Rockabilly Hipster Dale Hawkins Returns

DALE HAWKINS'S FIRST HIT launched two of the greatest careers in rootsy American rock. But not without a left-field nudge from famed record producer Jerry Wexler. In 1958, Hawkins had recorded a single for Leonard Chess's Checker label. "Leonard had sat on the tape three or four months. We sent it to Jerry at Atlantic, and Jerry called back to say, 'I love it, it's a smash.' " Then he gave Hawkins a message for Chess that Hawkins still asks not be repeated verbatim. So let's just say Wexler told Chess to excrete or "get off the pot."