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