Tell me about the club scene around New Orleans around 1950.

The club scene around New Orleans as I know it, I was quite a young kid, really was not able to go in most of them but as a musician we had a little bit more privileges than most of the kids, ah. When, ah, it was a black dance it was a black dance. I can't really speak on whether or not it was black and white 'cause I never saw that. You know there's a lot of mulatto, a lot of Creole, a lot of different colors of people in New Orleans, ah, by just going in for the sake of going in you saw a lot of different colors but I can't whether or not they were black, all black and all white because the law was that they would, should be all black. I would imagine during that time, during the time in the early Fifties when I played for whites, it was whites. And when I played for blacks it was for blacks. If I had to play for blacks and whites it would be the blacks would either be the spectators or the whites would be the spectators. Some would be upstairs if, if, if it was black the white would be upstairs and if it was white, the black would be upstairs. There would be spectators, that was in the early Fifties. It never was no real mingling together, ah, in New Orleans. Professor Longhair of course was really a favorite, for, in the French Quarters, now he played for a lot of whites in the French Quarters but it was for only whites. And of course if he came up town to the Dew Drop or the Syngen Center, one of those places where blacks were, he played. And I would suspect there was some white in there but you couldn't really tell because of the, again, the Creole in the color line.

Let's talk about "Lordy Miss Claudie". Tell me how you came to write and record that song.

Being a lover of music, I always, always, always loved music and always thought I was a musician. I tried playing the coronet and the trumpet earlier and then I learned how to play piano, well piano for myself, not being able to read the music I was able to put the chords together and coordinate the, the, the proper chords, ah. This disc jockey came from Laurel, Mississippi. His name was Okey Dokey Smith. Now this is how it got into really being what they call an artisan, "Lordy Miss Claudie". I liked the way he sound on the radio. He was our first hero, black disc jockey in New Orleans. And I really wanted to meet him. And I got a chance to meet him because my brother had a club in Kenner about six miles out of New Orleans. And he came out, I got a chance to meet him. And I always listened to his radio program. I think he was on 15 minutes a day and then he went to a half hour. And I'd listen and I'd listen and I'd listen. And finally one day I was playing on the piano and I was able to put three chords together and it was - Lordy, Lordy, Lordy Miss Claudie and I'd edit and instead of saying Maxwell House coffee or whatever that is, I'd use a girl, I'd use Lordy Miss Claudie, you know, you surely look good to me. Please don't excite me baby, I'm down in misery. And I sung it and I sung it and I sung it. And one day Dave Bartholemew came out to New, to Kenner. And I was on the piano playing this song. I was very impressed with Dave. I had no idea he was going to say anything to me. And he asked me, what is that you're singing? And I said, well, "Lordy Miss Claudie". He said, I like that. Said, okay, fine, played it for him again. And each time I sung "Lordy Miss Claudie" I adlibbed the words 'cause I didn't know like the rappers do it now, I adlibbed every line. And each time I sung it was different even in recording it, it was different. Dave sort of liked that. There might be a guy from California his name is Art Roote, he's the president of Specialty Records. And I would like for him to hear that. He's looking for some young new talent and maybe he might record you. Now I must tell you I'd never heard the word record, hit, it was all foreign to me. And sure enough, two weeks, Dave called me later and said he liked the song and that's how "Lordy Miss Claudie" was about. But it came from Okey Dokey Smith - Lordy Miss Claudie drank Maxwell House coffee and eat these mother's home made pies.

Go back and tell me about the disc jockey and how he would use that phrase, a real brief version.

Okey Dokey Smith, he would use, ah, "Lordy Miss Claudie".

Start again, saying there was a disc jockey.

Okay, okay. There was a, there was a disc jockey from Laurel, Mississippi an d his name was Okey Dokey Smith. He got hired on this particular radio station in New Orleans for 15 minutes to a half hour a day. And "Lordy Miss Claudie" was like his thing. Lordy Miss Claudie drank Maxwell House coffee and eat these mother's home made pies. I liked it very much and I wrote a song called "Lordy Miss Claudie" from it. That short enough?

When you went in the studio at Cosmo's, you were just a kid, you were 19 or something. What did it look like?

Well, when I went into the studio it was very strange. Dave Bartholomew called me like two weeks later like he said he would - come down and Art Root was in town and he wanted me here so I can do "Lordy Miss Claudie" and let him hear it. Well, I went down to the studio, Fats Domino was on a piano, Earl Palmer was on drums, Dave Bartholomew with all of his horns, Lee Allen, Herbert Hodister, ah, C.J. Maclen, guitars, all the great musicians that I had seen with Dave Bartholemew was there waiting to record me. I didn't know what it was. And Cosmo was in this little room in the back, very small place. I mean it was, I mean it looked like a hot-dog stand compared to, well McDonald's today would make Cosmo's look like the Waldorf. I mean McDonald look like Cosmo, Waldorf against Cosmo's. Dave is in the room, Art Roots in the room and Fats Domino is sitting on the piano. And Fats Domino says, what key it's in? I had no idea what he was talking about. Sing that "Lordy Miss Claudie" thing. So I went over to the piano and I hummed "Lordy". Lordy, Lordy, Lordy Miss Claudie. And Fats, that beautiful introduction he's got on - batta ba dink - he played that and Fats was big then, he was rolling around. They had this record "Fat Man". I'm scared to death. I don't know what I'm doing. Never been in a recording studio before ever in my life Art Root's in, in the booth with Cosmo, Dave Bartholemew and I'm just a kid from Kenner, Louisiana. And they're singing and singing "Lordy Miss Claudie" So here I go, he said sing. Sung it twice. Said, do you have another song? I said, yes. Sing that to Fats. I sung it to Fats. Oh mail, mailman tell me what you got for me? The other side of "Lordy Miss Claudie" because I knew I was getting ready to be drafted in the army so I just made, adlibbed each word and that was the B side, sung that once and that was it. Never had no playbacks. Never heard "Lordy Miss Claudie" until it was on the air three months later.

Pick up where we left off. Tell me how you first heard it on the radio and then how you learned it was a hit.

Actually when I first heard "Lordy Miss Claudie" I didn't recognize myself singing it. I couldn't imagine anyone else had ever heard the song besides Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew and that group. And I had heard the song two or three times. I heard Okey Dokey Smith play the record back to back several times. Lloyd Price the biggest record of 1952 will be, I still did not recognize my voice 'cause I never heard what I sound like. I never heard myself ever on tape or records. So finally my brother said, well listen man, this thing, they keep playing this "Lordy Miss Claudie" thing, didn't you do something called "Lordy Miss Claudie"? Didn't you record that thing with Okey Dokey Smith, I mean with Dave Bartholomew and Art Root? I say, yes. He said, well they're saying Lloyd Price from Kenner, Louisiana. That must be you. I didn't recognize it at all. And then finally it came to me, that's what I sound like. But could you imagine, I'd never heard myself and Lordy, Lordy, Lordy Miss Claudie, I never realized I sung that high. I knew nothing about, I mean was absolutely berserk. And finally it came to light that it was Lloyd Price from Kenner, Louisiana, "Lordy Miss Claudie". It was just amazing.

When you heard that it was selling well, how was it known that it was selling to whites, it was crossing over?

Well you can go on Friday or Saturday, after the record was out, say about five weeks, four weeks, something like that, they had banners all over Rampart Street, I mean just, - we have "Lordy Miss Claudie", we have "Lordy Miss Claudie" up and down, every record shop or store had a sign out saying they had "Lordy Miss Claudie". Art Root said, you can't keep it in stock, they're buying the record like they never bought it before. White people is buying your music. Never heard that time, well, I mean I didn't know who buy records I know I did, you know, maybe 39 cents, 29 cents for a record. But he said everybody is buying "Lordy Miss Claudie". You could hear this record 24 hours a day cross New Orleans. There was not a, well they call them jukebox, record player, players would play, you had a record every jukebox, every little store, every corner playing "Lordy Miss Claudie". And how I know the white kids was buying it my father's, my mother's and father's house was right across the street from the Kenner High School. I'd known these kids all my life. They'd never cross the street to come to my house until "Lordy Miss Claudie". That told me then that they was listening to the radio, listening to Okey Dokey Smith. Okey Dokey Smith got the white kids in New Orleans listening to the radio because he was a great jockey. He was a guy that rhyme, forget Alan Freed and forget Jocko Henderson, this guy was the man, Okey Dokey Smith. I would think he's the one who really started people that crossover business because they would listen to Okey Dokey Smith, being that he was the only black jockey in town playing that kind of music.

What was it about "Lordy Miss Claudie" that made it so big?

Well, I think what made "Lordy Miss Claudie" so big is, for the first time there was a beat to the music. There was like, shh, shh, bong, shh, shhh, bong, - 6/8ths on the cymbal - shh, shh, shh, boom, shh, shh, boom. That's was it and the double beat on the, on the bass dru. That had never happened before, not ever. I sort of call it the beginning of the big beat. Before that records only had, there was either a shuffle and they did it with brushes because there was, you must understand, there was no sound system, a guy would get on a stage and just yell. There was no sound like it is today. I mean you had to really scream to the top of your voice to be heard regardless of how many people was there. But what we did was put the back beat to it and put some stability in the music. And I think that's what made the changeover. People didn't have to know how to dance, everybody was slow dancing. Everything was a slow dance because it was nice and easy. No matter how fast the tempo was, you know, now we talk about 120 beats per minute, 90 beats per minute. We didn't hink about that. I didn't think about that it just was something that happened from Earl Palmer with "Lordy Miss Claudie". This tune set precedent for that beat and Earl Palmer was back on the drums, he was playing, said, what kind of beat could we put on it? He said, well, I'll use this - cha cha boom, cha cha boom, first time it happened. And that was it. And I think that's why the pulse, the pulse I think of the music made everybody heard it. Once we stabilized the beat white people was able to dance to it. Black people was, everybody was able to dance to it. It was the beat, there was something that they can hang on. And even though it was like that nobody really knew how to dance, you know, the jitterbug and all that stuff was going on at that time. You swing around, throw them over your head. We sort of cut that out like rap music is doing today. And it lasts until now, until rap. The only music has changed from the time of "Lordy Miss Claudie" is rap. Everything else whether you call it disco, rock and roll or whatever you call it, the English sound got that chhhm pop, got that beat to it. It hasn't changed. There's been two changes since I been doing music rap and that. And I originated the first one.

Tell me about the shuffle.

Okay, there's been talk about Wona… Wynona Harris who was a great, great singer at that time and, ah, Roy Brown, ah, he had "Good Rocking Tonight". The beats were different. They had what you call a shuffle, ch ch ch ch, [drums] boom, boom. "Lordy Miss Claudie" was different. It had on a cymbal what they call a 6/8th - ch ch ch and a back beat - boom. And a one on the, on the foot it's like - ch ch boom ch ch ch boom ch ch ch ch ch ch [sings]. Lordy, Lordy, Lordy Lordy Miss Claudie, - girl. Now, "Good Rocking Tonight" - [sings]. Have you heard the news? There's good rocking tonight. That's the difference you see that's the whole difference. And that was the change. See if, if white people tried to dance to this, [makes sound] you would have got, you know you would have got that kind of stuff. We stabilized it and that was the crossover, that was the crossover. It had nothing to do with the lyrics. I had nothing to do with who sung it. And that's why Elvis Presley and people say, but I'm saying, those who came after me Little Richard and that lot was able to get in and do got a fact I made, oh, why to talk about that?

Tell me about Little Richard how you first heard him and what you thought of him and what you helped him do.

Well when I first met Little Richard, was the most amazing thing in my life. I'd never seen anybody like Richard. I'd never, well there was a guy called Billie Wright that Little Richard took his style from. Billie Wright used to wear his hair like Little Richard wear his hair now. And I think he had a song "Keep Your Hand On Your Heart But Keep Your Mind On Me". I think that was his song when I was a kid. Well Richard really liked Billie Wright, he later told me he did and he copied his style from Billie Wright. When I first met Little Richard it was, it's incredible I was in August, Georgia and Richard came over with all his make up and his loud suit, I can't remember what the color was. He was a young man, you know. I was standing by my car and he says, - I want a car just like that. I'm going to get me a car just like that. I'd just left Hollywood and I had this white and red Cadillac, it was the only one in America I imagine. I had a big spare tire on the back, big gold Vs my first car, you know, I paid four thousand dollars for it, Fleetwood. And I said, well Richard, I didn't know his name, I said, what do you mean you want a car like this? You know, he said, - I can sing, I can sing. Well that night in the auditorium he came. Now he was up in the balcony dancing and stuff like this. And after the first intermission I looked behind me, here was Little Richard on the stage. I don't know how he got on there. My brothers, at that time, was my security, I don't know how he got on the stage. But while he was on, he was such a strange looking person I decided to see if he could do what he said he can do. So he got on the piano and he played us that piano shuffle he played. [sings, yells]. And he wasn't doing "Tutie Frutie" nothing like that, he just was, he was, the people loved it. It was amazing. They loved him. And that's when I first met Richard and talked to him and he asked me, - you got to help me. You got to help me do something. I want to get out of Georgia, ba, ba, ba. So I was booked by Don Robie in Houston, in Houston, Texas - Buffalo Booking Agency. And I called Don and I told him I had met this guy I thought was the strangest person I'd ever seen in my life and, ah, I think he should talk to him. Don Robie said okay, fine, have him contact me. Anyway, they got together, Don Robie invited Little Richard over to Houston, Texas, went on the road with Johnny Otis and that was the beginning of Little Richard's career. Later, after I got drafted in the service during that period, I called my little brother from Tokyo and he told me that Richard and Don Robie had, you know, didn't make it, not spoke to Don - long story short, the next person I told about Little Richard was Art Root on Specialty Records. Of course the rest of it is history, then he started claiming he was the king of Rock and Roll from there. And that's how that came about. But Richard, during that period Richard was so hot, I was in the army for two years, when I came out the army, Little Richard was so hot, he would go into town, if you went into town behind Richard. say, Indianapolis, Indiana, you had to wait two months if he was there, three months 'cause he would sweep the whole town clean. Everybody went to see Little Richard he was so exciting.

Tell me the input of church and gospel music.

Well gospel music, I, I never was a gospel singer. First of all I never thought I was a singer. I would listen to gospel music because my parents, my mother and father was very religious people and every Sunday morning at 10 o'clock from 10 o'clock in the morning in New Orleans until 12 during that period, all you had was gospel singers: the Five Blind Boy, the Soul Starers and Sister Tharpe and Brother Joe May. These were the people we listened to. Naturally you're influenced by gospel because that's all you hear. I never sung gospel. I never sung it in church or anywhere else. I never thought you could mix the two because I'm a strong believer in God and I believe that if I'm going to sing rock and roll, that's what I should sing. And I never had no desire to sing gospel music, you know, 'cause my faith and belief is so strong about God. But I had no influence about that. The only song there where you might hear a little religious chords and turn arounds probably would be in my later songs which was "Personality".

I remember reading, I think it was quote from you, people were buying feel in records. You always had in your records this thing called feel. Talk about that.

Sure, I thought that, ah, now in order to, today they call it hooks, we called it hooks then. And in order for people to be familiar, ah, I mean I would write something as familiar in the minds of the people. For example, ahm, open doors, a chicken, a rooster crowing, that's why I was influenced by things like that. I wanted to always be familiar with myself and people be familiar with things that they had heard in my songs from somewhere. And of course the feel is very important, the dance feel, the how you, they got to have a rhythm, the beat has got to be right. What's more important is that they need to understand what you're saying and they need to be able to sing along with you. I thought that was very important to have the little catchy hooks along with the feel. So I never would record something that people couldn't sing. I always tried to write something that they could say and put it in a dance mood, a mode where they can feel it.

When Elvis came along.

Well, let me tell you about that. "Lordy Miss Claudie" I think opened up the gates to the world. People might have it, you know Fats Domino, when Fats Domino, I got to go back to Fats. When Fats Domino came to Washington, D.C. I think he, I had, he was on the airplane with me. I think the furthest Fats had traveled out of New Orleans, ah, until, maybe until after I got out service was in Tennessee there was a similar place in Nashville we would play. "Lordy Miss Claudie" when people started seeing that white people liked music, this kind of music, everybody tried to get on the bandwagon and record this rhythm and blues music. Elvis Presley of course had to be, he had to be influenced by my music 'cause when he came, he came like four years after I, I, you know, after I got started. As a matter of fact I think Doctor King and all that whole syndrome back during that time, was influenced by this social revolution that I had going on in the music.