The Playboys of Pine Bluff
- Ninfa O. Barnard
- 1 minute ago
- 3 min read
In 1962, the teenage rockabilly band, The Playboys recorded a 45 record featuring their rockabilly crossover song, Baby Doll with Vee-Eight Records in Nashville, Tennessee.
Image Credit: www.psychofthesouth.com
Jackie Hendrix founded The Playboys, a rockabilly-inspired garage band from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. After graduation, most of the members of The Playboys moved away, leaving Hendrix to find new members and reform the group.
Fortunately, a folk and pop singing group, much like the Kingston Trio, which helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s, performed at Rotary clubs, business meetings, and PTA gatherings, and even appeared on Little Rock’s KATV (Channel 7). Hendrix approached the trio, which consisted of Joe Wiginton, Eddie McColgan, and Bill Rudolph, and they agreed to join him in starting the Pine Bluff Playboys. Talented local guitarist Bill Dunham, drummer David Matthews, and 14-year-old bassist Greg Raley soon joined the Playboys. Raley’s parents owned Raley’s House of Music, a music store in Pine Bluff.
In 1961, the newly formed group went to Rick’s Armory in Little Rock to see rockabilly performer Johnny Tolleson, a student at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Tolleson had just released the single You're In Love With Yourself (And Not In Love With Me) with Chance Records of Fayetteville. The Pine Bluff Playboys enjoyed Tolleson’s performance so much that they incorporated most of his set and imitated his band, John Tolleson and His Bunch.
After months of practicing, the band was ready to perform. Much like Tolleson, they performed at proms and frat parties across Arkansas. In Pine Bluff, they performed regularly at Teen Town, a local dance club. They also performed at Pine Bluff’s Oakland Tavern, where teenagers danced and listened to music for an admission fee of 40 cents.
In 1962, with the financial backing of Raley’s parents, the band booked a session in Memphis to produce a 45 record. Mr. Raley felt uneasy about using the Playboy name on the record because Hendrix had received a cease-and-desist letter from Playboy magazine after requesting decals to promote the band. The Playboys changed their name to the Magnificent Seven for the recording. The Magnificent Seven reflected the band’s pairing of four instrumentalists and three vocalists.
On the A side, they recorded the frat rock standard Ooh Poo Pah Doo. The B side featured Baby Doll, a rockabilly crossover song, written by Hendrix and Rudolph in a car on the way to the studio. The 45 was released with Nashville-based record label, Vee-Eight Records.
That year, in honor of Hendrix's approaching graduation, the band claimed the world record for the longest non-stop performance of a single song, the Isley Brothers' classic Shout. They played for a record one hour and sixteen minutes at Oakland Park Tavern in Pine Bluff.
Shortly after, Rudolph took over on drums after Matthews left the group. The band then recruited singer and pianist Tommy Riggs from North Little Rock to replace Hendrix. Riggs became the group’s ballad singer, while Rudolph sang most of the up-tempo songs. Riggs moved to Pine Bluff and got a job at KPBA, the local radio station. Wiginton soon left, so Matthews returned on drums.
In 1963, at the end of the group’s senior year, The Pine Bluff Playboys disbanded, leaving young Raley behind. Dunham and Riggs went on to form The Kingpins, recording a 45 on Little Rock’s De’Voice record label. Riggs was also a prolific songwriter — his song “What’s Gonna Happen to Me” was produced by Volt Records, a Stax subsidiary, by Jeanne and the Darlings. Riggs and Dunham both had long music careers, with Riggs writing songs that were produced by Stax Records subsidiary, and by Jeanne and the Darling.
In 2007, The Playboys performed at the 45th reunion of the Pine Bluff High School class of 1962.
Sources:
Cunningham, J., Cunningham Jr., J., Cunningham, D. (2015). Delta Music and Film: Jefferson County and the Lowlands. United States: Arcadia Publishing. p. 66.
Written by: Ninfa O. Barnard