Willie Harper – A Certain Girl
Wardell Quezerque – ‘The Creole Beethoven’
Listen/Download – Willie Harper – A Certain Girl
Greetings all.
Before we get started I should note that I heard the sad news this morning that one of my all time faves, Gene Ludwig, – master of the Hammond organ – has passed away. I wanted to put together a suitable tribute, so I’ll be pulling some records from the crates and digimatizing them for a tribute post on Monday. Please keep his wife Pattye in your thoughts.
The tune I bring you today is a cut by one of my favorite New Orleans singers.
Oddly enough, as obscure as he is, Willie Harper is one of the first NOLA vocalists I had in my crates, via the fairly common and extremely cool ‘But I Couldn’t’ on ALON records. This was the very first single released on Allen Toussaint and Joe Banashak’s ALON imprint and the flipside ‘A New Kind of Love’ was a local hit. He would go on to record five singles for ALON.
I don’t know anything about Harper’s life, but as a huge fan of both New Orleans music and Allen Toussaint his voice has been a familiar one for years.
Harper recorded on and off through the 60s, like many other singers, almost exclusively with Allen Toussaint. He recorded under his own name for ALON and Sansu (two 45s under his own name, ‘You You‘ and ‘Here Comes The Hurt‘) , and as one half (with Toussaint) of Willie and Allen (’I Don‘t Need No One‘) , as part of the Rubaiyats (the storming ‘Omar Khayyam’, also basically Willie and Allen) and as a backing singer on a number of Toussaint productions for Benny Spellman and Ernie K Doe.
Speaking of K Doe, it was he that first recorded Toussaint’s ‘A Certain Girl’ in 1961. It went on to be a British Invasion favorite, with covers by the Yardbirds, the Animals, the First Gear, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders and the Paramounts (featuring Gary Brooker and Robin Trower, later of Procol Harum).
Willie Harper recorded ‘A Certain Girl’ for Tou-Sea in 1968, and it’s turned into one of my favorite, purely soul sides out of the Crescent City.
I’ve always found the Tou-Sea (that’s Toussaint & Marshal Seahorn) label to be an interesting footnote in late 60s New Orleans music. As far as I can tell the label’s discography isn’t very lengthy*, and the releases I’ve come across are all on the grittier side. How they decided to place these particular sides (including 45s by Warren Lee, Harper and Gus ‘The Groove’ Lewis), I don’t know, but as Dan Phillips of the mighty Home of the Groove blog has noted, some of the Tou-Sea sides were not specifically Toussaint projects. Some of them, including today’s selection, were produced and arranged by none other than Wardell Quezerque (billed here as both ‘Big Q’ and ‘DC Wardell’.
It is a constant source of regret that I haven’t made a closer study of Quezerque’s production and arranging work (god knows my crates are filled with his work).
He was prolific, and probably, among the “Big Three’ in New Orleans – Toussaint, Eddie Bo and himself – the biggest hitmaker. He was the man behind NOLA records, and produced and arranged for just about anyone who was anyone in the Crescent City, hitting the charts with Professor Longhair, Earl King, Tami Lynn, Robert Parker, King Floyd and Jean Knight among many others. He also worked as a producer and arranger for many non-New Orleans artists like the Pointer Sisters, BB King, and Ruth Brown.
Harper’s version of the tune features a prominent horn section, with just a touch of that relaxed, New Orleans tempo. Harper is – as always – in fine voice (improvising new lyrics here and there) , backed by a female chorus.
It’s a great 45, and maybe proof that someone out there ought to collect the stuff that Harper recorded during the 60s (and early 70s) into a comp.
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Monday.
Peace
Larry
*I’ve seen listings for – but largely haven’t heard – releases on Tou-Sea by Mill Evans, Jay Roy, Ray Algere, Zilla Mayes and Johnny Green (Algere being the only one of those I’m familiar with)
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I’d be very surprised if you haven’t heard at least one side of the Zilla Mayes. “All I Want Is You” is erroneously credited to Betty Harris on several comps [Harris’ song of the same name sounds nothing like it].
As I recall, an alt version of the flip side, “I Love You Still” is on the Seahorn’s Farm collection. The original issue version of the song is much more raw sounding vocal-wise, and ahhh…remains un-comped.
This is one of those times where nobody’s ever bothered to listen to the actual record before re-issuing the songs. As a result, confusion about Tou-Sea 132 reigns.
THANKS!!!!!!!
Hello,
Thanks for the nice article you have written about my Uncle Willie who is now deceased. My mother, his sister and his daughter Sharon Harper would love to be able to get copies of his recordings. Is it possible for you to point us in the direction where we can locate them. By the way, Darren Harper, (Willie’s grandson) seem to have his grandfather’s voice. He needs to be discovered.
Try the film and try museum in NYC the usually can print any album or song. Harper Boyd family reunion see you at the next one. Maybe were related? You never know. My mom is a Blackman and her mom was a Boyd, one of the Boyd sisters married a Harper. Any way I bookmarked the page and I look to see if finding the music is possible. Bye.