“It ain’t easy being cool.” – Tex Rubinowitz
Tex Rubinowitz wrote and recorded “Hot Rod Man” (Ripsaw 214; released December 1979), which has proven to be the most successful single track that Ripsaw ever released. This classic car song has become a rockabilly anthem and is played at cruise nights and car shows and on late night oldies programs world-wide. Dozens of rockabilly bands have recorded it in the 40+ years since its original Ripsaw release and many more play it at their shows. There are scores of versions on YouTube, including, of course, Tex’s original Ripsaw version.
Ripsaw licensed the track to other labels many times: Silent Records (U.K. – 1980); Big Beat Records (France – 1981); B Sharp Records (Canada – 1982); Time-Life Music (U.S. – 1989); Blast First Records (U.K – 1991); Rhino Records (U.S. – 1991 & 1999); Sony Music (U.S. – 1997); Pink ‘N’ Black Records (U.K. – 2002); and Part Records (Germany – 2010).
As well as the track’s appearance on many other record labels, Ripsaw licensed the track to be part of the soundtrack of:
(1) a movie – “Roadhouse 66” starring Judge Reinhold and Willem Dafoe (Atlantic Video 1984)
(2) a TV ad for ANCO windshield wipers (1999)
(3) a PBS documentary – “Classic American Cars of Cuba” (Café Productions 2002)
https://www.pbs.org/video/wliw21-arts-culture-classic-american-cars-of-cuba/
(4) beginning in 2019, as a recurrent theme on The Hot Rod Farmer’s “Idle Chatter” weekly podcast for the Farm Machinery Digest (www.farmmachinerydigest.com)
“Hot Rod Man” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fw-MMzV3g8
“Feelin’ Right Tonight” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2akcuCxDOI
“I Wanna Bop With You” (live) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_X1MWSuD_s
In addition to “Hot Rod Man,” Ripsaw released three other Tex tracks, including another self-penned rockabilly anthem, “Feelin’ Right Tonight” (Ripsaw 212; May 1979). Ripsaw also released versions of that song by Martha Hull (Ripsaw 217; May 1981; produced by Tex) and Martí Brom (Ripsaw 223; 2010). Other artists have recorded this Tex song also.
Ripsaw licensed Tex’s “Feelin’ Right Tonight” track to other labels several times: Ambition Records (U.S. – 1980); Big Beat Records (France – 1981); B Sharp Records (Canada – 1982); and Part Records (Germany – 2013).
Tex recorded other rockabilly material in the 1980’s. He released some of those recordings on his self-titled “Tex Rubinowitz” LP on his own No Club label. He included his Ripsaw cuts on that LP. Other of Tex’s recordings from that period have been included on several volumes of “The Best of Ripsaw Records” series released in the past few years by Part Records (Germany).
More recently, Tex teamed up with Tennessee Rocket guitar man Bob Newscaster and recorded “The Old Man Mississippi,” a Dixieland Rock ‘n’ Roll album, a musical genre concept he had been nurturing for about 20 years. The CD was released in July 2017 jointly by Tex’s No Club label and Patuxent Records. In a review of that album, The Washington Post said, “For a few years in the 1980’s, the coolest guy in Washington was a tall, deep-voiced rockabilly singer … Tex Rubinowitz.”
Tex was born in Abilene, Texas, where his father, an Army officer, was stationed during part of World War II. Other assignments were to Anniston, Alabama and then to Virginia, where Tex spent most of his formative and adult years in Springfield.
In addition to writing and playing great rockabilly music, Tex is adept at building guitars and tooling around his machine shop.
