Birdlegs & Pauline - Birdlegs (1964)

Sidney “Birdlegs” Banks and his wife Pauline made the trek from Rockford, Illinois, to Sauk City, Wisconsin, in early ’63 to cut a record on the cheap at Jim Kirchstein's Cuca Records. Backed by brothers Mack and Floyd Murphy as The Versatility Birds, the couple cut the bluesy shuffler “Spring” b/w “So Many Ways” issued on Cuca that February and eventually climbing to #18 on the R&B chart and later reissued by a near-bankruptcy Vee Jay. “Pauline was one of the finest vocalists I’ve ever heard,” Kirchstein said. “Could have been a lot of money if [Vee Jay] had stayed in business. We did an album on them shortly after.” That album came and went with the season, and by the end of the decade the Bankses had split. Former Mrs. Banks Pauline Shivers cut a handful of records under her maiden name for Chicago’s Expo and Opex concerns. Birdlegs never recorded again, a rare one and done hit artist.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Spring (2:52)
1.02 - Birdlegs & Pauline - In so Many Ways (3:55)
1.03 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Never Be Free of Me (3:08)
1.04 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Mist of a Dream (3:41)
1.05 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Pickin' the Chicken (2:48)
1.06 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Tell Me Why (2:41)
1.07 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Suffer (2:57)
1.08 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Teardrops (4:27)
1.09 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Please Don't Cry (2:49)
1.10 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Just Can't Help Myself (2:39)
1.11 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Hey Birdlegs (2:56)
1.12 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Summertime (3:42)
1.13 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Deep Thoughts (2:41)
1.14 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Monkey Willie (5:06)
1.15 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Pauline (2:12)
1.16 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Chickenwawa (2:37)
1.17 - Birdlegs & Pauline - Dishrag (4:22)