I've been curious about the origins of this song myself in the past and have come up with the following conclusions:

Lawrence Walker did record it in the 50's but it was originally recorded under the name Jolie Can't Dance. He later recorded it under the name Johnny Can't Dance. I can't recall the name of the original record label.

Aldus Roger then took it and changed it around a little and recorded it on the Swallow label in the 60's.

I've also heard recordings of the song by Bebe and Eraste Carriere and Canray Fontenot, so there might possibly be some Creole influence going on there. *side note* get a copy of the Carriere CD, their version is awesome.

What I've read: Raymond Francois (in Ye Yaille, Chere) said that his father told him the song entered the Cajun repertoire through a children's book called The Rabbit Stole The Pumpkin.

After looking into the history behind The Rabbit Stole The Pumpkin I found out that it was originally recorded in Chicago of all places in 1929 by John Bertrand and Milton Pitre. Most people think this song sounds very similar to J'ai Ete Au Bal, which it does... but I can still hear similarities to Johnny Can't Dance. I highly doubt that the song was ever adapted from a children's book, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.

I hope some of this helps or at least wasn't that boring to read.

John

I think you'll find that most older cajun songs are pretty much impossible to find origin info on. Finding who first recorded it is easy, just ask Neal, but that hardly ever means that person came up with the song.

Jim,

Rusty's right, it was Lawrence Walker first. Didn't know about the Jolie Can't dance name though.

Story I heard was he named it after Johnny Alan who was playing guitar for him as a teenager. Since he was on the bandstand all night, he couldn't dance and voila, there you have it.

For the off-color footnote to the story, email me off forum....

It's such a great song. Unfortunately, if I claim that this song is a traditional song on my website, someone will think ill.

I honestly don't care at this point. I'm a little drunk.

Tomorrow will be fun in the morning, I think. Music in the woods at Oregon Ridge! I'm looking forward.

Taking the D Acadian and the G Hohner. Gonna be one hell of a good time

The First person that I know of playing it was, Clifton Chenier.. if there was anyone before him I dont know