Lloyd Price - Blues & Rhythm Series 5100: The Chronological Lloyd Price 1952-1953 (2004)

This amazing compilation assembles all of Lloyd Price's hit recordings made in New Orleans and Los Angeles in 1952 and 1953. Price grew up in New Orleans and got his first break in 1952 at the age of 20 when trumpeter Dave Bartholomew lined him up with the Specialty record company. Price's very first recording was the Louis Jordan-inspired "Barnyard Rock," but what put him across very quickly was "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," a handsome bit of R&B that hit the Billboard R&B chart at once and stayed there for six months. Backed by seven mighty masters of New Orleans dance music including Bartholomew and pianist Fats Domino, Price belted out half a dozen tasty tunes including the catchy "Chee Koo Baby," a New Orleans rhumba closely resembling the music of Dave Bartholomew's rival, Professor Longhair. The background vocals by the band during "Oo-Ee Baby" make Price's act sound a little like Hank Ballard & the Midnighters. His rocking & rolling "Mailman Boogie" almost certainly helped to ignite a trend in popular music that is still commonly associated with Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. Each Lloyd Price recording is an exercise in soulful finesse, be it slow dance, R&B, rocking boogie, or a little more of that perpetually rolling Crescent City rhumba. He generally liked to work with a gutsy sax soloist backed by another load of saxes and a good solid rhythm section. Price reached a new level of expressivity when he sang "If crying was murder, baby, you'd have been dead long ago." Some of these grooves are difficult to sit still to. "Walkin' the Track" has a twist component that won't let go. "Lloyd's Lament (Old Echo Song)" introduces a more unusual formula as Price sings the wordless melody off mike like a background singer and speaks over the band during the bridge like one of the Ink Spots. The pianist on the session of April 16, 1953, is believed to have been Huey Smith, and it sure does sound like him, especially given the smoking hot "Where You At," the beautiful resonance of Smith's "Too Late for Tears" and "Lord, Lord, Amen!," and Price's own "Carry Me Home." ~arwulf arwulf