Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, Session Man And Hit Maker, Dead At 89

NEW YORK – Huey “Piano” Smith, a beloved New Orleans session musician who backed Little Richard, Lloyd Price, and other early rock stars and wrote the party hits “Don’t You Just Know It” and “Rockin’ Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu” with his band, has died. He was 89.

Acquelyn Donsereaux, his daughter, told The Associated Press that he died in his sleep on Feb. 13 at his Baton Rouge home. She did not specify the cause.

Smith was one of the last survivors of an extraordinary scene of musicians and songwriters who helped make New Orleans a fundamental influence on rock ‘n’ roll. He was a New Orleans native who performed nationwide but always returned to Louisiana. He began playing professionally at age 15, and by his 20s had contributed to a slew of 1950s hits, including Price’s “Where You At?” and Earl King’s “Those Lonely Lonely Nights.” Among the many artists he collaborated with were Little Richard, Fats Domino, and David Bartholemew.

Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns charted in 1957 with “Rockin’ Pneumonia,” a mid-tempo stomp featuring John Marchin’s vocals and Smith’s buoyant keyboard playing, and the equally rowdy and good-natured “Don’t You Just Know It.” The Clowns were also known for their songs “We Like Birdland,” “Well, I’ll Be John Brown,” and “High Blood Pressure.”

One Smith composition became a major hit and rock standard for another performer. Smith and his group wrote, arranged, and recorded “Sea Cruise,” but Ace Records, as Smith learned bluntly from local record distributor Joe Caronna, thought the song would be more successful with a white singer and replaced the Clowns’ vocals with those of Frankie Ford, whose version became a million-seller.

Piano Smith’s Popularity Waned After The Beatles Arrived

“I was crying as he (Caronna) said that,” Smith told biographer John Wirt, whose 2014 book “Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues” was released. “I’d had a little bit to drink. It broke my heart when he told me he was taking that.”

John Fogerty, the Beach Boys, Aerosmith, and Jerry Garcia were among the artists who covered piano “Sea Cruise” and other Smith songs. Ford later denied “stealing” the song, claiming he had written the lyrics. “Huey went through a period where he ‘forgot’ many things,” Ford explained to Offbeat Magazine.

Smith’s popularity waned after the Beatles arrived, and by 1980, he had left the music business, moved to Baton Rouge with his wife, Margrette, and converted to Jehovah’s Witnesses. He fought to be paid and credited for “Sea Cruise” and other hits, and he spent decades in legal and financial trouble, as did many other rock musicians from the 1950s. Meanwhile, local musicians continued to cite him as an inspiration.

“He was the man in New Orleans who got more out of simplicity than anyone else,” drummer Earl Palmer told Wirt.

Smith received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Award in 2000, and the piano Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame honored him a year later. Admirers regard him as one of the most important performers not inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Smith Had 47 Great Grand Children

According to his daughter, he is survived by his wife, ten children, 18 grandchildren, and 47 great-grandchildren.

Smith grew up in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood, his father a roofer and his mother a laundry worker. Smith began playing the piano as a child, learning from his uncle, and quickly mastered the eight-bar progression that was the foundation for countless blues songs. He played obsessively, sometimes to the chagrin of his neighbors, and in high school, he helped form the Joy Jumpers band.

He was still in his teens when he met Eddie Lee Jones, a young New Orleans musician who, as “Guitar Slim,” influenced countless musicians and gave Smith his “Piano” nickname. Professor Longhair’s blues-boogie woogie influenced Lewis’s early work. But he would eventually absorb various styles, from Jelly Roll Martin’s jazz to Fats Domino’s rock rhythm and blues.

“I started trying a variety of music instead of just one individual style,” he told Wirt. “I like my style, but it’s nothing like rhythm-and-blues, calypso, or any of that. It’s just a deep funk.”

SOURCE – (AP)