Allen Toussaint (January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter, arranger, and record producer, who was an influential figure in New Orleans R&B from the 1950s to the end of the century, described as “one of popular music’s great backroom figures”. Many musicians recorded Toussaint’s compositions, including “Java”, “Mother-in-Law”, “I Like It Like That”, “Fortune Teller”, “Ride Your Pony”, “Get Out of My Life, Woman”, “Working in the Coal Mine”, “Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky”, “Here Come the Girls”, “Yes We Can Can”, “Play Something Sweet”, and “Southern Nights”. He was a producer for hundreds of recordings, among the best known of which are “Right Place, Wrong Time”, by his longtime friend Dr. John (“Mac” Rebennack), and “Lady Marmalade”, by Labelle. (More from Wikipedia)
Anyway, it is hard for me to complain about what the Crawdaddys have included on Here ’Tis: The CD starts off with a blistering rendition of a rockin’ Chuck Berry song, “Thirty Days”, followed by an Allen Toussaint song called “Why Wait Until Tomorrow” that had been recorded by Lee Dorsey – best known for two charming hits, “Ya Ya” and “Working in the Coalmine”. Also on hand is a criminally obscure Leiber/Stoller song called “That Is Rock and Roll”, the flip side of the Coasters’ hit “Along Came Jones”. The Coasters, one of my favorite American R&B bands, had emerged in the 1960’s essentially as a showcase band for the best songs by this dynamite songwriting duo.
Another outstanding song on the Crawdaddys CD Here ’Tis is “Ruler of My Heart”, with the songwriting credited to Naomi Neville (the mother of Allen Toussaint; he often uses her name in his writing credits) and made famous by Irma Thomas. Then there is the Jimmy Page song mentioned earlier, “She Just Satisfies”.
(January 2015/2)
