I’d been wondering if there were any great rock 45s on Ty Tex when I found The Sensors “Sen-Sa-Shun” / “Side Tracked” at Rex’s sidewalk sale this spring. As it turns out, the Sensors had four 45s on Ty Tex.

Buddy Henderson would come to be known as Bugs Henderson when he joined Mouse and the Traps. He started the Sensors in his hometown of Tyler, Texas when he was just 16.

On these two Freddy King songs, Buddy articulates every note, making these two of the better r&b instrumentals I’ve heard. “Side Tracked” has a good jazzy organ solo to boot.

Their version of “Rumble” is also cool, even if it doesn’t have the menace of Link Wray’s original. The organ provides an eerie background. Buddy gets a shimmering tone out of his guitar chords with a ferocious slicing sound towards the end of the song

I haven’t heard the flip side, a version of “Caravan”, but Not Fade Away #2 says guitarist on that side was Levi Garrett. I assume these were recorded at Robin Hood Brians’ studio in Tyler, but I could be mistaken.

The A-side of their third single, “Bat Man” is credited to Henderson and Pittman. The flip is a cover of Jack McDuff’s “Light Blues”.

TT-112 – Sen-Sa-Shun / Side Tracked
TT-115 – Rumble / Caravan
TT-117 – Bat Man / Light Blues
TT-120 – Honest I Do (vocal) / Honest I Do (instrumental)

Thanks to Rich for the transfer of “Rumble” and to Greg Reyes for the scan of “Bat Man”. Thank you to Martin Hancock for finding the scan of “Rumble”.