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.
