Straight Skirt

"Straight Skirt"
Single by Gene Summers and His Rebels
A-side	Straight Skirt
B-side	School Of Rock 'n Roll
Released	1958
Format	Vinyl record, 45rpm
Recorded	1958 - Los Angeles, CA
Genre	Rockabilly
Length	1:58
Label	Jan Records
Writer(s)	Mary Tarver

"Straight Skirt " (later "Straight Skirts") is a song written by Mary Tarver in 1958 and published by Song Productions, BMI the same year. It was originally recorded by Gene Summers and his Rebels, a rockabilly band from Dallas, Texas and was first released in February 1958 by Jan Records #11-100. On March 8, 1958 Cash Box Magazine picked it as their Sleeper Of The Week. In Billboard Magazine's Reviews Of Pop Records they wrote: "The artist is backed by a chorus and cheerful rockabilly support on this blues. The kid's might take to this". They were right...within a few weeks of its release, Summers and his rockin' band of Rebels had their first big regional hit.

"Straight Skirt" was flipped with "School Of Rock 'n Roll" an upbeat rockabilly song written by James McClung who was a high school friend of Summers. McClung was also the original guitarist for The Rebels and would continue to work with Summers well into the mid-1960s. Their recording of "School Of Rock 'n Roll" later became widely recognized as one of the 100 greatest rock 'n roll records.

In the 1970s, at the beginning of the rockabilly revival in Europe, "School Of Rock 'n Roll" and "Straight Skirt" were re-discovered by a new legion of rockabilly fans and bands. Since that time they have become classic dance floor-fillers and have renewed Gene's career to the extent of worldwide concert appearances from 1980 to the present.

Prestige Records #PSP 0066, New Zealand September 1958

Prestige Records PEP 2017, New Zealand October 1958

Southern Music Publishing Company, New Zealand 1958

Around,” “ Straight Skirt,” “ I’m Grateful,” “ How Would ‘Ya Be” Bell Records BE-198, Australia 1959

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Wikipedia