Song of the Week – Houston El Mover, Joe “King” Carrasco & The Crowns

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Back in the late 70s and early 80s, my college buddy Paul C. was spending a lot of time in New York City checking out new indie bands in the rock clubs. He gave me a copy of the B52s indie release of “Rock Lobster” b/w “52 Girls” at least a half year before their WB debut. (I still have my copy.)

Today’s SotW is “Houston El Mover” by another artist he turned me on to, Tex-Mex musician Joe “King” Carrasco & The Crowns. “Houston El Mover” is a fun party record. It was released during the height of the New Wave in 1981 and was quickly dubbed Nuevo Wavo.

The song uses the Tex-Mex template laid out by other Texan bands like Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs (“Wolly Bully”) and The Sir Douglas Quintet (“She’s About A Mover” and “Mendicino”) — fun loving, R&B based songs driven by a cheesy Farfisa organ sound.

You just can’t keep still when this song is playing.

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The original 45 rpm single “Party Weekend” b/w “Houston El Mover” was financed by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and helped the band to get early notices. From there they got on a bit of a roll. They earned a record contract, played dates in all of New York’s hottest clubs, did a European tour and were honored with an opportunity to perform on Saturday Night Live. The band even won kudos from the notoriously hard to please pen of Lester Bangs.

Enjoy… until next week.