“Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” by Huey Piano Smith (1957)
Remember that jump piano from “I Hear You Knocking?” That was courtesy of one more New Orleans legend, Huey Smith. His is the final name Dave Edmunds shouts out on the cover of the Smiley Lewis original. A few years later, Smith had some modest success with his own “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu." It’s a goofy little tune that stirs love for a woman and love for a hot rhythm into one infectious groove.
With John Williams’ buoyant vocals, Earl King’s guitar, a steady beat from Hungry Williams’ drums, and great punctuation from a couple of saxes, it transcends the goofiness. And of course, Smith’s wandering piano dances over the whole thing. When your nickname is “Piano,” you have a lot to live up to.
In 1972, rockabilly guitar player Johnny Rivers had something of a revival from his 1960s success with a rocking cover of Huey Smith. He got session standout Larry Knechtel to contribute the piano part, and he tossed in his own electric guitar solo toward the end. Rivers’ version climbed to Number Six on the Billboard charts.
That would be the best-known cover, but perhaps the most intriguing one came from Smith himself. A couple of years after the success of the original, Smith adopted an “if it ain’t broke…” philosophy and recorded “Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and the Sinus Flu. The exact same song with slightly rewritten lyrics.
“Dizzy Miss Lizzy” by Larry Williams (1959)
I’ll give you one guess where R&B singer and piano player Larry Williams came from. I hope you said New Orleans. In 1959, he released his first album, Here’s Larry Williams. Early rock & roll albums simply do not come any better. It lacks the revolutionary guitar but otherwise rivals the best of Chuck Berry. “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” is just one of the iconic tracks.
It wasn’t even a big hit. Not with songs like “Short Fat Fannie” and "Bony Moronie” battling for attention. But “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” has everything that rock would become. It cool little guitar riff. A big brassy beat with the piano hammering out a groove. And Williams's sensational tenor effortlessly proclaims his love above it all.
John Lennon loved the song. He loved singing it. The Beatles recorded an unbridled version and included it as the final track on the UK release of Help! American audiences would have to wait, as the track was not on the US release. Williams would not sustain the great success he had in the late ‘50s and would succumb to a range of problems related to drugs and crime. He took his own life in the first week of 1980 at the age of 44.
Next time, we’ll look at a different collection of great music from the late 1950s, and I promise not to end on a suicide.