Song:Stack-A-Lee Parts 1 & 2
Album:Gettin' Funky: The Birth of New Orleans R & B
Of course most music fans should be familiar with Lloyd Price's 1959 chart topping recording of Stagger Lee. But you may not know that in 1950 it was a top ten R & B hit for New Orleans piano pioneer Leon T. Gross AKA Archibald. I'm pretty sure of that because when I looked up Stagger Lee on Wikipedia, there's no mention of Archibald. The big difference between Archibald and someone like Professor Longhair is Archibald wasn't rediscovered in his senior years. He was born Sept. 14, 1916 in New Orleans. That's according to his WWII enlistment records. His DOB has been widely reported as 1912 but it looks like he lied about his age so he could get into clubs. He grew up playing piano at house parties as Archie Boy. After serving in India during WWII, he returned to New Orleans and played clubs. He was signed to Imperial Records in 1950 along with legendary producer Dave Bartholomew and several others including Fats Domino. Stack-A-Lee was his first single and it reached #10 on the R & B Singles chart. Of course the song is based on the murder of Billy Lyons by Stagger Lee Shelton and is considered today to be a traditional folk song. The first significant version of the song was probably recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928. The Lloyd Price version was cleaned up because Dick Clark didn't want to promote a song about murder. The Archibald version was released with Part 1 on the A-side and Part 2 on the B-side. You can get most of Archibald's recordings and many more New Orleans R & B classics on the budget 4CD box set from Proper Records. Imperial was ready to send Archibald on tour when he became ill with an ulcer. He also had alcohol problems later on and a dispute with the musicians union. So though Archibald continued to perform in New Orleans clubs, he never recorded again and he died on Jan. 8, 1973 at age 57. So Leon T. Gross was a big influence in New Orleans music but he wasn't known outside the Crescent City music scene. Here's a video for Stack-A-Lee Parts 1 & 2 by Archibald.
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