Huey 'Piano' Smith, a beloved New Orleans session man who backed Little Richard, Lloyd Price and other early rock stars and with his own group made the party favorites 'Don't You Just Know It' and 'Rockin' Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu,' has died. He was 89.
Huey "Piano" Smith, a beloved New Orleans session man who backed Little Richard, Lloyd Price and other early rock stars and with his own group made the party favorites "Don't You Just Know It" and "Rockin' Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu," has died. He was 89.
One Smith production became a major hit and rock standard, for another performer. Smith and his group wrote, arranged and recorded "Sea Cruise," but Ace Records thought the song would have more success with a white singer -- as Smith learned bluntly from local record distributor Joe Caronna -- and replaced the Clowns' vocals with those of Frankie Ford, whose version became a million seller.
Smith's popularity faded after the Beatles arrived and by 1980 he had quit the business, settled in Baton Rouge with his wife, Margrette, and become a Jehovah's Witness. Like many rock musicians from the '50s, he fought to be paid and credited for "Sea Cruise" and other hits and spent decades in legal battles and financial trouble. Local musicians, meanwhile, continued to cite him as an inspiration.
He is survived by his wife, 10 children, 18 grandchildren and 47 great grandchildren, his daughter told the AP.
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