NEW ORLEANS R&B SINGER CLARENCE ‘FROGMAN’ HENRY DIES AGED 87
New Orleans R&B singer Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry dies aged 87
Clarence “Frogman” Henry, who was one of New Orleans’ best known old-time R&B singers and scored a hit at age 19 with Ain’t Got No Home, has died. He was 87.
Henry died on Sunday night, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation said on social media. It did not give the cause of death.
Henry, who had been scheduled to perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival later this month, imitated the voice of a frog in Ain’t Got No Home. It was a hit in 1956 and later brought Henry renewed fame when it was featured on the Forrest Gump and Mickey Blue Eyes soundtracks.
He credited disc jockey Poppa Stoppa, whose real name was Clarence Hayman, as coming up with the nickname the “Frogman”, which mimicked Fats Domino’s moniker the “Fatman”.
By 1958, Henry’s popularity waned and he took to playing nightclubs on Bourbon Street.
“I thought the sun would shine. I thought my record would always stay out there and stay on the top, but in 1958, the rain came and bring me back to New Orleans,” Henry told The Associated Press in 2003.
But in 1960, a new song, I Don’t Know Why But I Do by Cajun songwriter Bobby Charles and arranged by Allen Toussaint, brought Henry renewed success.
With the Bill Black Combo and the Jive Five he opened for the Beatles for 18 dates in 1964 during their first US trip and toured extensively, from Scotland to New Zealand.
In Louisiana, Henry remained popular. He also was one of the few black New Orleans musicians to cross over into Cajun musical circles.
Henry, who was born in New Orleans on March 19, 1937, started playing the piano at age eight, taking up lessons his sister had disliked. He worked for his father until he was 15, often for no money.
He played the trombone and piano in his high school band and later joined The Toppers, travelling around southern Louisiana before making it big.
“When I was going to school, I wanted to be Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, and I would wear a wig with two plaits and call myself Professor Longhair,” Henry told the AP. “I like the Fats Domino rhythm, but I play my own chords and my own style.”
Henry’s national fame faded but he remained popular in Louisiana. He was a Bourbon Street fixture until 1981, when he retired from the gruelling club circuit. But he never gave up music, and continued to be an annual crowd pleaser at the Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Articles - Latest
- 3.2 MILLION-YEAR-OLD HUMAN ANCESTOR 'LUCY' HAD MASSIVE LEG MUSCLES TO STAND UP STRAIGHT AND CLIMB TREES
- PIONEERING BBC JOURNALIST STEPHEN GRIMASON DIES AGED 67
- AFTER DEATH: WHAT ARE THE BURIAL ALTERNATIVES TO REST IN PEACE?
- THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL REVIEW – THE SEXUAL STRATEGISING OF THE CONNIVING BOLEYN FAMILY BROUGHT SHARPLY TO LIFE
- MICHAEL BYRNE DIES AGED 36 AS TRIBUTES PAID TO FORMER GRAND NATIONAL JOCKEY
- Ukraine’s former Olympian weightlifter Oleksandr Pielieshenko killed in action
- FROM WHITE MISCHIEF TO BILL & TED, JOSS ACKLAND WAS AN ACTOR OF RARE POISE, RANGE AND PATHOS
- FOUNTAINS OF DIAMONDS THAT ERUPT FROM EARTH'S CENTER ARE REVEALING THE LOST HISTORY OF SUPERCONTINENTS
- ANCIENT HUMANS USED CAVE IN SPAIN AS BURIAL SPOT FOR 4 MILLENNIA, 7,000 BONES REVEAL
- THE MOODY BLUES FOUNDER MIKE PINDER HAS DIED AGED 82
- GOLD POCKET WATCH FOUND IN TITANIC SOLD FOR RECORD-BREAKING PRICE
- 5 CATASTROPHIC MEGATHRUST EARTHQUAKES LED TO THE DEMISE OF THE PRE-AZTEC CITY OF TEOTIHUACAN, NEW STUDY SUGGESTS
- FRENCH PALME D’OR WINNER LAURENT CANTET DIES AGED 63
- Norman Lear obituary
- AN UNHOLY TRAFFIC: HOW THE SLAVE TRADE CONTINUED THROUGH THE US CIVIL WAR
- QUEEN CHARLOTTE WAS ‘PERSON OF COLOUR’, MUSEUM CLAIMS IN LGBT GUIDE
- JEANETTE WINTERSON: I DIDN’T BELIEVE IN GHOSTS… UNTIL I STARTED LIVING WITH THEM
- ANCIENT HUMAN ACTIVITY DISCOVERED IN KILOMETER-LONG LAVA CAVE
- DNA ANALYSIS SPANNING 9 GENERATIONS OF PEOPLE REVEALS MARRIAGE PRACTICES OF MYSTERIOUS WARRIOR CULTURE
- LOST CITIES HIDDEN FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS DISCOVERED UNDER FOREST
- LETTER: ALAN ARKIN OBITUARY
- ARCHAEOLOGISTS CRACK MYSTERY OF ANCIENT MAYA AFTER 7,000-YEAR-OLD REMAINS FOUND
- NEW JERSEY REP. DONALD PAYNE JR. DEAD AT 65
Articles - Most Read
- Main
- Contact Us
- The science behind Ouija boards
- Cosmic Consciousness - What is Cosmic Consciousness-2
- Cosmic Consciousness-Introduction
- Cosmic Consciousness - Introduction-2
- MASSIVE 6.1 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE HITS NEW ZEALAND AS NATION STILL REELING FROM CYCLONE
- ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNRAVEL THE TRUTH OF APHRODITE, GODDESS OF LOVE, ON VALENTINE'S DAY
- The Human Condition-Thomas Keating
- Cosmic Consciousness First Words - 1V - 2
- Cosmic Consciousness First Words - V -
- Cosmic Consciousness V - 2
- Cosmic consciousness - First Words - IV
- Cosmic Consciousness - What is Cosmic Consciousness?
- Evolution and Devolution-Chapter 2
- The Human Condition - Thomas keating-3
- The Human Condition-2-Thomas Keating
- Drinking From The Mountain Stream - Milarepa
- Cosmic Consciousness-On the Plane of Self Consciousness
- The Human Condition - 4
- Cosmic Consciousness - 3 - On the Plane of Self Consciousness
- Evolution and Devolution-Chapter 1
- The Human Condition - 6
- Shakyamuni Buddha or India the 1st “Black Revolutionary Hero.”
- On the Plane of Self Consciousness - 2
- Milarepa's World
- The Human Condition - 5
- Milarepa's World-2
- The Buddhist System of Liberation
- Contemplation and the Divine Therapy - 2
- On the Plane of Self Consciousness IV
- The Buddhist System of Liberation - 2
- JERRY RAWLINGS, GHANAIAN STRONG MAN WHO CAME TO POWER IN A COUP BUT INTRODUCED DEMOCRACY – OBITUARY
- On the Plane of Self Consciousness IV - 2