Jerry Hawkins - Cha Cha Cha

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Jerry Hawkins and previously unissued "Cha Cha Cha". A distinct rocker which is about the cha cha, but doesn't have anything close to a cha cha beat...likely the only cha cha title you can't dance the cha cha to.

Gerald, or "Jerry", was born in Mangham, Louisiana, and was 16 months younger brother of a rock and roll star, Dale Hawkins, and a sister, Linda. His father was a musician from northwest Arkansas who was one of the original Sons of the Pioneers. His parents divorced when Jerry was a "year or so old. I didn't even see my father until I was 19 years old," he recalls. His mother re-married when Jerry was "six or seven" and the family lived on a farm. As a boy, Jerry listened to KWKH and WSM where he heard Grand Ole Opry. "When I was a little older I remember over KWKH they played a lot of what was considered to be race music then," he says. "In the afternoon there was a guy named Rax Bartlett that had a radio program. We called him Groovy Boy. We'd hear Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Mahalia Jackson." Meanwhile, Jerry worked on the farm, hoeing and picking cotton, shucking corn, and bailing hay. Jerry attended Mangham High School, then moved to Bossier City where he attended Bossier High School for a year, then went to a high school in Fort Walton Beach, Florida where he lived with his uncle.

Jerry enlisted in the air force, completed his tour of duty, and attended a semester at Holmes Junior College in Mississippi on a football scholarship. While in Mississippi, his love of music was further enhanced at a place called the Wagon Wheel. "Dale was already established at that time. He was constantly pushing me towards the music," Jerry remarks.

In June 1958, Dale had a recording session at KWKH Radio Station in Shreveport, Jerry Hawkins was playing maracas on "La-Do-Dada" that was issued on Checker 900 in July. From July 1958 to December 1958, Dale Hawkins, Jerry Hawkins and The Lewis Sisters played The Skyway Club on a steady basis. In fact, Jerry managed Dale’s band while Dale was touring solo to promote his songs and build his career. Dale became a member of Lee Hasin’s «The Big Rock Show» with Jimmy Clanton, Jack Scott, The Cadillacs, Dion & The Belmonts, The Shields and other acts, and a date was played in Minneapolis with Gene Vincent and Connie Francis. At an unknown date in 1958, Dale Hawkins, Gene Vincent played at the Rio Palm Isle in Longview, Texas. Margaret & Rose Lewis, the Mathis Brothers, Shelton Bissell and Jerry Hawkins were there.

Margaret and Rose recorded with Jerry in 1958, and «Swing Daddy Swing»/»I’ve Got A Heart» was issued on Ebb 152. Margaret remembers the session was recorded by Bob Sullivan at KWKH, and she and Rose sang back up. Dean and Marc were on the session, Chris Bourcier was on drums and Joe Osborn played the guitar.

It appears Leonora Rupe, owner of Ebb records had visited the Skyway Club, possibly with Stan Lewis, where Jerry and The Rocking Hawks often played. Jerry never played the Louisiana Hayride. It seems that it was Dale who brought the KWKH recordings to Leonora Rupe while being in California and talked her into releasing them.

Jerry had two other singles on that label in 1959, «Lucky Johnny»/»Cha Cha Chu» (157) and «Need Your Lovin’»/»Lonely Night» (160). It seems Jerry tried his luck in California, where he probably recorded those sides, bringing Joe Osborn and Roy Buchanan with him. Unfortunately, things failed, and both would later join Bob Luman’s band, until Bob got his draft notice. Then they started to work again with Dale and finally returned to Shreveport to re-join Jerry at the local Stork club.

Dale invited Jerry to Miami where he was appearing on the Dick Clark Show. After Jerry met Duane Eddy in Miami, he auditioned to front his band and sing. Also, in Duane’s band was Ike Clanton, Jimmy’s brother playing bass. Jerry performed with him across the country from early 1959 to September 1959. In September Dale recorded at WCAU Radio Station in Philadelphia with Kenny Paulsen & Roy Buchanan on guitars, Jerry Hawkins was again playing maracas on "Liza Jane" that was immediately issued on Checker 934. Jerry was on the Spring Dance Party Tour of ’59 with Duane Eddy, Frankie Avalon, Link Wray, Bill Parsons and others that toured mid-West from March through May 1959. Once, while in "Washington or Oregon" where his father was living, his father came to a performance. "That was the first, the only time I ever saw him," Jerry says.

His first cousin, Ronnie Hawkins and Jerry met in Toronto where both were performing. "It was a gas really," he recalls. "We just visited and talked and you know, it was a lot of fun." Although Jerry wrote some songs, none, he believed, were sellable.

Jerry returned to Bossier City in the early 1960s. He played local Bossier clubs "for the next year or so". Jerry became president of local 116 of American Federation of Musicians, in which he became active in "about '65". Jerry became a beer distributor.