LLOYD Price had barely turned 19 when he recorded “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” in March 1952. Produced and arranged by Dave Bartholomew at New Orleans’ J&M Studio, with bleating sax and Fats Domino’s rolling piano triplets, the song became a keystone of early rock’n’roll, its impact heightened by Price’s anguished cry. “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” predated Little Richard, Jerry Lee and Elvis, who was so impressed that he cut it himself four years later.
Price’s original version for the Specialty label, inspired by a catchphrase from local DJ James “Okey Dokey” Smith, topped the Billboard R&B chart that spring, selling close to a million copies and making him a crossover sensation. “I revolutionised the South,” claimed Price at his Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 1998. “Before ‘Lawdy Miss Clawdy’, white kids were not really interested in this music.” Whenever he played at segregated venues, he’d observed, black and white kids would rebel by dancing together.