Doucette - Mama Let Him Play (mono promo edit)

Issued in Canada April 1978 on Mushroom 7030-DJM (edited mono radio remix).

Jerry Doucette was born 1952 in Montreal, into a musical family. His father and uncle played in a local band, and Jerry was exposed to music from infancy. His family moved to Hamilton, Ontario in 1956, and he took up the guitar in 1958. Jerry was in his first group, The Reefers, at age 11. (It is probably safe to assume that he didn't know what a reefer was, yet.) He moved to Toronto at age 16, and played in a succession of bands, and then moved again to Vancouver in 1972.

Jerry was a member of The Seeds Of Time, which, after numerous personnel changes, evolved into the Rocket Norton Band, in which he also played, then to Prism (in which he didn't play).

Tiring of the bar scene after several years, he quit performing and spent a lot of time in his basement, writing music and making demos with his friend and later manager, John Hadfield. They submitted a demo of three of sixteen songs they'd recorded to Shelly Siegel at Mushroom Records. Siegel was so impressed, he asked for three more songs, which Jerry brought back to him the next day. He was signed up.

The label asked Jerry to put together a band, so he acquired the services of drummer Duris Maxwell, bassist Don Cummings, rhythm guitarist Brent Shindell and keyboardist Robbie King. Jerry played all lead guitars and sang all the vocals. They spent three months in 1977 recording the "Mama Let Him Play" album, which went platinum in a very short time.

"Mama Let Him Play" was released to radio in an edited mono remix. The commercial single was same stereo mix as on the album. It entered the RPM 100 on April 22, 1978 at #94 and rose to spend only two weeks at #46 (what kind of drugs were these radio people on, anyway?! Number 46??) in May.

Interestingly, there are only three musicians on this track - Jerry on all guitars and vocals, Don Cummings on bass and Duris Maxwell on drums. It says on the album that eight people are clapping their hands, but they're only in the section of the album version that is missing here.

This recording is mono, but you will hear a higher-quality rendition of it and see sharper pictures by typing the following code - &fmt=18 - on the end of the URL and hitting Enter to reload the page.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jerry
• Doucette
• Mama
• Let
• Him
• Play
• mono
• promo
• edit
• 1978
• Canadian
• rock

[leftatalbuquerque]

Is it just me, or is this vocalist the same as Doug and the Slugs?

[mojofilter02]

@leftatalbuquerque

It's just you.

[mustwinder]

Where did this song chart on the US Billboard? Not that it matters but I remember hearing on rock stations a lot back in the late 70's and 80's.

[mojofilter02]

@mustwinder

It reached #72 in the Billboard Hot 100, so it got a halfway decent amount of airplay in enough states for it to register.

[Sledge1998]

sending mono promos..no wonder mushroom died...lol

[mojofilter02]

Huh? Just about every label that ever existed made mono mixes for radio. What point are you trying to make here?

[StarscreamLord]

I love classic music even though I am just 15.

[mcnoobert]

This shouldave been bigger.

Give that boy some freedom!

[JesusLu76]

can't find this song on itunes! would love to buy this song :(

[flyyspit]

TY sooo much...Stumbled on this CLASSIC that I didnt even think of

LOVE it

[doglips1958]

One of thee BEST songs of the 70's!!!!#72 in the US.What a waste of a GREAT song!!!!Shoulda been a #1!!!!!

[renee7aw]

kick ass...great memories belting this out with friends

[wilkes85]

wow this is Canadian?! Whoa we have ALL the best music!

[sidebforever2010]

i swear this song song is played on K97 twice a day, not surprising for the best classic rock station i've ever heard

[sunflowerofpeace]

Let him plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay :)

[Naz67]

wish I could find his song "All Over Me"

[MOoTS20101]

Thank the stars for Canadian Rockers. I was born at the greatest time in all of music history, I was born with the Beatles, I lived just around the corner from Woodstock, the summers were spent with Guess Who and guys like Jerry Doucette, Matt Minglewood, Ronny Hawkins and Robby Robertson and the rest of The Band. Bless Up allaya's