Dallas Frazier is known as a songwriter whose tunes were recorded by George Jones, Charlie Rich, the Oak Ridge Boys, and the Hollywood Argyles, who gave Frazier his first success by turning "Alley Oop" into a hit in the early '60s. He also had a recording career, which is where he debuted perhaps his best-known song, "Elvira," later cherry-picked by Rodney Crowell for his debut album and then turned into a smash country crossover in the early '80s by the Oak Ridge Boys. His songs -- not just this pair, but "Mohair Sam," "There Goes My Everything," "Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp," and "True Love Travels on a Gravel Road," among others -- were well-known but his own records weren't, and they remained unheard until Raven issued Frazier's two albums for Capitol, 1966's Elvira and its 1967 follow-up, Tell It Like It Is!, as a two-fer in 2008, adding three singles ("Tennessee Sue," "King of the Jungle," "Make Believe You're Here with Me") to fill out the CD. This is a major reissue, as it offers a case that Frazier was as distinctive a musician as he was a writer, cutting albums that hold their own with Charlie Rich's funky country-soul for Smash and Epic, as well as Elvis' 1968 comeback.
The connection to Charlie Rich is inescapable on Frazier's 1966 debut, Elvira, as it contains Dallas' own versions of "Mohair Sam" and "She's a Yum Yum," songs that Rich cut the same year that Elvira was released. There's not much separating Rich and Frazier's versions; they have the same polished, funky Southern groove, equal parts R&B and country, played by pros who are too good not to give this soul. As similar as the two artists sound, there are differences, many of which can be inferred by Frazier's songs themselves. As the author of "Alley Oop" and "She's a Yum Yum," it shouldn't come as a great surprise that Frazier has the flair of a comedian, something that Rich lacks, and it's a delight to listen to him deliver his own jokes on these, or to hear him dip into gibberish on "Just a Little Bit of You," which otherwise is a stomping two-step worthy of the Sir Douglas Quintet. Sometimes this easy frivolity can overshadow his facility with deeper soul, but his knack for gorgeous, bluesy ballads shines on "Especially for You" and "Done Made Up My Mind." Of course, these two cuts -- each arriving as the second track on its respective LP side -- are the only times that the tempo slows on Elvira, as the rest of this consists of rollicking good times. Sure, Frazier can get a little silly -- he has a weakness for jokes and nonsense, evidenced by the very title of "Whoop It on 'Um" and the giddy-up chorus of the title song -- but this never turns into novelty, as the music has grit and Frazier has style, never pushing his jokes too hard. In fact, it's so much fun that it's not until a second listen that it becomes clear how thoroughly Frazier blurred the lines between R&B, rock & roll, soul, and country here, creating a roots music that was pretty progressive for 1966 and still sounds absolutely addictive all these years later.
Arriving just a year after Elvira, Frazier's second album, Tell It Like It Is!, offers more of the same, but that's hardly a complaint. Frazier had such a light, easy touch that it's a pure joy to hear him turn out another 12 tracks of funky country-soul, and he's in fine form here from the moment "Don't Come Knocking on My Door" kicks off the album. For as similar as this is to Elvira, Tell It Like It Is! does have some notable difference, chief among them how Frazier turned to outside writers for his slow ones this time around, cutting George Davis and Lee Diamond's "Tell It Like It Is" (popularized, of course, by Aaron Neville) and Curly Putman's "Green, Green Grass of Home." He also cut a song from former rockabilly rebel Ronnie Self in "Home in My Hand," a relentless celebration of the rock & roll lifestyle later cut by Brinsley Schwarz and Dave Edmunds. With its references to one-night stands and smoking weed, "Home in My Hand" is far wilder than anything on either Frazier record, a reflection of the loosening times in 1967, but it's an isolated incident here. Most of the record reflects its time with a production that's ever-so-slightly splashier than Elvira, feeling a bit more showbiz than its predecessor, an impression that's made somehow stronger by Frazier's slight emphasis on novelties, including "Clawhammer Clyde" and "Honk'n Tonk," a tale of two fleas. These silly songs and the glitzy production suggest that Frazier and Capitol were gunning for a hit, but they weren't gunning too hard, as the basic sound of Frazier's music hadn't changed: it was still funky country, rock & roll, and R&B that didn't sound like anyone else outside of Charlie Rich in 1967. Again, Frazier was just slightly ahead of his time, predating such roots-rocking mavericks as Tony Joe White, and while that didn't result in a big hit, it did make for music that has aged better than a lot of country or rock & roll records from that year.