Huey Smith

Huey Pierce "Piano" Smith (born January 26, 1934 in New Orleans , Louisiana ) is an American rhythm & blues musician who, among other things, led the well-known band The Clowns . Smith is one of the most important musicians of the New Orleans piano tradition.

Session pianist

After finishing school, Smith learned to play the piano in 1949, and in 1953 he was accepted into the band of guitarist Earl King as a pianist . Here he developed his piano style, a mixture of Boogie Woogie from Albert Ammons , the offbeat piano from Professor Longhair and jazz from Jelly Roll Morton . Smith is on King's first single (under the name Earl Johnson) Have You Gone Crazy? / Begging at Your Mercy (Savoy Records 1102) as pianist (recorded in New Orleans on June 1, 1953). On the same day of recording, Smith's first single was released under the name "Huey Smith": You Made Me Cry / You're Down With Me (Savoy 1113, piano and vocals) and King on guitar. Smith's great piano solo can be heard on the often-covered Smiley Lewis classic I Hear You Knockin ' (recorded May 23, 1955 in Cosimo Matassa's studio, released July 1955). Earl King subsequently became famous with Those Lonely Lonely Nights (August 1955), again with Smith on the piano, this time at Ace Records , for which King worked as a label guitarist. The single helped King to break through with 250,000 copies. With catalog # 509 it was only the young label's 10 single. Shortly thereafter, Ace 521 was released - "Huey 'Piano' Smith & the Rhythm Aces" Everybody's Whalin ' , again recorded in Cosimo Matassa's famous studio (September 1956). At Matassa, Smith eventually rose to be one of the sought-after session musicians, and Matassa often commissioned Smith in the studio to "throw some crap into the recording." Smith wrote “Little Chickee Wah Wah” (Ace 523) in 1956 for Bob Marchan, his future lead singer.

Own plates

In addition to his work as a successful session pianist and composer for other performers, he founded his own band, initially under the name "Rhythm Aces", with Junior Gordon (Izzy Cougarten), Dave Dixon and Roland Cook as singers. After several line-up changes, the band then appeared from 1957 as "clowns" with Junior Gordon or Gerri Hall (singer), alternating with 'Scarface John' Williams, Eugene Francis, Billy Roosevelt (bass vocals), Roland Stone and lead singer Bobby Marchan . As musical accompaniment, Smith could fall back on the Matassa session musicians Lee Allen and Red Tyler (saxophone) and Charles Williams (drums). The distribution of tasks was regulated between those involved: Smith composed, arranged and played the piano, while Marchan and the choir sang. In order to gain more time for compositions, Huey Smith was often represented at the piano by James Booker on tours .

Huey 'Piano' Smith - Don't You Just Know It

Already in July 1957 the instrumental title Rockin 'Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu was recorded with this formation , composed by Smith and Johnny Vincent, his producer and label boss of Ace Records. A vowel version was selected as the B-side. The vocal version of the song quickly became a million seller when it became a crossover (# 7 R&B, # 52 pop charts). Smith had now developed a signature style of piano. He perfected a shuffle- like, right-handed oriented piano break that can be seen on his recordings. This was also the case with the biggest hit with over 2 million copies sold, Don't You Just Know It , released in March 1958. His biggest hit reached # 9 on the pop charts (# 4 R&B). Both records reveal the classic New Orleans rhythm and the percussive playing technique of the band leader. In late 1958, Smith recorded the original Sea Cruise composed by him on Matassa's two-track tape with Marchan and Gerri Hall as lead singers. Ace had other plans, especially since Marchan's voice was indisposed and he also wanted to leave the group. The master stayed in the label's archives for 7 months before the label boss Vincent added an overdubbing of the white teen idol Frankie Ford to the recording in March 1959. The Mardi Gras-infected rhythm became another hit for Ace Records in April 1959 (# 11 R&B, # 14 Pop), combined with a few audio rarities, a ship's bell and a fog horn, as well as a slightly accelerated tape speed of Ford's voice. Dissatisfied with the sluggish payment at Ace Records, Huey Smith left the label at the end of 1959 and switched to Imperial Records , for which he recorded eight songs and 4 LPs without hit parades. Marchan actually left Clowns and Ace Records in early 1960 and was replaced by singer Gerri Hall and singer Curley Moore.

In May 1962, Ace suddenly released Pop Eye , a recording from previous collections with Curley Moore as lead vocalist and again composed by Smith. Smith took up the famous, spinach-eating sailor character Popeye from the cartoon series of the same name and - unintentionally - provided the song for the modern dance of the same name. Ace claimed that the clowns were the discoverers of the Pop Eye dance; but they weren't. Annoyed by the Ace release, Imperial dismissed Huey Smith from the record deal; he quickly went back to Ace, where he remained without success until the bankruptcy of the label in 1964. To get away from his now increasing alcohol problems, he converted to the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1965 and ended his music career. From 1967 he tried to make an unsuccessful comeback at Instant Records - under different name variations - naturally based in New Orleans.

Two of his successes were later covered. His biggest hit Don't You Just Know It came out in January 1965 as Don't ha ha by the British beat band Casey Jones & the Governors , which made it to number 2 in the charts in Germany, but flopped in their home country. The other big hit Rockin 'Pneumonia .. remembered Johnny Rivers (October 1972, US # 6 Pop).

According to BMI , 135 compositions are copyrighted for Huey "Piano" Smith.

Discography (selection)

Singles

As Huey Smith:

• You Made Me Cry / You're Down With Me (Savoy 1113), August 1956

As Huey "Piano" Smith & the Rhythm Aces:

• Everybody's Whalin '/ Little Liza Jane (Ace 521), December 1956

As Huey "Piano" Smith & His Clowns:

• Rockin 'Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu Part 1 & Part 2, (Ace 530), July 1957
• Free, Single And Disengaged / Just A Lonely Clown (Ace 538), October 1957
• High Blood Pressure / Don't You Just Know It , (Ace 545), July 1958
• We Like Birdland / Havin 'A Good Time (Ace 548), October 1958
• Don't You Know Yockomo / We'll I'll Be John Brown (Ace 553), December 1958
• Would You Believe It / Genevieve (Ace 562), 1959
• Beatnik Blues / For Crying Out Loud (Ace 584), 1960
• The Little Moron / Someone to Love (Imperial 5721), February 1961
• Behind the Wheel, Pt. 1 / Behind the Wheel, Pt. 2 (Imperial 5747), May 1961
• More Girls / Sassy Sara (Imperial 5772), August 1961
• Don't Knock It / Snag-a-Tooth Jeanie (Imperial 5789), October 1961
• Pop Eye / Scald-Dog (Ace 649), February 1962

As Huey Smith & The Pitter Pats:

• Bury Me Dead / I'll Never Forget You (Instant 3287), 1967
• Huey Smith: Two Way Pockaway Part 1 / Part 2 (Instant 3297), 1969
• Huey Piano Smith: Eight Bars Of Amen / Epitaph Of Uncle Tom (Instant 3301), 1969
• Huey Smith & The Clowns: You Got Too Part 1 / Part 2 (Instant 3303), 1969
• Huey Piano Smith: Ballad Of A Black Man / The Whatcha Call 'Em (Instant 3305), 1970
• Huey Piano Smith: The Watchcha Call 'Em / Ballad Of A Black Man (Instant 3325), 1972

LPs

• Huey "Piano" Smith & His Clowns: Having A Good Time (Ace 1004), 1959
• Rhythm 'n' Blues (Ace), 1960
• For Dancing (Ace 1015), 1961
• T'was The Night Before Christmas (Ace 1027), November 1962

Compilations

• ROCK & ROLL REVIVAL! (Ace 2021), 1971
• Pita Pattin ' (CHARLY CRB 1164 UK), 1987

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rick Kennedy and Randy McNutt: Little Labels - Big Sound . 1999, p. 131
2. ↑ Jeff Hannusch: I Hear You Knockin ', The Sound of New Orleans rhythm and blues . 1987, p. 41
3. ↑ Jeff Hannusch: The Sound of New Orleans . 2001, p. 148
4. ↑ BMI Page Huey Smith  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• Huey "Piano" Smith at Answers.com