---

HOT LIPS NO MORE:

HERBIE DUNCAN R.I.P.

by Deke Dickerson, President of the Herbie Duncan Fan Club



It has come to my attention that the great man Herbie Duncan no longer walks the face of the earth. Herbie, as most of the Norton Records faithful already know, was responsible for one of the wildest, outre’ and incoherently wonderful records ever released--"Hot Lips Baby" b/w "Little Angel" on the Mar-Vel label of Hammond, Indiana, in 1958 (and reissued by Norton, of course). Herbie took the somewhat limited singing talent god gave him, added the rocket-fueled energy of a thousand Elvis Presleys, and came up with a musical formula no one has come close to matching in the 50 years since. He made a couple other records, good but not quite as magic as the first, and retreated back to a midwestern family life where he remained until his death.




I had the good fortune to track Herbie Duncan down in 1986, where he was living in a trailer park in Olathe, Kansas. As a rockabilly-obsessed 15 year old, I had formed the "Herbie Duncan Fan Club," not knowing initially that Herbie lived only a few hundred miles away. When we found out Herbie’s whereabouts, we organized a three-hour tour to meet him--no mean feat when you’re 15 and your oldest friend was 19. Herbie and his wife treated myself and my friends like long-lost friends. Herbie could not believe that anybody would want to talk to him about his rock & roll past, and thought we were half-crazy when heaping praise on "Hot Lips Baby." Such is the curse of genius. Herbie did give me a show business platitude that I still retain to this day: "If at first you don’t succeed, suck and suck and suck until you SUCK-CEDE!" These are words to live by.




I’ll always remember Herbie most from this visit, when he took his old guitar out of the case, sat on his La-Z-Boy chair, and began warbling "Me And Bobby McGee" in his trademark vocal style. His body, his hands, his head, remained almost motionless as the words and music spilled out from his voice and guitar. Strangely, almost inhumanly, the La-Z-Boy chair began violently rocking back and forth, as if it was levitating, though Herbie remained almost motionless. My friends and I looked at this and remarked on it later, and to this day I have no idea how he did that. There was magic--magic that few understood, but undeniable magic--contained in the body and soul of Herbie Duncan. That magic is gone from us now. Rest in Peace, Herbie, from your friend Deke.

 

 

Duncan, Herbie

---

Original Releases

Date & Source	Label & Number	V	Titles {& References to LP/CD List}	As By	Matrix Numbers
1958/Aug. 25 Bb pop rev.	Mar-Vel' MV-1400		Hot Lips Baby {a,b,c,e,f,h,i,j,k,l} Little Angel {f,h}	2 2	A B
1959/Sept. 7 Bb pop rev.	Glenn GL-MV 1401		Escape {c,d,m} Roll Along	3 3	B A
1960/May 23 Bb c&w rev.	Glenn MV-GL 1402		That's All {g} End Of The Rainbow	1 1	A B

References in "As By" Column:

1. as by Herbie Duncan
2. as by Herbie Duncan With Red Wells And His Caravans From St. Louis
3. as by Herbie Duncan And Th Original Hurricanes From Kansas City, Mo.

Other Notes:

• "Hot Lips Baby" also exists on Glenn 1400, but this is probably a later reissue.

---

Collector-Oriented Compilation LPs and CDs Containing Tracks

a.	Born Bad BB 003 (cd)	Born Bad, Vol. 3
b.	Born Bad BB 003 (lp)	Born Bad, Vol. 3
c.	Buffalo Bop Bb-CD 55036 (cd)	Juvenile Jungle
d.	Cat 1034 (cd)	Calling All Rock 'N' Roll Collectors, Vol. 2
e.	Club PR PRLP- 010 (lp)	Pure Rockabilly, Vol. 10
f.	Cowboy Carl CCLP- 100 (lp)	Mar-vel' Masters
g.	Cowboy Carl CCLP- 104 (lp)	Mar-vel' Masters, Vol. 3
h.	Lonestar LSR 002 (ep)	Get With The Beat, Vol. 1
i.	Lucky CDLR 807 (cd)	Rockabilly Gold, Vol. 7
j.	Mustang MUST 1 (cd)	Rockabilly & Hillbilly Bop, Vol. 1: Scratchin' On My Screen
k.	Rockhouse RHLP 8402 (lp)	Jump Baby Jump
l.	Rykodisc RCD 20126 (cd)	Get With The Beat: The Mar-vel Masters
m.	White Label 8930 (lp)	Monster Hop

 

---

Acknowledgments:   Udo Frank, Bernd Hermoneit, Bjorn Witlox

 

Compilation & presentation © 2009, Terry E. Gordon

This page generated on 01/25/2009

 

Go to:   RCS Main  |  Index for D  |  Previous  |  Next

 

 

Ostias, perdon cocodrilo, el 2 de marzo

Se nos va otro "clasico".

Sé que es la Ley de la Naturaleza y que el tiempo pasa para todos, pero siempre me entristece leer estas noticias.

Otro más que toma el camino al Panteón del Rock'n'Roll. Descanse en paz.

 

---

I don't care what people say... Rock'n'Roll is here to stay!!!

Hot lips baby  es brutal, precisamente este pasado Rockin´ Race se lo recomendé a un par de amiguetes en la fantastica repro que sacó Norton hace unos años.

Francho

El temazo entero,RIP.

 

Me gustaría saber cuantos miembros tiene ese club!

Hoy lo he tenido bien claro,si tenia que sonar un tema de Herbie Duncan en el programa,ese ha sido Hot Lips Baby