Before the Blues Brothers, the Chips Served a "Rubber Biscuit"

The doo-wop sound of the 1950s was born on the street corners of America’s cities. Groups of teens would harmonize, creating music without instruments. Their a cappella tunes relied on nonsensical words–like the “bom-bom-bom” of the bass–to mimic the absent guitars and drums. Few groups took this concept further than the Chips: Charles “Kenrod” Johnson (lead), Nathaniel Epps (baritone), Paul Fulton (bass) and tenors Sammy Strain and Shedrick Lincoln. The teens sang together on the corners of Bergen Street, Classon Avenue and Clifton Place in Brooklyn’s rough and tumble Bedford-Stuyvesant. However the first song the Chips would record was written by Kenrod Johnson 60 miles upstate… at the Warwick School for Delinquent Teenagers.

Though the Warwick School was a tough and violent place, Johnson would amuse the other teens by mocking the army’s marching “hup-two three-four” chant with his own silly verses. The rhymes formed the basis of “Rubber Biscuit,” a lyrical mix of jibberish and crazy cuisine items like cool-water sandwiches and Sunday-go-to-meeting buns.

After his release, Johnson and his vocal group in Brooklyn, now known as the Chips, recorded “Rubber Biscuit” for Josie Records in August 1956 at Belltone Studios in New York City. Released in September 1956, the record never broke the national top 40 but became a favorite of East Coast disc jockeys. The Chips toured briefly with the Dells and the Cadillacs, then broke up in late 1957; its members moved on to join groups like the Platters and Little Anthony and the Imperials.

In 1973, “Rubber Biscuit” received renewed attention when director Martin Scorsese included the track in his seminal film “Mean Streets,” the story of small-time hoods in Little Italy. The Chips’ original is heard as Charlie (Harvey Keitel) staggers drunkenly through a neighborhood bar.

“Rubber Biscuit” finally became a hit in 1978 when the Blues Brothers, “Saturday Night Live” comedians John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as singers “Joliet” Jake and Elwood Blues, covered the song on their LP “Briefcase Full of Blues.” Backed by an all-star band, Belushi and Aykroyd recorded their debut album live at Los Angeles’ Universal Amphitheatre. The LP, a reflection of Belushi and Aykroyd’s respect for the greats of rhythm and blues, reached number one on the Billboard charts and sold two million copies; “Briefcase” also yielded another hit single, “Soul Man.” The success of the album led to the release of the 1980 movie “The Blues Brothers.”

And in case you were wondering, a cool-water sandwich is a slice of watermelon and a Sunday-go-to-meeting bun is a roll that you snatch off the kitchen table as you rush off to church.

Source by Lee Jensen