Song:Polk Salad Annie
Album:The Best Of Tony Joe White
Polk Salad Annie was the only top ten pop hit for legendary singer songwriter Tony Joe White. His somewhat spotty career as a recording artist is balanced out by his success as a songwriter. He was born July 23, 1943 in Oak Grove, LA. He formed his own band as a teen and toured the south until signing with Monument Records in 1967. Polk Salad Annie was on his debut album Black & White. But Monument had given up on it until a Los Angeles DJ picked up on it and it reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969. The song is autobiographical. Meanwhile Elvis Presley recorded Polk Salad Annie and had a hit with it. Elvis would record several White songs. Dusty Sprigfield charted with Willie and Laura Mae Jones and Brook Benton charted with Rainy Night In Georgia. White moved to Warner Bros. in 1971 and has also recorded for 20th Century Fox, Casablanca and Columbia. You can get some of White's early recordings on this Warner Archive comp. He quit recording in the 80s and resurfaced playing and writing several songs on Tina Turner's 1989 album Foreign Affairs. He has also toured with Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker. Tony Joe White continues to record on his own Swamp label and performs occasionally. But as I said, he's made his living over the years as a songwiriter. Here's Tony Joe White and Johnny Cash performing Polk Salad Annie on The Johnny Cash Show April 1970.
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