EGN NEWS DESK
Clarence Henry, the New Orleans rhythm-and-blues mainstay who was often called Frogman — and greatest recognized for boasting in his sturdy 1956 hit, “Ain’t Got No Home,” that “I sing like a woman/ And I sing like a frog” — died on Sunday. He was 87.
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the place Mr. Henry had been scheduled to carry out this month, introduced his dying. The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate reported that he died in New Orleans of issues following again surgical procedure.
“Ain’t Got No Home,” which reached No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100, grew to become Mr. Henry’s signature hit and definitively captured his humor and his vocal excessive jinks. Written by Mr. Henry and launched when he was a youngster, the track introduced him his nickname and went on to turn into a perennial favourite on film soundtracks, heard in “Forrest Gump,” “Diner,” “Casino” and different movies. The Band opened “Moondog Matinee,” its 1973 album of rock ’n’ roll oldies, with “Ain’t Got No Home.”
The track was additionally used repeatedly within the Nineties by the right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who performed it whereas mocking homeless individuals. Mr. Henry was grateful for the royalties.
His subsequent hit — and his largest one — arrived in 1961, when “(I Don’t Know Why) But I Do,” a track written by Bobby Charles and organized by Allen Toussaint, reached No. 4. Later that yr Mr. Henry had a No. 12 hit along with his model of the usual “You Always Hurt the One You Love.” In 1964, the Beatles selected him as considered one of their opening acts for 18 reveals on their American tour.
But pop traits left New Orleans R&B behind, and Mr. Henry returned to being a neighborhood hero — performing continually within the golf equipment on Bourbon Street and showing repeatedly on the annual Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Clarence Henry Jr. was born on March 19, 1937, in New Orleans, and grew up there and in close by Algiers. His father was a railroad porter and an novice musician who performed stringed devices and harmonica. His mom, Ernestine, managed the house.
Mr. Henry admired the New Orleans piano masters Fats Domino and Professor Longhair. “When I used to be about 8 years outdated, Momma despatched my sister Lizzie for piano classes, and he or she didn’t prefer it,” he was quoted as saying in Anthony P. Musso’s e book “Setting the Record Straight” (2007). “I requested Momma to ship me, and I advised her that I’d present her what the 50 cents may do.”
He performed trombone in his highschool band, and he and a few classmates joined a band, the Toppers, that backed the singer Bobby Mitchell. (Mr. Henry typically sang lead as effectively.) He went on to work within the saxophonist Eddie Smith’s band.
During one all-night gig, wishing the viewers would go house, the 18-year-old Mr. Henry occurred on a piano riff and began singing, “Ain’t obtained no house, no place to roam.”
He labored these phrases right into a track that flaunted each his falsetto and a croaking approach — singing whereas inhaling — that he had utilized in highschool to tease ladies, in addition to an “ooh-ooh” chorus. Paul Gayten, an A&R man at Chess Records who would share some songwriting credit with Mr. Henry, introduced him to Argo Records, a Chess subsidiary, to document his first single.
“Troubles, Troubles” — a jovial-sounding track about considering suicide — was the one’s A-side, however a New Orleans disc jockey, Poppa Stoppa, determined to characteristic “Ain’t Got No Home” as an alternative. When he began getting requests for “the frog track,” he took to referring to Mr. Henry as “the Frogman.” Mr. Henry, on the lookout for one thing like Fats Domino’s moniker, “the Fat Man,” fortunately adopted it.
In the early Nineteen Sixties, when his “(I Don’t Know Why) But I Do” was successful each within the United States and in Britain, Mr. Henry toured England, the place he met the Beatles. Their 1964 American tour made him an eyewitness to Beatlemania — together with a New Orleans present at which tons of of followers, largely ladies, stormed the stage. But it was the tip of an period for New Orleans R&B.
“After the Beatles tour I went again to taking part in on Bourbon Street, and abruptly every part was guitars,” Mr. Henry advised Offbeat journal in 2004. “The Beatles put a harm on us. It lasted a number of years however we obtained it again.”
Mr. Henry continued to document by the Nineteen Sixties, for Parrot, Dial, Roulette and different labels. But he resisted traits in rock and clung to what, in an interview for John Broven’s e book “Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans” (1978), he known as “the old-time music.”
He carried out continually on Bourbon Street till 1981 and in 1982 toured England, the place he discovered an appreciative viewers, stayed for a yr and recorded an album, “The Legendary Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry,” that was launched in 1983. In later years he carried out much less regularly, however over time he appeared greater than 40 instances on the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and obtained a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation.
Mr. Henry, who lived for a few years in Algiers, was married and divorced seven instances — he married considered one of his wives twice — and had 10 youngsters and 19 grandchildren. Complete info on survivors was not instantly accessible.
“As lengthy as my well being permits me to, I’m going to maintain performing as a result of it’s what I really take pleasure in,” Mr. Henry advised the New Orleans music historian Jeff Hannusch for his e book “The Soul of New Orleans” (2001). “People wish to see the Frogman, however the Frogman needs to see the individuals, too.”
