The Huggins Bothers were a Texas group that had the garage sound pretty early in the game. With this 45 recorded in 1964 with there cover of Dale Hawkins “Susie Q” and there cover of The Venture’s “Mr. Moto.” One can really hear the groups blues influence on “Susie Q” especially from Texas born Freddie King, the original slow hand. I had a phone conversation with Gary Huggins about the group:
We recorded this single in 1964 for Knight Records in Dallas. The members were: myself, Gary Huggins on lead guitar, my brother Lanny Huggins on vocals and rhythm guitar, my other brother Mickey Huggins on drums and Bobby Floyd on bass, we later picked up a keyboard player after this recording session his name is Mike Haynes. We started playing music together in Paris, Texas as children as young as 9 to 10 years old. We all grew up together with guitars and musical instruments, from our parents playing music and listening to country and blues. Our main influences at the time we recorded this single were from the blues genre, acts like Jimmy Reed and Freddie King, but also many country acts as well. Being from Paris we played in Dallas a lot, however being to young to play in the bars and clubs we played mainly parties and jamborees. We didn’t really play with to many other rock groups of the day in Dallas because we were younger than many groups, but had more experience since we had been playing together since we were kids. We were getting paid to play, we had ten years of experience playing, so we were playing paying gigs, while the other up and coming rock groups were just trying to play (bedroom groups). We were lucky in this aspect because we were able to play bigger venues. Don McKnight who owned Knight Records happened to be from Paris and knew us all well and was actually a rockabilly artist and approached us to record. So we recorded “Suzie Q” and “Mr. Moto.” On the cover of “Suzie Q” I used, for the opening chord, E7#9 (common jazz chord) as far as I know it was not used in a rock context until Jimi Hendrix and others started commonly using it in the late 60’s. I borrowed it from a jazz tune that I played by Howard Roberts. After recording that track my brother Lanny moved to Tyler to pursue a communications degree, and was replaced by Paul Hutchins. Paul Hutchins recorded a track for the Sea Ell label “People Gonna Walk on You,” at Robin Hood Brians Studio. Paul was also from Paris, Texas and was a best friend of my brother Mickey growing up.
Gary actually played electric sitar on the Paul Hutchins track for Sea Ell. If I can ever track down a copy of that single I will post it here. Gary, his brothers and Paul Hutchins still play in Dallas and Paris to this day. I would like to dedicate this post to Gary who provided all of the information and photos to boot, but also to the group’s original bassist. Bobby Floyd who is battling cancer, I wish the best to him and his family.
The Photo below shows the entire group in 1964 playing at the Cabana Hotel in Dallas for a fraternity party. Enjoy this early Texas rock.
LISTEN: The Huggins Bros. – Suzie Q
LISTEN: The Huggins Bros. – Mr. Moto
