Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry

 

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

One of my favorite sidelines (and they are legion) is finding later records by artists that I had relegated to an earlier time. That these are discoveries to me is due in part to the fact that the later records are usually obscure, but also because of the ‘blind spot’ of R&B success.

This ‘blind spot’ as it is manifests itself with R&B/soul artists that had some degree of crossover success, and then seemingly faded from the limelight. What in fact happened many times, is that while they may have lost favor with pop audiences, many of these artists continued to place records on the R&B charts and black radio.

Other times, they didn’t even have that luxury, and were merely making a stab at a new/more contemporary audience.

Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry is best known for his 1956 hit ‘Ain’t Got No Home’, and ‘But I Do’ from 1961. He was a singer/pianist and a New Orleans fixture, and while he may have left the charts after 1961, he continued to record through the 1960s and 1970s.

The record I bring you today is a very groovy 1965 cover of a song that Hank Ballard had recorded with the Midnighters in 1956.

‘Tore Up Over You’ takes the Midnighter’s original and bumps up the tempo, tossing in some combo organ that sounds like it was borrowed from a Sir Douglas Quintet session. The bass and guitar push things along with an excellent vocal by Clarence and some female backing singers.

I know I say this a lot, but this really is one of those records that should have been a hit. It’s got plenty of kick to it, fits in very nicely with the 1965 musical zeitgeist and I wouldn’t hesitate to drop it for a room full of dancers. As far as I can tell, it did absolutely nothing when it was released, relegating it to the ‘to be rediscovered’ file, from whence I bring it to you.

So dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

 

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Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

2 Responses to “Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry – Tore Up Over You”

1. porky says:

   February 22, 2015 at 10:08 pm

   don’t forget Tommy LaBeff’s (aka Sleepy Labeef) rockabilly version. A staple of his show for years.

2. Larry says:

   February 23, 2015 at 8:44 am

   I haven’t heard that one, I’ll have to check it out!