Wild Man  of the tenor sax.  That sums it  up for this great saxophonist from Texas.   There are a bunch of really great ones: Big Jay McNeely, Sil Austin, Red Prysock, Earl Bostic. But for some reason, Joe Houston is my favorite Maybe it  was  the first time I   heard "All Night Long", or maybe it was any number of records before or after, that made  me think he could honk with the best of them.  He made a ton of records and there is just a small sampling of them on this page. A good but still incomplete selection of his LP's are the highlight below, but collecting the complete catalog of  Joe Houston vinyl   might  take a room addition to the house!

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Although this is his first LP,the original issue had a full color picture of Joe on the front with song titles.The colorful purple Combo LP  label is pictured to the right. The original   issue was 1955, this from 1956.
 
 
 
Joe Houston "Rockin At The Drive In" LP. Great classic photo of Joe blowing the sax, and   Los Angeles DJ Art Laboe Dancing to the left of him. Laboe was at station KPOP at the   time, and did live remote's from Scrivners Drive In. When he started, there were two in   the Los Angeles area. The El Segundo location is where he started it, and the restaurant chain grew to 12 very quickly. The LP was released in 1956.
 
 
 
Issued in 1956, this Modern LP  number 1206 was chocked full  of fine instrumentals   from Joe. There is a shot of the Modern record label. This was also reissued as Crown 5006 seen pictured below.
 
 
 
This is a reissue of the Modern label LP shown in the previous picture set.There were two  different covers issued,  the red one  shown above and the much more common black  with   white  print.  The title was  also changed to "Rocks And Rolls All Night Long".As seen,the listed tracks are exactly the same as on the Modern issue. Released in 1957, notice that the title of the label is the same as the modern issue, but does not match the crown LP, "Rocks And Rolls All Night Long".
 
 
 
Here is the black cover alluded to above. Same record and cover as  pictured above, but......just black.The label and record, for that matter is identical to the one above. Side   2 is shown.
   
Here is an odd later press of this album. The High Fidelity is prominent at the bottom, and   the label is the later gray that was used by Crown. The songs all remain the same as the previous albums, and side "B" is shown.
   
 
 
 
Manufactured by the Tops record company in 1956,this disc featured 12 more cuts by   Houston. The "All Night Long"  track is  not the same as the original Money label version. See the EP section below for a matching 45. "Rock And Roll" by Joe Houston and  his Rockets, was a good compilation.Tops was a budget label specializing in top hit songs   by unknown artists, except of course, in this case.
 
 
 
From 1961,  here's the LP shown at the top of the page.  As with all the crown LP's shown   thus far, it was only pressed in mono. Ten cuts  appear on  this Joe  Houston LP.   Interestingly enough,it was  four years  between  this release and the last one on Crown.
 
 
 
Here's Joe blowing the twist on Crown 5246. This is the original mono version.  The label  above is showing five of the ten cuts,  all with  the twist theme.
 
 
 
Ah,the twist in glorious Stereo! Issued  in  1962,  the back  cover had lessons on  how   to twist, that the mono issue didn't.  And the  Stereo label, CST 248. The Crown label has some color to it.
 
   
Joe Houston has officially twisted himself into orbit. Still looks like a 1962 release from   Crown records. Another take on the Twist craze, with all the record tracks having twist in  the titles. This is the mono LP, and a Stereo version was released on CST 252.
   
This is the Stereo version. The stereo label is but on the top of the cover label, and the   High Fidelity bottom label is gone. The only real difference is on the LP cover.
   
 
 
The stereo version of Joe Houston  and the Rockin And Rollin LP. Ten more fine   instrumental tracks are available for the purchaser's listening pleasure.The label shot is picturing the gray Crown stereo label. The  stereo   versions all had lower numbers.
 
 
 
It's 1963, the Twist is over?   and it's time to  pick up on the surfin craze.  Nothing like a   great surf scene on the front cover to entice the public to buy.The label is gray, with   black    lettering. This is the stereo issue. It didn't matter what was popular, Joe Houston could play sax to the beat.
 
 
 
Chubby Checker does it, why not  Mr. Joe Houston?  This disc was Issued in 1963, it shows   Joe getting ready to dance under the stick, with his red hot saxophone. Another eye   catching  album cover from  the fine folks  at Crown records. Ten more limbo influenced   sax honkers from Joe. Crown records was always finding ways to re-package records, and   sometimes they even used the same song from a previous record,  and renamed it to   fit   the theme!
 
 
 
The stereo issue of "Limbo".The only way to improve on the mono copy is to hear it in   stereo!  Side 2 with the remaining  five tracks of this album. Each title has Limbo in it.
 
 
 
Here is just a classic LP cover used to sell some great sax from Joe Houston. See that   Houston is not credited on the cover.He is however, mentioned on the back cover. Craftsmen,   another  budget label release, has used the Rockets once again as his backup group. This  looks like an early 1960's release with several cuts that are early Joe Houston material.
 
 
 
Here is one of the 2 EP's that Joe issued  for the Combo label  in 1954. The back side of the cover is   blank, but the record is great!  EP's  generally had two songs per side(sometimes   more)and  were a bit more expensive then the regular 45.
 
 
 
The only EP  Houston recorded for Modern and RPM records, in 1955. Nice detail on the front cover. Strangely, this EP was issued as Modern records on the cover,but used the RPM label for the disc. The two record companies were related.
 
 
 
Another flashy cover from the Tops record company. This is actually a companion to the Tops LP listed earlier. It included two EP's in a gatefold jacket. Released in 1956, the disc is the standard black and silver that Tops is most famous for. Note that this EP jammed on three songs per side which equals 1/2 the total album cuts.
 
 
This is an odd release from 1963. One side has 5 songs from  Joe Houston, the other side has  five cuts  from  Teddy Reynolds. Reynolds history goes back at least to the 40's. Gilmar, you guessed it, was another budget label,specializing more in 45's and 33's the size of 45's. You could join the Gilmar record club and buy tons of  their  records.  Or you could  wait for them to appear in the second hand  store. I  don't believe  they came with anything but Gilmar based record sleeves.
 
 
 
If  you have only heard one record by Joe Houston,the disc on the left was probably it. Released in December of   1954, "All Night Long" was  his  biggest  selling record on  John  Dolphin's  Money   label. Also from 1954, one of the dozens of labels he appeared on, many from the Los Angeles area. Great honking sax on Lucky, a label that also recorded a few classic R+B   groups.
 
 
 
"Moody" was the first of four records released on the Bayou label, in 1953. One of many 45's released on Los Angeles's Combo records from 1954 through 1961, Curfew was Issued in 1959.
 
 
Gone Missing:   That  would  include  a  boat  load  of  recordings.  I'm specifically looking    for the first cover  on Combo 100, mono issues of the stereo  Crown LP's already   shown, and  any misc. 45's and 78's you might have. Email me what you are selling.