For some people “Sixty Minute Man” will be familiar as having been featured in the 1988 movie Bull Durham. Think Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and toenail painting, after you thought it was something else. The song follows a theme well-known in blues music in which a singer brags about abilities of a sexual nature, which is why it was banned from some radio stations at the time of its original debut.
“Sixty Minute Man” was written by Billy Ward and Rose Marks and released as a single on Federal Records in 1951 by Billy Ward and His Dominoes. The line-up around this time would have been (I believe) Bill Brown, Billy Ward, Clyde McPhatter, Charlie White and Joe Lamont.
It reached #1 on the R&B charts in May 1951, stayed there for 14 weeks, and also rose to #17 on the pop charts, one of the first R&B songs to cross-over. It is also generally cited as a song that helped shape rock and roll.
What made The Dominoes special, besides the excellent arrangements and McPhatter’s unique voice, was their appeal beyond the usual racial lines of demarcation. They were huge in the black community, but they were also one of a relative handful of R&B acts that developed a small but fiercely loyal following among younger white listeners as well during the early ’50s, which didn’t matter a lot at the time — and, as things worked out, was only incidental to their fate — but helped to plant a seed that blossomed into the full-blown rock & roll boom four years later.
The group had significant success in the ’50s as one of the best selling acts of the period, with three Billboard Top-40 hits by the end of the decade.