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Ahhh, Rufus, How We Loved You!
by Thomas Givens
I am a child of the 50's--started junior high in 1951 and graduated from college in l959. I discovered rhythm and blues in the fall of 1954, the beginning of my senior year in high school. I was fooling around with the radio dial one night, and came across WLAC, a clear channel station out of Nashville. The program was "Randy's Record Corner," hosted by Gene Nobles. The song I happened upon was "Earth Angel" by the Penguins. I was hooked. From then on throughout my college career my radio was tuned to that station at 10:00 p.m.The 50's were great years. We bopped to Little Richard and Fats Domino, and enjoyed the belly-rubbing and turnrow music of the Platters and Five Satins.
I transferred from Sunflower Junior College (now known as Mississippi Delta Community College) to Delta State College (now University) in November l956, my sophomore year. A black band out of Vicksburg played at the Christmas dance that year--a band called the Red Tops, and by golly, I was hooked again. They were really good, could play anything. The highlight of every dance was when Rufus, the lead singer, sang "Danny Boy." Everyone stopped dancing and gathered around the stage to listen. It was beautiful.
We followed the Red Tops all over the Delta, wherever they were playing--Rosedale, Greenville, Greenwood, Clarksdale. Time and distance didn't matter.
In 1958/59, my senior year at Delta State, we again anticipated the Tops. However the student body was advised that the Tops would not be playing any dances that year. Someone, somewhere, had decided having a black band violated some rule of segregation. State or local, we never found out. To try to describe the disappointment would be futile.
Not being allowed to dance to the music of the Red Tops that Spring of '59 is a black mark on my memories of the 50's, but nothing can ever erase the thrill of those cotillion dances across the Delta with the Red Tops and Rufus singing "Danny Boy."
Here are two more interesting stories about the Red Tops at USADS!
The Red Tops of Vicksburg, Mississippi by Jim Harrison
Rufus McKay wows crowd by Joe Gary (with picture of Rufus)
And here's a wonderful article by Sherry Lucas from the pages of the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger:
Red Tops' Rufus returns!
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COMMENTS ON TOM'S ARTICLE~~
from Jon Hill of Tallahassee, Florida:
Message: Just located the usadeepsouth web site and read your article on the Red Tops! Talk about irony
. . . I enjoy an occasional cigar. Can't smoke inside. So I retire to the garage where I have a chair, table, lamp, reading material and a little cd player. Just last week I dug out a cd my wife had ordered for me from a Mississippi magazine we found at Books A Million. It was the Red Tops!
I spent the better part of that evening playing that CD, reading and re-reading the cd notes . . . and remembering the white jackets, red jackets, white shoes, the Rosedale Courthouse, the after-party breakfasts in lord knows where, and the fun. On nights when the Red Tops were playing, the entire Delta was our playground.
I think the flat land, sparse trees, and lack of ditches along the roads allowed most of us to survive those nights!
If you go outside on a clear night and concentrate, I think you can still hear the far-away sounds of Swanee River Rock and O Danny Boy wafting around. Old times there are not forgotten.
Thanks for the article! . . . . . Jon Hill
From: ann smith-vaniz crigler
Message: I graduated from Cleveland High School in 1962 and Delta State in 1965. I was in Beth Boswell Jacks's class and we are still good friends. Anyway, you brought back many wonderful memories as I too loved WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Rosedale Christmas Night dances with The Red Tops!!! I still love that kind of music, and the Mississippi Delta had the best!!!!!!!
From: Montie Walker
Message: LOVED the article about the Red Tops. We had so much fun back then going all over the Delta, dancing and meeting people we'd connect with all of our lives! I grew up in Tribbett/went to Leland High. Rufus was just the best. And that Danny Boy. WOW. The kids today can't imagine what they are missing.
--Montie Walker/ Franklin, Tn.
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Thomas Preston Givens was born in the very depths of the Mississippi Delta, Rural Route One, Boyle. He's a graduate of Delta State College (now University) and received the LL.B degree from Mississippi College School of Law. He's been a lawyer, a judge, and probably lots of other things he'd rather not divulge. His present intentions? Retirement soon as practicable.
Write Tom at deltajudge2@bellsouth.net