I was born here. Spent ten years of childhood in California, then returned. From 1957 to now I have tried to understand my home state and have continually failed.
Today I got a CD of Huey "Piano" Smith and his clowns. They did "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu" in 1957 (written by Huey, and "Don't you just know it", conjured up in the car when the group was driving from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. released in 1958. The CD also has a previously unreleased version of "Sea Cruise" which was written by Smith but Frankie Ford was the guy who made it a hit.
The story of Sea Cruise is this: Huey recorded it, then went on a short vacation. By the time he returned, the studio had lifted his voice off the recording and Frankie Ford's voice substituted for the release.
The record notes on the Frankie Ford CD tells the same story, the notes on the Huey Smith CD said that Huey didn't sing very well however he had a great group of singers called the clowns. They added the Frankie Ford vocals over the original band renditions of "Sea Cruise". It's interesting to hear the Huey Smith version....Frankie Ford was quoted saying that occassionally Huey Smith would come to hear him play the Smith songs but would have to stay back stage out of sight....hard to remember that black people were not allowed to sit in the audience when white performers were playing....seems so incredible now. That was only 50+ years ago, shameful time in American history.
Those were the breakout years. Jesse Belvin, author of Earth Angel, was threatened in a way that said racism, shortly before he and his wife died in a fiery car crash. Murder was never officially charged, but it was suspicious.
