I recently was involved in a heavy argument, who was the initial singer (vocals removed) before Frankie Ford sang Sea Cruise. In a popular New Orleans book of music, one name is mention, yet, later, Frankie claims a different person's name!

Jim replied....

You don't say who the two singers mentioned are, and I would be interested to know.

I had always heard that it was the writer of the song, Huey Smith, as it is definitely his band, his piano and his arrangement which is backing Frankie Ford's version.

Years later, when Smith has recovered from the event, he joked that he had the track finished, and went out to lunch with his band, only to come back and find that Johnny Vincent had over-dubbed Frankie Ford's voice on the track, telling Smith that his version would be released, and that Ford's version was being used as a demo.

In any event, Smith quit Ace Records and moved over to Imperial, leaving behind a backing track - "Pop-Eye" - to which Vincent added vocals, using Billy Roosevelt and Johnny Williams - but this time, he actually credited it to Smith!

• RE: Looking for song , lyrics, singer - John 02/14/2010 09:27:44 EST (0)