Red Hot - Billy Lee Riley
2:33
single, 1957
Written by Billy Emerson, 1955
I thought this primitive rockabilly number was a Riley original, but it was written and recorded by Billy "The Kid" Emerson two years earlier. It's a blazing Little Richard-style tongue-in-cheek brag, complete with a boogie piano and amusing exaggerated characterizations in the lyrics: "Well, I got a gal, six feet four / Sleeps in the kitchen with her feets out the door." Of course, the chorus is all schoolyard braggadocio. "My gal is red hot / Your gal ain't doodly-squat." Well, now, that's just uncalled for, sir. Your lady friend's positive qualities in no way attenuate the many fine qualities of my lady friend!