He was born Rudolph Spencer Greene and is often listed incorrectly on liner notes as Rudy Greene. Although neither a prolific nor famous blues artist, he is an artist who is often listed on liner notes, period. These albums are usually compilations of certain types of blues, early rock, or R&B with a focus on the rowdy, for this is the type of record that Greene apparently excelled at. Compilations that claim to be "stomping," "screaming and frantic," "jumping and jiving," or contain just plain "too much rocking" all have tracks by this artist, whose most-famous songs include the hilarious I Want a Bowlegged Woman and the surreal Juicy Fruit. The latter track alone shows up on a handful of different early rock and regional label compilations, complete with the lyric "I got a car so long I park it in the air." Greene's work inhabits that netherworld somewhere between blues and rock, and he is even sometimes considered rockabilly, most likely because his earliest sides came out of Nashville. He was a disciple of the great blues guitarist T-Bone Walker and the only known photo of Greene reveals him picking with the guitar behind his head, a stunt for which his idol was well-known. The similarity to Walker extends well beyond visual hoopla, as many of the recorded Greene guitar solos feature the same sort of razor-sharp tone and liquid sense of melody. Greene started out as a blues guitarist and singer, cutting several sides for that city's Bullet company in 1949. He did two sessions as a leader for the Chance label a few years later and also performed and recorded as a sideman behind singer Bobby Prince in 1953. In 1955, the same year he was holding down a regular gig at the Windy City's Club 34, Greene recorded for that city's Club 51 records as Rudy Greene the Four Buddies. This was actually a combination of Greene and a seperate vocal quartet consisting of five singers Ularsee Minor, Jimmy Hawkins, Irving Hunter, William Bryant, and Dickie Umbra. Fellow bluesmen Prince Cooper and Eddie Chamblee provided additional accompaniment on piano and saxophone, respectively, for this ensemble that hopefully counted time better than it did its membership. Greene sings solo in a style that has been compared to Roy Brown on one side from these sessions, the intense Highway No. 1. Perhaps inspired to hit the highway himself, Greene headed for a warmer climate and his own so-called 15 minutes of fame in 1956. Working out of the Tampa club scene, he was presented with the opportunity to record for the Ember label in New York City. His first record from this new contract was Juicy Fruit, a superb effort that was infectious enough to be a regional hit. It could have also gone national had the label not become obsessed with a different release, Walkin' With Mr. Lee, by Lee Allen. Showering its limited promotional abilities on this record, the company soon forgot how mouthwatering Greene's record had been. The same kind of promotional neglect killed his follow-up for the label and Greene faded from sight. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi