Since Webb has covered two songs from Biloxi, Mississippi band The One Way Street, and I was born in the Biloxi area around the time the band was active, I got curious about this little-known group. Gulf Coast newspapers from the mid 1960s reveal that the band started out as The Topics Four, before re-branding as The One Way Street around 1967. The group was comprised of two sets of brothers, Chuck & Bobby Ryan and Leon & Dewey Miller. The name change to One Way Street was the result of pressure from a record label. The brothers were mulling over new names after a gig one night when they noticed they had chained their equipment trailer to a one-way sign (to keep it from being stolen). Thus, the One-Way Street was born. They played the Mississippi coast frequently throughout 1967, and had a standing monthly gig at Biloxi's Keesler Air Force Base. In 1968, they signed with Mercury Records, who released a few of their songs as singles on their Smash label. By 1968, the band had moved their base of operations to Atlanta, Georgia and was playing heavily on the college circuit. I found listings for a few of their gigs as late as 1969, but nothing after that. "Yard Dog" was released as a single by Apollo Records in 1967, and a different version of it was issued on the Smash label in 1968. Other singles from the One Way Street / the One Way Streets were also released by IRS Records and Select-o-Matic. Making research on this group more difficult is the fact that there were at least two other bands performing around the same time that called themselves One Way Street or The One Way Street Band.
-Curt

Here's a quick follow-up to my last post. In a number of his shows, during his introductions to "Yard Dog" and "If You're Looking for a Fool" Webb has mentioned that he's never seen a picture of The One Way Street. If you scroll to the bottom of the second page in the following link, you'll find a shot of the band during a 1969 performance at Armstrong State College in Georgia:

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/38d9/914cb7bb7d42deef1c80b53a11c38ac16776.pdf

Enjoy!

Forgot to mention that there's a decent little article about the band on the last page of that link in my previous post. As long as I'm at it, here's a link to a BILLBOARD article about the band's signing with Mercury Records:

https://books.google.com/books?id=DUUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=%22one+way+street%22+%22mercury+records%22&source=bl&ots=e2mzwULEdc&sig=ACfU3U1fR9i122M7QD8idaRb26tNz423CQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjY3ubWuuPlAhXkguAKHXRFDNwQ6AEwAXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22one%20way%20street%22%20%22mercury%20records%22&f=false

As long as I seem determined to make this thread a repository of knowledge on The One-Way Street, here's another tidbit from the April 24, 1969 issue of the campus newspaper The Georgia State College Signal:

http://dashboard.communitieswhoknow.com/omeka/files/original/e6adeb550bd24d8d83c99d75a47d3dc5.pdf

If you scroll to the final page in the link, you'll find a piece on TO-WS, which includes the story of how they got their name.

The One Way Street's brief recording history is interesting. "Yard Dog" was originally released in 1967 as the B side to their song "Girls, Girls," on the Apollo Records label (distributed by Dover Records out of New Orleans). All the images I can find of this disc are imprinted with the words "DJ Copy," and Discogs notes that Dover Records was shut down by the Internal Revenue Service around 1967 or '68. It's possible that this version of the record was not available for sale (only distributed to radio stations). It is NOT the same as the song's official release on the Smash label the following year, as the tempo is noticeably slower. Here's a YouTube link for the 1967 Apollo Records version, produced by Crazy Fox Productions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18Hg_6GAJs4

And here's a link to the 1968 Smash version, produced by Huey Meaux:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdSMerNZ8O0

"If You're Looking for a Fool" has an even longer history with The One-Way Street. It was first released in 1968 on the Smash label backed by the B side "What's Your Name." Like TO-WS's other Smash recordings, it was produced by Huey Meaux.

Then, sometime around late 1969 or early 1970, Leon and Dewey Miller parted ways with Chuck and Bobby Ryan, ending The One-Way Street. But not long afterwards, the Miller brothers recruited a guitarist named Skip Phillips and recorded for the Memphis label Select-O-Hits under the name The One Way Streets (plural). Their single was disc S.O.H. 004 in the label's catalog, and featured a song called "When the Chips are Down." Side B was a new recording of "If You're looking for a Fool," arranged by Vernon Drane. Here's a link to an image of the trio incarnation of The One Way Streets:

https://www.discogs.com/The-One-Way-Streets-When-The-Chips-Are-Down/release/3737706

After that, the group fell off the map for quite some time, but it's likely that the Miller brothers returned to Mississippi (as their names appear in a few newspaper clippings in the mid 1970s). Then, as the '70s were drawing to a close, Leon Miller co-founded a record label, International Recording Studios, in Pearl, Mississippi. Sometime around 1980, the studio's label IRS Records released their disc IRS-1001, featuring two songs by The One Way Street. Side A was a tune titled "Wine 'Em and Dine 'Em. Side B was still another rendition of "If You're Looking for a Fool," this time produced by the song's co-author Bob McRee. Here's a shot of the label from the IRS Records pressing:

http://www.45cat.com/record/nc981542us

And that release seems to have been the last hoorah for The One Way Street.

To round out my musings about The One Way Street, here's a YouTube link to the 1968 Smash Records version of "If You're Looking for a Fool":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h3lJlA852c

And here's the circa 1970 Select-O-Hits version by The One Way Streets (sometimes cited as The Miller Brothers):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTS6eWm4-kI

So far, I have been unable to locate a source for the 1980 IRS Records version of the song, but if I can unearth it I'll be sure to share it. Otherwise, this should mark the end of my informal TO-WS research. I hope the folks here find it of some interest.

Good stuff ... thanks!