The LP dates from 1962, a few years after Smith's greatest successes and several years before Dr. John's heyday.
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| Huey Smith |
Smith was best known for the rollicking singles "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu" and "Don't You Just Know It." He had been a session pianist on such records as Smiley Lewis' "I Hear You Knockin'" before founding his band, Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns.
That group recorded for Johnny Vincent's Ace Records, where the teenaged Mac Rebennack was a producer and session musician. By the time of this record's release, Rebennack had transformed himself into "Dr. John," and was credited as such on this LP. The good doctor was still just 21 years old. This was several years before his own solo breakout with the album Gris-Gris, after he had moved to Los Angeles and assumed a semi-psychedelic identity as Dr. John the Night Tripper.
[UPDATE: After I posted this, reader RL pointed out that this pressing is a reissue after Dr. John had achieved some fame. He was not credited on the cover of the original.]
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| The young Mac Rebennack |
As with many records on small labels, there is little information on who does what. As far as I know, Smith did not sing and used a variety of vocalists on his records. I don't know who sings here. Also, both Smith and Rebennack played the piano, so it's not clear who is handing the keyboard duties here.
[UPDATE: Please see the detailed comment below from reader Boursin, who provides detailed credits derived from a book on Huey Smith.]
On the packaging, the album itself is variously attributed to Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns, the Dr. John Band, and the Dr. John Band with Huey "Piano" Smith. We do know that Smith wrote most of the material, save for "Silent Night," "Jingle Bells" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."
None of this material will strike you as original, but it's all fun and enjoyable listening, which is more than I can say for most rock 'n' roll Christmas LPs.
As far as I can tell, Huey Smith is still with us. Dr. John died in 2019.
This record was cleaned up from a lossless transfer on Internet Archive. The sound is quite good.
14 comments:
Link (Apple lossless):
https://mega.nz/file/id1mjLYb#bSRtXZtunoIUoFmlOIGjXfjIYUC66DIUr4D0Av9UnoQ
This sounds terrific, thanks! The original LP did not have "Dr. John Band" on the cover, though, as he was still known (barely) as Mac Rebennack in 1962. This is a reissue LP, certainly after his debut LP Gris-Gris (1968), but more likely after he revived original New Orleans R&B with Gumbo (1972) and then achieved national fame with "Right Place, Wrong Time" (1973).
RL - Many thanks for the information!
This is a great record! My copy is the same one you show, and it's a classic! Thanks so much!
I've got the original Ace LP, but have not played it in 40 years.
A little rooting around on the net suggests this as personnel. Marchan was often Huey's vocalist, but I have not yet listened to this download to see if I can ID his voice.
THE CLOWNS: Bobby Marchan, John “Scarface” Williams, Gerri Hall, Roosevelt Wright, Francis Eugene Harris (vocals).
ALSO FEATURING:
Mac Rebennack, Earl King (guitar), Roland Cook (bass), Charles“Hungry” Williams (drums), Lee Allen (tenor sax), Alvin “Red” Tyler (baritone sax), among others..
Marchan was the vocalist on Huey's best known hits like "Don't You Just Know It" and "High Blood Pressure".
lafong - Thanks! All true, but I think those were the folks who played on his single hits. Not clear that this is the same ensemble, several years later.
Thanks for the share, Buster!
Nice find! This is great!
Thank you, Buster.
Rich
Dan - It works; make sure you are grabbing all of it.
Yes Buster I got it. It was super slow but went thru just now. Thank you so much. Love this great music you share with us!! Merry Christmas
From Huey "Piano" Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues by John Wirt (Louisiana State University Press, 2014):
The vocal cast for 1962's 'Twas the Night before Christmas album includes Huey; Jesse Thomas; Pearl Edwards; Johnny Meyers, a member of the New Orleans vocal group the Moonbeams (he also worked as a chef at the African American-owned Dooky Chase Restaurant); Curley Moore; and three female session singers whose names are lost to time. [...] The album's title song features Jesse Thomas soul-shouting about a boogie-woogie Santa Claus and Huey rapping the classic Christmas poem, "'Twas the Night before Christmas." Following Mabel Scott's "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" (a 1948 rhythm-and-blues hit that white pop star Patti Page covered) and jazz vocalist Babs Gonzales's hipster holiday number, "Be-Bop Santa Claus," the Clowns added a particularly hip and festive twist to "'Twas the Night before Christmas." Taking its cue from the Drifters' doo-wop rendition of "White Christmas," the album's elaborate "White Christmas Blues" features Johnny Meyers singing sweet, high tenor and Huey rapping about having a blue Christmas. Another song, "Happy New Year," fits new lyrics to the 1956 Ace single "Little Liza Jane" and replaces "Liza's" sax solo based on Dvořák's "Humoresque" with singers and a horn section performing "Auld Lang Syne." "Almost Time for Christmas" recasts "We Like Mambo"/"We Like Birdland." "Doing the Santa Claus" contains more soul-shouting from Jesse and sly vocal asides from session guitarist Mac Rebennack. The high-spirited "All I Want for Christmas," based on the same music track as "Doing the Santa Claus," cites dance crazes the Twist, the Hully Gully, and the Popeye. "Santa won't you bring my Popeye record today!" the group sings. There's also a swinging take on the normally serene "Silent Night."
Boursin - MANY THANKS! This is just the information we needed!
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