I am doing a little musicology project with some students on cross cultural transfers and the influence of African American music on American music & pop culture.
I just read "Blue Monday-Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock & Roll " by Rick Coleman. A gread read !
Anyway-I'm looking for some examples of cross overtunes that jumped the colour line.
Can anyone suggest of any Swamp Pop covers of Fats Domino tunes by Cajun artists?
Also Zydeco covers of mainstream pop songs would be interesting.

I can't help you with anything Fats did right now but check out some of the things Belton Richard did with rock and roll songs. Hope this helps.

Creole Junction (zydeco) did a cool quote of Annie Lennox's "Sweet Dreams". Other than that, you don't have to dig too deep in modern zydeco to find a whole lot of current references to modern pop.

Check just about any Keith Frank release... his current "Undisputed" disc has a killer remake of "Just Don't Wanna Be Lonely" by the Main Ingredient... not to mention so many others he's done in the past...

J.Paul Jr., "Think" and so many other covers originals morphed into musical shoutouts to Prince, Stevie Wonder and the Temptations. And don't forget about Chris Ardoin (I remember his version of "Your Love Keeps Taking Me Higher "

This list is too numerous...

R!CK

DOH! Oh... I misread. We're talkin' Fats... nevermind my previous post...

Blue Monday - Travis Matte
Walkin' To New Orleans - Buckwheat Zydeco
Blueberry Hill - Warren Ceasar & Creole Zydeco Snap

Didn't he write Josephine? Covered by many zydeco and swamp pop artists...

R!CK

I think Josephine was redone by Willie T from Fats.

Don't know if it meets your criteria but Joe Bonsall made a Swallow 45 with a real good swamp pop tune in English, Your Picture, and the flip side was The Chickens Don't Lay (Les Poules Pends Pas).

Robert Bertrand/Joel Sonnier put out Chuck Berry's Memphis, in English. Maybe my favorite version!

I guess the white swamp pop guys must have played or recorded Fats Domino songs but the crossover guy for me would be Bobby Charles. Chess records heard his test pressings and assumed he was a black guy when he went up to record!

Thanks for the suggestions by everyone including the contemp. zydeco ones, Rick...now to see how many are available on itunes I wonder if the Robert Bertrand singles are available there but I'll check.
I really feel that Fats was the foundation behind the whole Swamp Pop school---what do you think?

I think Fats had a huge influence on Ray Charles. I believe he also had a huge impact in inspiring a host of plenty other NOLA players like Larry Williams, Frankie Ford, Lee Dorsey, Dr. John, and Art Neville. Those guys really defined the early days of "rock and soul" with that lazy New Orleans back beat. The "Fat Man" was at the root of all that swampy R&B... it just dripped with brutal sunshine and humidity.

If I had one wish in this world it would be to travel back in time to sip Absinthe and suck oysters watching these cats do their thang.

R!CK

I agree about Bobby Charles, there are a load of songs alot of people don't even realize are his. Talking about they thought he was a black man made me think of my uncle. He always thought Horace Trahan was black until I told him otherwise. Most average joe's don't know its him on Ossun Blues! Colorblind Music!

Apparently when Elvis started out his radio listeners were mostly black and they assumed he was too.

Fron page 42 of Coleman's "Blue Monday":

An unnamed Hurricane slammed into new Orleans on September 19, 1947, putting neighbourhoods undes 6 feet of water. and killing 10 people. At the same time, a musical hurricane was brewing in New Orleans that would eventually rock the planet. Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" recorded at J&M for DeLuxe Records became an instant local sensation. The son took off on an afternoon radio show that debuted on WJMR three days after the storm.
The ides for the first black radio program in new Orleans began that summer when Vernon Winslow, an art instructor at Dillard University, had written local radio stations proposing a "colored" show. Winslow boldly walked in the front door of the segrated Jung Hotel abd took the elevator up to the office of WJMR , the one station that had expressed interest in the program. WjMR certainly wanted black advertising dollars , but when Winslow auditioned the the jive talk that he wanted to use on air, station manager Stanley Ray looked at the ivory-skinned gentleman and asked, "Are you a ****** ?"


After Winslow said that he was a "Negro", Ray told him that he couldn't possible announce the show---but he could coach a white announcer, Though greatly dissappointed, Winslow agreed. he even created a jive name for the white disc jockey: "Poppa Stoppa". Winslow chose the records that Poppa Stoppa played, but he was surprised when the show diverged from the jazz that he had envisioned to what the jukebox told him the music had to be, as he put it-----"none other than Roy Brown tearin the place up!" The Poppa Stoppa show took off like a racehorse. Brown's anthem to sex and partying shocked listeners who had never heard such fiery singing outside of church. It divided neighbourhoods," recalled Winslow, "and it just labelled rhythm & blues----we didn't call it rhythm & blues then.

From page 85:
Farther south, a fifteen year old in Abbeville took advantage of his parents' inattention while bickering in french to turn the radio from the Cajun music station to one playing hank Williams and then to an even stranger sound on the dial. "I heard Fats Domino and that changed my life forever,, " says Bobby Charles, who would later write Bill Haley's "See you later Alligator" and Domino's "Walking to New Orleans."

You're definitely looking for Bobby Charles (Robert Charles Guidry) b.Abbeville. Several listings seem to mix his recordings with another guy of the same name out of Texas. Don't be confused.

Another point to consider is that early Cajun recordings frequently blurred the color line unlike Memphis where the same studio was used, just not on the same recordings.

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