This is the latest from The Bluesmobile’s C.C. Rider, who spends her life venerating the founding fathers of the blues. She’s walked the crooked highways of this singing country to resurrect the voices of the past. With the dirt of the Delta on her hands, she sleeps in the shadow of the giants on whose shoulders popular music now stands.
Lloyd Price
(Born March 9, 1933)
Born in Louisiana, Lloyd Price made a killing from the start. His very first recording for Specialty Records in 1952 became an instant hit. Piano intro courtesy of another New Orleans treasure, Fats Domino. Thanks to “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” Price was an r&b superstar before he could even vote. And the hits kept coming. Four more best-sellers before he was drafted and sent to Korea.
Back from his stint overseas and Lloyd Price started hustlin’ again. Forming record labels, promoting, and of course slayin’ his own tracks. But Price wasn’t content with r&b stardom. He wanted to cross over. To be a pop success, a rock success. So he turned to the blues canon, as we all know, the best place to turn for inspiration. And he found a winner. His adaptation of the classic bad-man ballad Staggerlee became a massive hit, and Price a pop star. Here he is, Lloyd Price, backed by a screamin’ sax, on his 1958 chart-topping recording of Staggerlee.
