Earl Reed Marcum was born in the American state of Kentucky, the birthplace of bluegrass, a fast specialty from the country that he immediately became a fan of. He started playing the guitar and soon showed great talent, becoming an instrument virtuoso. Finally he formed a big band that made both bluegrass and swing and that began to stand out in the area playing in town dances and improvised country sessions. With the emergence of rockabilly he made some changes in the formation and in his style, and renamed his ensemble as Earl Reed & the Rhythm Rockers. They were signed by a Seal of the neighbor Ohio, Cherokee, who edited them a couple of wild rockabilly singles: "Mama" and "Flat foot Sam" (1958). Interestingly the voice of the Rhythm Rockers (which should not be confused with any other of the many of the same name, see its own entry) was not the leader of the band, Reed, but a promising Johnny Scoggins. This was a gifted singer who would immediately seek to triumph alone, leaving the group, which precipitated the dissolution of this, in addition, Scoggins was its main composer. Scoggins would then record two excellent rockabilly albums for Fraternity, "Talk to me baby" (1959) and "I'm gonna stay" (1960). They did not work as they should, probably because the rockabilly was already in the doldrums, and Scoggins' career seemed doomed to end. But he persisted, without betraying the rock principles, even though his music was attenuated with some country touches, and he continued to act and live mainly on music. After some years in limbo, in which he only recorded "Hurt put me in the drivers seat", those of K-Ark records repaired him and he published two other good albums, "Baby's boss" (1965) and " Pull me up from my knees " (1966). They went unnoticed and Scoggins lost track, because I doubt it has anything to do with John Scoggins who recorded some horrible pop records in the 70s.

(Sorry! Don’t remember where I found this fact about Earl Reed)

Original release CHEROKEE 45-779 (Ohio, US) 11/1958 // This release, BOOTLEG repro Cherokee 45-779 [1972]