The Four Blazes

There was a better-known and similar group with this same name that was based out of Chicago, and for awhile expanded to the Five Blazes. The West Coast version actually beat the other one into the recording studio by several years, but it was the title of a song that led to much of the mistaken identity between the two vocal configurations. When the Los Angeles version of the Four Blazes broadcast and recorded a song entitled "Chicago Blues," it clearly spelled trouble ahead for the musical researchers who take so much stock from city names in song lyrics and titles. Especially when there is already a group with the same name from the city in question. This innocent little city blues has caused untold confusion on both anthology releases and published discographies. Other sides by the California Four Blazes include "Boogie Woogie Billy" and "Man, That's Groovy!," later reissued on a British anthology entitled Man That's Groovy -- Early Vocal Groups 1935-1944. The Japanese P-Vine reissue refers to this group as the Four Blazes (Hollywood), thus establishing a possible method of distinguishing amongst the ashes of these competing groups. But on the second volume in this series, the same label turns around and misidentifies one of the tracks, leading a later reissue on Document to make the same mistake, listing the Los Angeles group as the Five Blazes and supplying the personnel of the Chicago group. Real fanatics of the West Coast version can seek out the Viper's Nest compilation Streets of Paris, in which broadcaster Corky Corcoran includes an announcement that the Four Blazes would be there to perform the following night. It's the Los Angeles version, obviously. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi