HaroldDorman singing
MountainOf Love
andnot Riley, who once againmissed out.He
moved on and set up his ownMojo Records initially in partnership with Stan Kesler, a
songwriter and musician from Sun and in 1960 cut two up-tempo country songs in
Memphis,
Fast Livin’
, his own composition and
Hill CountryMusic
completewithbacking
fromhisregularcrew,RolandJanes (guitar), JimmyWilson (piano)andJMVanEaton (drums).
Theywerereleasedunder thenameofSkipWiley,oneof themanyaliases thatBillywasadopting
around this time. Othermaterial surfaced onMyrl, Nita, Dodge, Checker andHome of the
Blues, but Memphis was no longer the centre of the action and all this activity was passing
largelyunnoticed.
By1962,Billyconcluded that themusic scene inMemphiswasdeadanddroveWest to try
his luck inCalifornia, initially stayingwith former SunA&RmanCharlesUnderwood inLos
Angeles, and thanks to him soon found work as a sessionmusician, playing either guitar or
harmonica.Over thenext fewyearsheplayedon suchdiverse recordings as
TheLonelyBull
by
HerbAlpert,DeanMartin’s
Houston
, theBeachBoys
HelpMeRhonda
and thehit album ‘Live
AtTheWhisky-A-Go-Go’ by JohnnyRivers.
For the second time inhiscareer,Rileywas in thecentreof theactionwith theGo-Gocraze.
TheWhiskyonSunsetStripwasdrawing in thecrowdsandhewasapopular liveperformerbut
despite a record deal withMercury, it was two albums of harmonica instrumentals that they
issued during 1964, the very same year when JohnnyRivers carved up the charts with funky
updated versions of rock ‘n’ roll standards like
Memphis
and
Maybelline.
Consequently, Riley
missedout again, his own ‘Whisky-A-Go-GoPresents’ album trailing in the following year by
which timeRivers had already lickedup all the cream.
Abunchof surf instrumentalshadbeen recordedasSandyand theSandstones,whichwere
perversely issuedbyCheckeron ‘Surfin’WithBoDiddley’despiteanabsenceofanycontribution
from the greatman,while further releases in themid-sixties appearedonCrescendo, including
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