Southern Rooster was an American production company run by Knox Phillips, son of Sun Records founder Sam. It placed records by the Amazing Rhythm Aces and John Prine with other companies and put out three singles on its own label in the States, one of which, 'Blue Monday' b/w 'Good Old Rock And Roll' by Billy Lee Riley (706-639; 1979), is shown above. According to the 'New Singles' leaflet for the 2nd of March 1979 that single was also released in Britain, with the 'A' and 'B' sides swapped and a catalogue number of SR-706. 'Music Master' for 1980 also mentioned the single and confirmed the March release date, but it keept 'Blue Monday' as the 'A' side, which suggests that the swapping of the sides by 'TNS' may have been merely a printer's error. Helpfully 'MM' provided the name of the company behind the UK release: it was Rock 'n' Roll reissue specialists Rollercoaster (q.v.). There's no trace of a UK pressing with the SR-706 catalogue number, but half of the sellers of the American single listed on Discogs are from Britain, which suggests that it may have been imported rather than made in this country and that Rollercoaster may just have used SR-706 as their own reference number. The price given in 'MM', £1.25, is on the high side for a domestically-pressed single, which again suggests an import. Distribution was by Lugton. Thanks to Klepsie of the 45cat site for bringing the New Singles reference to my attention and to James Denholm for the 'Music Master' information.
Copyright 2021 Robert Lyons.