Good Golly Miss Molly

Lyrics: Blackwell, Marascalco
Music: Blackwell, Marascalco

Sung a few times by Brent Mydland with the Grateful Dead in 1987, sandwiched with Devil With The Blue Dress On. Brent sings only a truncated version:

Good golly Miss Molly, well you sure like to ball
You're rocking and you're rolling, won't you hear your mama call
From the early, early morning to the early, early night
Could see Miss Molly's rocking at the house of blue light
The full lyrics are:
Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball
Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball
When you're rockin' and a-rollin' can't hear your momma call

From the early early mornin' till the early early night
When I caught Miss Molly rockin' at the house of blue lights
Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball
When you're rockin' and a-rollin' can't hear your momma call

Momma poppa told me "son, you better watch your step"
If they knew about Miss Molly, have to watch my pop myself
Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball
When you're rockin' and a-rollin' can't hear your momma call

Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball
Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball
When you're rockin' and a-rollin' can't hear your momma call

I am going to the corner, gonna buy a diamond ring
When she hugged me and kissed me, made me ting-a-ling-a-ling
Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball
When you're rockin' and a rollin' can't hear your momma call

Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball
Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball
When you're rockin' and a-rollin' can't hear your momma call
Background
"Good Golly Miss Molly" was written by songwriter John Maracalco and producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell. It was first recorded by Little Richard in 1957, and became a top-10 hit. It was not technically the first recording released, since The Valiants (also produced by Robert Blackwell) recorded a version after Little Richard did, but which was released before his. This from Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks:
The flip [to "This Is The Night"] was a tune that had been co-authored by Bumps Blackwell: 'Good Golly Miss Molly.' While Little Richard had recorded the song earlier, the Valiants' version was actually released first. That's Billy doing his best Little Richard imitation on it. The song was recorded at a much faster tempo than Little Richard's, and they kept singing it take after take after take  ...  Rip says, "Bumps was experimenting with 'Good Golly Miss Molly' even though he'd already recorded Little Richard with it. Boy, was it ever fast! Whew, I mean fast!"
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels recorded the Devil In The Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly combination in 1966.



Further Information
For more information on recordings see Matt Schofield's Grateful Dead Family Discography
For details of every time played, see Chris Edwards Grateful Sets site

 


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