LANCE CURTIS "BYE BYE BABY / LOVER'S PARADISE" (1959)

I stopped by your door, waited outside
couldn't forget what happened last night
for loving you is a lover's paradise

I walked to your door, wanting just you
found you were gone with someone new
oh, loving you is a lover's paradise

I left your home and searched for you
but couldn't find you left no clue
out of my head and in sorrow here
it was because of you

Now that you've found somebody new
guess I'm a fool for loving you
oh, loving you is a lover's paradise

[From the lyrics of "Lover's Paradise"]



Dick Jensen was a live musical performer of the Rhythm and Blues, Soul, and Gospel genres; a native Hawaiian athletic song stylist and a prime mover of nightclub shows. For a more detailed biography about him, I suggest that you have a look at this other post available here on Stereo Candies.

Born Richard Hiram Jensen in 1942, he first became interested in music through the numerous luaus his family would attend. When the family was back from the barbecue, his mother would often play the guitar and Dick, along with his five brothers and sisters, would sing, and play along on the ukulele, or a nearby spoon and ladle, or whatever might be handy. His first experience on stage was in the fourth grade when he put together a group for a teacher's show.

Dick continued to sing through his formative years and began to gain a local reputation. While he was at Honolulu's Farrington High School, he entered a local talent contest, winning first place, and adopted the stage name of Lance Curtis at the suggestion of Tom Moffatt and Earl Finch, both active as promoters in the local Hawaii scene; the name was choosen for its illusory Hollywoodian qualities.

The award gained Jensen a spot on one of Hawaii's major television shows and led to his first single recording Bye Bye Baby / Lover's Paradise published by Teen Records in 1959, which is the subject of this post.



Side A offers "Bye Bye Baby", a sober Rock'n'Roll number written by Frank McNulty, which is infused with Doo-wop and Rhythm'n'n Blues, and is mostly notable for its high-pitched vibraphone sound. A very nice debut for Mr. Jensen!

On the flip side we find "Lover's Paradise", which was penned by Jensen himself. This is a more straight Doo-wop piece, with minimal accompaniment and the usual vocal harmonies that this style implies.

Dick Jensen as Lance Curtis, circa 1959

Here's the track list for this 7" single:

01. Bye Bye Baby (2:15)
02. Lover's Paradise (2:33)

Both tracks were remastered from vinyl in February 2013 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files, both formats include scans of the original item in PDF format. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.

The following video offers a preview of the remastered single; the original vinyl was pretty worn, so don't expect miracles... Anyway, I hope you will enjoy "Bye Bye Baby"!

More information about Dick Jensen is available here:

http://archives.starbulletin.com/2006/06/22/news/story02.html

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jun/22/il/FP606220304.html

http://www.oahuislandnews.com/May05/Home.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Jensen

I'm currently compiling a Dick Jensen biography, the first part of this work-in-progress covers the period 1942-1972 and is available here.

I'm also trying to compile a Dick Jensen exhaustive discography, my work-in-progress is available here.

Last but not least, I'm also trying to build a collection of Dick Jensen pictures and memorabilia, my work-in-progress is available here.

All my posts dedicated to Dick Jensen on this blog are available here.

I will post more Dick Jensen stuff in the next weeks, if you have any other useful information about him and his releases or if you spot any dead links, just get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!