Pat Parker, Accomp. by the Way Mates - Young Sweethearts (Skyland 1005), 1962
This was a Buck Trail production from 1962. Skyland Records was likely one of Trail's own labels, based in Skyland, North Carolina. The 15 or 16 years old Pat Parker had previously recorded "Boy Watcher," a song that was claimed to be Buck Trail's own composition, although there have been others who claimed it was their song, however. Trail, whose real name was Ronald Killette, had been recording rockabilly in the 1950s in Miami and also doubled as a promoter, booking agent, record producer and manager for other local acts. I have been into Trail's story for some time and the results of my researches were published in American Music Magazine, issues #137 and #140.
Buck Trail had recorded "Young Sweethearts" first in the mid-1950s (accurate recording date is not documented) for his own Trail label. Backed by a female vocal chorus called "The Teenettes," his version was a very warm and pleasant performance. In contrast, Pat Parker's version lacks of the Trail version's charm (in my opinion). Although Parker's singing approach is patterned very similar, the backing band (The Way Mates - also a teenage group) does not deliver a good performance. Parker's version has a good guitar solo, though. The band performs better on the flip side, "Date with the Blues," with a mandolin, nice brush played drums, and some good background vocals. By the way: "Date with the Blues" was written and recorded by Billy Cox and his Covered Wagon Boys in 1959 for Jan Records (Marshall, Missouri). Buck Trail, a rascal who didn't took it too serious with the truth, never had anything to do with writing the song but managed to cut him into the songwriting credits. It's another mystery how he got notice of the song, which was clearly a local release by Cox.
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