* En anglais uniquement
Rockabilly singer/guitarist
Joe Clay was on the cusp of stardom in 1956, when he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show at 17 and won a contract with RCA Records. But
Sullivan, in typical repressive fashion, told the young singer to play
the Platters subdued "Only You" instead of his rollicking "Duck Tail," and
Clay's domineering manager refused to allow him to play outside New Orleans and eventually drove RCA away. But it wasn't the last the world would hear from
Joe Clay. Born in Louisiana's Cajun territory as
Claiborne Joseph Cheramie,
Clay began playing in a country band at 12 which went on to get a gig on WWEZ radio. RCA created a subsidiary called Vik Records, which called the station looking for talent. The label then offered
Clay a contract, to which
Clay replied, "Hell yes!"
Clay, who had already recorded Sixteen Chicks, Goodbye Goodbye, and You Look That Good to Me in Houston, was flown to New York, where he recorded with some of the finest black rhythm musicians of the time (guitarist
Mickey Baker, guitarist
Skeeter Best, bassist
Leonard Gaskin, and drummers
Bobby Donaldson and
Joe Marshall) in one of the earlier integrated studio sessions. But the raucous music went nowhere.
Clay played like
Carl Perkins and
Elvis Presley, and appeared on Sullivan months earlier than
Presley, but only succeeded in playing backup on some
Elvis recordings.
Clay spent the next 30 years singing in the Bourbon Street lounges of New Orleans, eventually driving a bus to support himself. By the 1980s, after he'd given up performing,
Clay was becoming a star in Europe, unbeknownst to him. A West German label issued a '50s revival album featuring
Clay that took off, and a diehard English promoter spent years trying to track
Clay down, placing classified ads, calling DJs, and working contacts. Willie Jeffrey finally found
Clay and arranged a tour of England in 1986. ~ Ron DePasquale