST: Dave Taylor, Mariano Laclaustra PUBLISHER: Titan Comics PAGECOUNT:​ 128pp​ FORMAT: HC ISBN: 9781782761778 PRICE: $19.99​/$22.95​ CAN The Twelfth Doctor has just regenerated​ - ​but the universe won't give him a minute's rest. Not when there's a violent star on the warpath on a terraformed ice planet - or an ancient alien, masquerading as the goddess Kali murdering her way towards resurrection in the year 2314. Contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com Call the Major Spoilers Hotline at (785) 727-1939. The Major Spoilers Store is located at majorspoilers.bigcartel.com A big Thank You goes out to everyone who downloads, subscribes, listens, and supports this show. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to our ramblings each week. Tell your friends about the podcast, get them to subscribe and, be sure to visit the Major Spoilers site and forums.

HOSTS: Dan, Scott NEWS/TALK: Gotham season 1 finale (SPOILERS), DC's Legends of Tomorrow COMICS: Secret Wars, Space Riders #1, We Can Never Go Home, Batman #40   WHERE TO FIND US: Comic Book Pitt is part of the SORGATRON MEDIA NETWORKEMAIL: comicbookpitt@gmail.comCALL: 412-450-0227FACEBOOK: facebook.com/comicbookpittTWITTER: @comicbookpittINSTAGRAM: @comicbookpitt

Zack Kruse jumps into the pit with us to discuss the Appleseed Comic Con, Timothy O'Briant's BDR Volume 2, jason Brubaker's Sithrah, Steranko Vs. Jaime Hernandez, Peter Bagge and Creepy, Convergence-O-Rama (Swamp Thing, Plastic man and the Freedom Fighters, Shazam!, Blue Beetle, Man of Steel, Superboy, Atom, The Question, Suicide Squad, Hawkman, Womder Woman, Justice Society of America, Batman and the Outsiders, Green Lantern Corps, Shadow of the Bat, Harley Quinn, Superman, Detective Comics, Batman and Robin, and more), Mignolaverse-O-Rama (Frankenstein Underground #2 with Ben Stenbeck and Dave Stewart, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. 1952 #5 with John Arcudi, Alex Maleev, and Dave Stewart, B.P.R.D. #130 with John Arcudi, Peter Snejbjerg, and Dave Stewart, and Abe Sapien #22 with Scott Allie, Max Fiumara, and Dave Stewart), Groo and The Goon, Big Man Plans by Eric Powell and Tim Wiesch from Image Comics, Deadly Class #12 by Rick Remender and Wes Craig, Valerian and Laureline by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres from Cinebook, Space Riders #1 by Alexi Ziritt, Fabian Rangel Jr., and Ryan Ferrier from Black Mask, Gilbert Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Free Comic Book Day, Dynamite-O-Rama: Flash Gordon #3 by Ben Blacker, Ben Blacker, amd Lee Ferguson and The Phantom #2 by Brian Clevenger and Brent Schoonover, Ivar, Timewalker #4 by Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry from Valiant, Scrooge McDuck #1 from IDW, Michael Chabon's The Escapist, a little film called Avengers: Age of Ultron, and a whole mess more!

Comedian Mark Little is our guest this episode! In addition to his standup, you might recognize Mark from his work with the great sketch comedy troupe Picnicface, as well as his roles in the CBC show Mr. D, and his new web series Space Riders. I spoke to Mark about his roots in standup and improv, how to make a cult movie, and hanging with Ludacris. Be sure to keep up with us online for our latest podcasts, giveaways and more! Badfeelingmag.com facebook.com/badfeelingmag twitter.com/badfeelingmag http://instagram.com/bad_feeling_mag

Reviews: Convergence #0, Space Riders #1, UFOlogy #1, Uncanny Inhumans #0, Olympus, Outlander mid-season premiere Jimmy is recovering from the epic 600th episode recording, so he invites Emily Edwards over to co-host and add some pep to the podcast! They chat about the absolute awesomeness of 600, Jimmy's finally seen all of The IT Crowd,  he'll also be a guest on 2 other podcasts this week and they both remind everyone to watch Daredevil and Game of Thrones this weekend. News includes: Star Trek and Green Lantern will team up in comic book form, WonderCon moves again, Amped will be both a new Vertigo comic and USA Network TV show, Bazooka Joe gets redesigned, no end credits stinger in Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, the Star Wars digital collection is available this week, Paul Feig's new sci-fi comedy Other Space will debut on Yahoo Screen next week and more! Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Thanks for listening!

We've set out to prove you can polish a turd. After the horror of editing the last episode, new equipment was brought in to make the best of that bad situation. We apologize for the quality of the last episode and tried to make it a little more dog-less, as well. We like our sci-fi and Space Riders fits the bill there. Great story with imaginative art that creates a classic fill. We put Judge Dredd up against Dredd and throw out some likes and dislikes. We talke about the classic Morlock 2001 by Fliescher and Milgrom and the similiarities between it and some other media in the sci-fi world. Lastly we talk a little music and bring up Bad Company and the impact, or lack thereof, the group may have had on our lives. Thank you all for sticking with us and we'll have more lined out in the future. Find this episode on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/odyssey-unleashed-podcast/id962251307?mt=2&i=339474310Space Rider #1 By Fabian Rangel Jr. and Alexis Ziritt (2015 Black Mask Studios) - Opening  --/Judge Dredd (1995) and Dredd (2012) - 9:00 --/Morlock 2001 #1 (1975 Atlas/Seaboard Comics) - 30:26 --/Music focusing on Bad Company 10 From 6 (1985) - 41:44Thanks for the follows and Retweets and Favorites - 48:45

This week on the Major Spoilers Podcast - iZombie, Batman ’66, Hawkgirl and Rip Hunter headed to the CW and FREE COMIC BOOK DAY IS COMING! Plus Convergence or Secret Wars? Get involved with the Major Spoilers Podcast Network LINK Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure The Major Spoilers Podcast continues far into the future! NEWS Batman '66 gets animated feature LINK Hawkgirl and Rip Hunter join Arrow/Flash spinoff LINK REVIEWS STEPHEN UFOlogy #1 (of 6) Authors: James Tynion IV & Noah J. Yuenkel Artist: Matthew Fox What’s to Love: James Tynion IV has already blown us away with his original series The Woods and Memetic, and now he’s teaming up with Thrillbent co-writer Noah J. Yuenkel (The House in the Wall) and artist Matthew Fox (Long Walk to Valhalla) to bring us a story about aliens in the Midwest. It’s reminiscent of films like E.T. and Super 8, and TV shows like Twin Peaks and The X-Files. What It Is: Becky Finch never wanted to be special. She just wanted to be a normal high school student in the small, Midwestern town of Mukawgee. Malcolm Chamber wanted something more. A destiny. An answer from the stars. When Becky is marked by an alien’s touch, she’ll stumble into a mystery she never wanted. A mystery that almost ripped apart both their parents’ lives 12 years ago. She’ll need the help of her eccentric young classmate, Malcolm, as she finds the power within herself to uncover the truth. [rating:4/5] MATTHEW Wicked + Divine #9 Story By: Kieron Gillen Art By: Jamie McKelvie Cover Price: $3.50 It's time for a private audience with Ananke, she who has protected and judged the Pantheon for thousands of years. Yes, it's time for an interview... with an umpire. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Also: Baphomet being all goth and having a nice little mope. [rating:4/5] RODRIGO Jungle Girl Season 3 #1 (W) Frank Cho, Doug Murray (A) Jack Jadson (CA) Frank Cho Jungle Girl returns in Frank Cho's epic third act! [rating:3/5] ZACH SPACE RIDERS #1 Writer: Fabian Rangel, Jr.
 Artist: Alexis Ziritt Publisher: Black Mask From the galactic core to the outer quadrants, one name strikes terror in the hearts of evil beings everywhere: the Space Riders! Sailing the cosmos in the Skullship Santa Muerte, Capitan Peligro and his fearless crew deal harsh justice to the scum of the galaxy while searching for the forbidden truths of the universe! Fabian Rangel Jr (Doc Unknown) and Alexis Ziritt (The Package) bring you a new and exciting space adventure that will destroy your brain! (in a good way) [rating:3/5] Major Spoilers Poll of the Week: Secret Convergence Wars This week we kick off big events for the Big Two: Convergence #0 arrives on April 01 and runs for the next two months, and May sees Marvel’s big Secret Wars event. Both seem very similar to one another, but I’m going to guess there’s more under the hood than what we have lead to believe. Knowing many readers have allegiances to one company over another, we wonder if that means you are more interested in one even over the other. [poll id="380”] DISCUSSION: iZombie Told from a female zombie’s perspective, this smart, witty detective series mixes urban fantasy and romantic dramedy. Gwendolyn “Gwen” Dylan is a 20-something gravedigger in an eco-friendly cemetery. Once a month she must eat a human brain to keep from losing her memories, but in the process she becomes consumed with the thoughts and personality of the dead person – until she eats her next brain. She sets out to fulfi ll the dead person’s last request, solve a crime or right a wrong. Contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com Call the Major Spoilers Hotline at (785) 727-1939. The Major Spoilers Store is located at majorspoilers.bigcartel.com A big Thank You goes out to everyone who downloads, subscribes, listens, and supports this show. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to our ramblings each week. Tell your friends about the podcast, get them to subscribe and, be sure to visit the Major Spoilers site and forums.

This week on the Major Spoilers Podcast - iZombie, Batman ’66, Hawkgirl and Rip Hunter headed to the CW and FREE COMIC BOOK DAY IS COMING! Plus Convergence or Secret Wars? Get involved with the Major Spoilers Podcast Network LINK Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure The Major Spoilers Podcast continues far into the future! NEWS Batman '66 gets animated feature LINK Hawkgirl and Rip Hunter join Arrow/Flash spinoff LINK REVIEWS STEPHEN UFOlogy #1 (of 6) Authors: James Tynion IV & Noah J. Yuenkel Artist: Matthew Fox What’s to Love: James Tynion IV has already blown us away with his original series The Woods and Memetic, and now he’s teaming up with Thrillbent co-writer Noah J. Yuenkel (The House in the Wall) and artist Matthew Fox (Long Walk to Valhalla) to bring us a story about aliens in the Midwest. It’s reminiscent of films like E.T. and Super 8, and TV shows like Twin Peaks and The X-Files. What It Is: Becky Finch never wanted to be special. She just wanted to be a normal high school student in the small, Midwestern town of Mukawgee. Malcolm Chamber wanted something more. A destiny. An answer from the stars. When Becky is marked by an alien’s touch, she’ll stumble into a mystery she never wanted. A mystery that almost ripped apart both their parents’ lives 12 years ago. She’ll need the help of her eccentric young classmate, Malcolm, as she finds the power within herself to uncover the truth. [rating:4/5] MATTHEW Wicked + Divine #9 Story By: Kieron Gillen Art By: Jamie McKelvie Cover Price: $3.50 It's time for a private audience with Ananke, she who has protected and judged the Pantheon for thousands of years. Yes, it's time for an interview... with an umpire. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Also: Baphomet being all goth and having a nice little mope. [rating:4/5] RODRIGO Jungle Girl Season 3 #1 (W) Frank Cho, Doug Murray (A) Jack Jadson (CA) Frank Cho Jungle Girl returns in Frank Cho's epic third act! [rating:3/5] ZACH SPACE RIDERS #1 Writer: Fabian Rangel, Jr.
Artist: Alexis Ziritt Publisher: Black Mask From the galactic core to the outer quadrants, one name strikes terror in the hearts of evil beings everywhere: the Space Riders! Sailing the cosmos in the Skullship Santa Muerte, Capitan Peligro and his fearless crew deal harsh justice to the scum of the galaxy while searching for the forbidden truths of the universe! Fabian Rangel Jr (Doc Unknown) and Alexis Ziritt (The Package) bring you a new and exciting space adventure that will destroy your brain! (in a good way) [rating:3/5] Major Spoilers Poll of the Week: Secret Convergence Wars This week we kick off big events for the Big Two: Convergence #0 arrives on April 01 and runs for the next two months, and May sees Marvel’s big Secret Wars event. Both seem very similar to one another, but I’m going to guess there’s more under the hood than what we have lead to believe. Knowing many readers have allegiances to one company over another, we wonder if that means you are more interested in one even over the other. [poll id="380”] DISCUSSION: iZombie Told from a female zombie’s perspective, this smart, witty detective series mixes urban fantasy and romantic dramedy. Gwendolyn “Gwen” Dylan is a 20-something gravedigger in an eco-friendly cemetery. Once a month she must eat a human brain to keep from losing her memories, but in the process she becomes consumed with the thoughts and personality of the dead person – until she eats her next brain. She sets out to fulfi ll the dead person’s last request, solve a crime or right a wrong. Contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com Call the Major Spoilers Hotline at (785) 727-1939. The Major Spoilers Store is located at majorspoilers.bigcartel.com A big Thank You goes out to everyone who downloads, subscribes, listens, and supports this show. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to our ramblings each week. Tell your friends about the podcast, get them to subscribe and, be sure to visit the Major Spoilers site and forums.