Twinkie Lee / Hold Me

Then came the confusion. Bright claimed he was unable to get any money. “I needed a suit to do the Dick Clark Show,” he said. “I didn’t have any money so I asked for an advance. They said, ‘We don’t give advances.’ So I walked into another company. I was half swacked and I said, ‘My name’s Larry Bright, I’ve got a hit record and no money.’ So Rod Pearce of Rendezvous Records gave me $1000 and I signed a contract.” Bright made it sound easy; one report said that John Blore was a factor in the connection. At any rate a new release, “Twinkie Lee,” came out on Rendezvous. “Twinkie Lee was the name of the cat of Cluck Blore’s daughter,” explained Bright. “I figured - how do you get close to a guy? - make his daughter smile - so I wrote ‘Twinkie Lee.” Bright claimed that Dorsey Burnette played a Danelectro six string bass on the session. In 1958 Burnette had recorded a very similar song, “Bertha Lou,” written by John Marascalco. Marascalco (writer of “Rip It Up,” “Ready Teddy,” among others) recognized that “Twinkie Lee” was an infringement. He sued and got half the song. (Bright also said that he taught the song to the Walker Brothers, who had some later success with it in England). While some sources have said that “Twinkie Lee” was climbing the local charts just as “Mojo Workout” was dropping off, I have been unable to document that. The record got enough action to attract the attention of Tide. They served Rendezvous with an injunction and obtained the master. Through a deal with Sid Talmadge, it was released on Highland (though delta numbers suggest it was nearly four years later). Rendezvous’ strange response was to keep the record on the market under the name Pete Roberts (Bright himself was not aware of this until 1988).