Huey Smith was born in New Orleans. He wrote his first song on the piano at the age of eight, which he named “Robertson Street Boogie”, after the street on which he lived. Later, at the age of fifteen, he started working in local clubs as part of a duo with Eddie Jones. (Eddie Jones adopted the name Guitar Slim later in his career). Smith released his first single on Savoy Records in 1952 and took up session playing. He played on Little Richard’s early hits and also with Lloyd Price, Earl King and Smiley Lewis. In 1956, now signed to Ace Records as Huey Smith & his Rhythm Aces, he released “Little Liza Jane”, with Lee Allen on saxophone, Earl King on guitar and Earl Palmer on drums.
Finally, in 1957, with a new band The Clowns, he found the right groove. “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” sold over a million copies and earned Huey his first gold disc. The song has a more urgent beat than the laid-back syncopation of Fats Domino’s hits but draws on the same sources: the boogie-woogie piano instrumentals of Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons.
A second gold disc followed in 1958, when “Don’t You Just Know It” reached number four on the R&B chart. At this point Ace Records decided to release Smith’s song “Sea Cruise” with a new vocal track by a young, white singer called Frankie Ford, whom they had just signed. When this version of his song entered the charts, Smith decided to try his luck with a new label, Imperial Records, where he could work with Dave Bartholomew, but there were to be no more hits.
Huey Smith’s legacy is a collection of typically New Orleans pop songs, that have been covered many times and hence are well-known by many people who do not recognise the name of the man who wrote them. In 2000, the Rhythm & Blues Foundation honoured him with a Pioneer Award.
