The Toronto Historical Jukebox: "Honkin' At Midnight" by Frank Motley & His Motley Crew

MP3: "Honkin' At Midnight" by Frank Motley & His Motley Crew

1960s R&B from the Yonge Street strip

Frank Motley started off his career in the United States, learning to play the trumpet from jazz legend Dizzie Gillespie. And not only that: soon, he could play two trumpets at the same time. In the late 1950s, he headed north to Toronto, where he made a name for himself playing bluesy jazz and swinging R&B in downtown clubs like the Zanzibar and the Sapphire Tavern. That made him one of the pioneers of our city's very earliest rock scene, which would soon be shaking the Yonge Street strip to its foundations, earning Toronto a reputation as the hardest rocking city of its time.

"Honkin' At Midnight" may very well be Motley's greatest track, but it's far from his only memorable tune. His version of "Hound Dog" is at least as good as the version Elvis recorded — maybe even better. And when his next band — The Hitchhikers — backed singer and drag queen Jackie Shane at the Sapphire, the result was one of the best live albums Toronto has ever produced.

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This is a recent post from my Toronto Historical Jukebox blog. You can check out the rest of the songs I've written about here — or any time by clicking the Jukebox tab on the menu at the top of this blog.

Torontoist On The Toronto Historical Jukebox

A couple of weeks go, I had the chance to talk to Peter Goffin from Torontoist about the new additions to the Dreams Project I launched last year: The Toronto Historical Jukebox (the blog where I share songs from the history of the city and the stories behind them) and The Toronto Historical Bathroom Sticker Jukebox (where I stick links to those songs up in the bathrooms of music venues around the city).

The piece has some very nice things to say about the project (sample: "There are definitely worse ways to pass your time in the john."). And you can check it all out here: "Toronto Historical Jukebox Plays the Sounds of Our Past."

And, as always, you'll find the Jukebox here — or in the link in the menu at the top of this page.

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Photo: Jack London & The Sparrow play Chez Monique in Yorkville, 1966 (via the Clara Thomas Archives)

Introducing The Toronto Historical Jukebox

For the last few months I've been hard at work on a new project, combining two of my favourite things: our city's history and our city's music. It's called the Toronto Historical Jukebox and I'm finally ready to launch it — just in time for North By Northeast.

Here's the deal. There are two parts to the Jukebox:

1. An MP3 blog where I'll be sharing songs from some of the greatest bands our city has ever produced, along with the stories behind them. There will be 1960s rock 'n' roll from the Yonge Street strip. Folk music from the legendary Yorkville scene. Funk and reggae from the early days of Jamaican immigration. Hip hop from the '80s. Swing music from the '30s. And a whole lot more.

2. The Toronto Historical Bathroom Sticker Jukebox, which will be a series of stickers left in the bathrooms of music venues around town. Each one will have a URL and a QR code linking to one of the songs on the MP3 blog. They're essentially a musical version of the sticky plaques I launched last year.

Eventually, I'm planning on making some other stickers, too, leaving them in places related to the history of those bands — like, for instance, the sites of old music venues where some of Toronto's greatest-ever shows happened. Say, maybe Crash 'n' Burn, which was the centre of the Queen West punk scene for a few glorious months in the summer of 1977. Or Friar's Tavern on Yonge Street, where Bob Dylan first met The Band. Or Chez Monique in Yorkville, where Jack London & The Sparrows played every night back in the days before they changed their name to Steppenwolf.

Hopefully it will be one small way to share the musical history of the city, which I think is woefully under-appreciated. I've been writing about Toronto's music scene for years, but even I had no idea some of these songs existed until I started researching this project. And they're pretty amazing songs.

You can check out the Toronto Historical Jukebox here.