Artist:   Little Junior Parker
Song:   "Driving Wheel"
Album: Driving Wheel
Label:   Duke
Year:    1962

There isn’t anything small about the talent of Little Junior Parker. In fact, he quickly dropped the size qualifier in his name right after this rhythm & blues monster was released. The Memphis man used to run with B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland and Johnny Ace on Beale Street there, and his tear-stained voice is sometimes cited as the best of the bunch. Parker went to Houston to record with the mind-boggling Duke Records house band--at 2809 Erastus Street to be exact--and their mix of popping rhythm sections with honey-dipped horns was one of the most burning in the land. Mac Rebennack was a session player there briefly before he moved to California and became Dr. John, and once described how some of the horn players had heroin habits, and would get high in their cars in the parking lot before recording. “And you know what,” Rebennack said, “It sure gave the music that warm, fuzzy feeling.” “Driving Wheel” is a hot flash of brilliance. It’s not as slow as it sounds, maybe because of a ride cymbal that just won’t stop and guitar player who picks out the perfect parts to keep the sound sharp. Parker’s voice is piercing, like it might be coming from the pulpit, and the way he worries the words at the end of lines could make a preacher blush. During the middle break he calls on the band to throw down with him, and they shout right back like a soulful peanut gallery. When Junior Parker jumps back in--“Every time she walks she’s like a leaf shaking on a tree”--the world rises up a few inches in relief. That’s singing.