JJ Cale
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| JJ Cale | |
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 Cale in 2006 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | John Weldon Cale |
| Born | December 5, 1938 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Genres | Americana, Cajun, blues, swamp rock, Red Dirt, Tulsa Sound |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals, piano, keyboards, bass, drums |
| Years active | 1958–present |
| Labels | Shelter, Mercury, Polygram, Virgin, Rounder, Silvertone |
| Associated acts | Leathercoated Minds, Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell |
| Website | jjcale.com |
JJ Cale (also J.J. Cale), born John Weldon Cale[1] on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,[1] is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and musician. Cale is one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz influences. Cale's personal style has often been described as "laid back".
His only U.S. hit single, Crazy Mama, peaked at #22 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972. During the 2006 documentary film To Tulsa and Back Cale recounts the story of being offered the opportunity to appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand to promote the song, which would have moved the song higher on the charts. Cale declined when told he could not bring his band to the taping and would be required to lip-sync the words to the song.
His songs have been performed by a number of other musicians including "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton,"Cajun Moon" by Randy Crawford, "Magnolia" by Jai, "Bringing It Back" by Kansas, "Call Me the Breeze" and "I Got the Same Old Blues" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Travelin' Light" and "Ride Me High" by Widespread Panic, "Tijuana" by Harry Manx, and "Sensitive Kind" by Carlos Santana.
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[edit] Biography
Cale was born on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Some sources incorrectly give his real name as "Jean-Jacques Cale". A Sunset Strip nightclub owner employing Cale in the mid-1960s came up with the "JJ" moniker to avoid confusion with the Velvet Underground's John Cale[citation needed]. In the 2006 documentary, To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J.J. Cale, Rocky Frisco tells the same version of the story mentioning the other John Cale but without further detail.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
- 1958 Shock Hop/Sneaky [45 - as Johnny Cale][2]
- 1960 Troubles, Troubles/Purple Onion [45 - as Johnny Cale Quintet] [2]
- 1961 Ain't That Lovin You Baby/She's My Desire [45 - as Johnny Cale Quintet] [2]
- 1971 Crazy Mama [45 as J.J. Cale], from the album Naturally, peaked at #22 on the U.S. single charts on April 8, 1972.
[edit] Albums[3]
- 1966 A Trip Down The Sunset Strip (with the Leathercoated Minds)
- 1972 Naturally
- 1973 Really
- 1974 Okie
- 1976 Troubadour
- 1979 5
- 1981 Shades
- 1982 Grasshopper
- 1983 #8
- 1984 Special Edition (a compilation of hits from previous albums)
- 1990 Travel Log
- 1992 Number 10
- 1994 Closer to You
- 1996 Guitar Man
- 1997 Anyway the Wind Blows: The Anthology
- 1998 The Very Best of J.J. Cale
- 2000 Universal Masters Collection
- 2001 Live
- 2004 To Tulsa and Back
- 2006 Collected (with bonus tracks) (Dutch release only)
- 2006 The Road to Escondido (with Eric Clapton)
- 2007 Rewind: The Unreleased Recordings
- 2009 Roll On
- 2011 The Silvertone Years (A collection chronicling JJ Cale's music released by Silvertone Records between 1989-1992)
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Bio". JJ Cale official website. http://www.jjcale.com/bio.html. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
- ^ a b c http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/c/cale5000.htm
- ^ "Music". JJ Cale official website. http://www.jjcale.com/music.html. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: JJ Cale |
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This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references (February 2011) |
- J.J. Cale Official website
- "To Tulsa and back - On Tour with J.J. Cale" Documentary about J.J. Cale
- VH1: Biography
- Laid Back – Thirty years under the influence of "Cocaine"
- JJ Cale Fan Network
- NPR: June 2004 story
- Rocky Frisco: Rocky Frisco Cale's Pianist
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Cale, John Weldon
- On his Casio 360 guitar
- To Tulsa and back - On Tour With J.J. Cale
