The 50 must-have New Orleans records
Lloyd Price - "The Exciting Lloyd Price" - Hoo Doo Records - 1959
Not even the Korean War was able to end Lloyd Price's reign over New Orleans R&B in the 1950s. Price was on a five-song hit streak before he was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army in 1953, a stretch that includes classics like "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," "Tell Me Pretty Baby" and "Ain't It a Shame," and he jumped right back in the recording studio after his release in 1956. Before the arrival of the 1960s and the seismic cultural changes the came along with it, he would record six top 10 singles, hits like "Personality," "I'm Gonna Get Married," and "Stagger Lee."
The collection "The Exciting Lloyd Price," originally released in 1959, has all these classics and more from Price's most prolific period. The album is a worthy look at one of NOLA's forefathers of R&B whose voice became so iconic that it warranted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But it's not just his voice that makes Price so special; he was a writer, a producer, an arranger and an innovator, as shown by "Stagger Lee," a lively take on the old blues standard "Stack-O-Lee." He helped introduce the use of massive horn sections to popular rhythym and blues, an influence felt to this day on the streets of Frenchmen.
Regardless of the impact that Price left on the music industry, this collection is a sizzling set of hits and a reminder of New Orleans' bright, shining turn as the star of the musical world in the 1950s.
- Chad Bower
Video: Lloyd Price - "Lawdy Miss Clawdy"
More Price videos:
- Lloyd Price performs "Personality" live
- Lloyd Price - "I'm Gonna Get Married"
- Lloyd Price - "Stagger Lee"
