Frankie Ford born 4 August 1939 (2024)

Frankie Ford (August 4, 1939 – September 28, 2015) was anAmerican rock and roll and rhythm and blues singer.

One of New Orleans's first genuine white rockers, FrankieFord will forever be known for his 1959 hit "Sea Cruise". He was bornin Gretna, a suburb of New Orleans, the adopted son of Vincent and Anna Guzzo.Bound for a career in show business, he was already taking singing and dancinglessons by the age of 5. Growing up in the New Orleans area, it was notsurprising that young Frankie's biggest influences were some of the legendarynames in R&B such as Fats Domino, Professor Longhair and Ray Charles.

While in high school he joined an R&B group called TheSyncopators, as vocalist and piano player. Frankie was introduced to JoeCaronna, Ace Records' distributor in New Orleans. Caronna became his managerand organized his first recording session for Ace in the summer of 1958. Ace'sowner Johnny Vincent convinced Frankie to change his professional name fromGuzzo to Ford. The session resulted in the single "Cheatin' Woman"/"Last One To Cry". The top side was an exuberant rocker withaccompaniment from the top session men in New Orleans. As most of theSyncopators had day jobs and didn't want to go on the road, Joe Caronnaassembled a new backing group and Frankie started touring to promote therecord, but its sales were mainly confined to South Louisiana. But Frankiedidn't have to wait long for a hit.

Ace's biggest act in 1958 was Huey 'Piano' Smith and theClowns, who had cut two sides, "Sea Cruise" and "Loberta",which Johnny Vincent considered to have hit potential, but he felt they neededsome improvement. Vincent called Ford to the studio to overdub his voice ontoHuey Smith's backing tracks, added overdubbed fog horns and boat bells to"Sea Cruise" and changed the title "Loberta" to"Roberta". At one point it was planned that Frankie would take overas lead vocalist with the Clowns, but Joe Caronna stepped in and said,"Look, Huey's doing fine right now with 'Don't You Know Yockomo', why notrelease the record on Frankie?"

So was born one of the classic records of the rock n rollera. You had to sit up and take notice. "Sea Cruise" peaked at # 14in April 1959 (# 11 R&B) and resulted in six months of touring all acrossAmerica. In a way, it was a pity that "Roberta" was not held backbecause it would have made a perfect follow-up to "Sea Cruise".Without a second big hit, Frankie's time at the top was brief. His third andfourth single for Ace, "Alimony" and "Time After Time" stalled at # 97 and # 75 respectively. Teamingup with two other young white New Orleans hopefuls, Mac Rebennack and JerryByrne, Frankie cut the novelty rocker "Morgus the Magnificent" forAce's Vin subsidiary label. Issued under the pseudonym of Morgus and the ThreeGhouls, it paid homage to a local TV host. It was popular around New Orleans,but didn't make much noise elsewhere.

Ace released an LP by Ford, Let's Take A Sea Cruise WithFrankie Ford, before the singer moved to Imperial Records in late 1960. Herecorded with producer Dave Bartholomew, and released a version of "YouTalk Too Much", but Ford's recording missed out in competition with one byJoe Jones which was issued almost simultaneously. In 1961, his version of BoydBennett's 1955 hit "Seventeen" was Ford's last chart entry.

Ford was drafted in 1962, and performed for troops in Japan,Vietnam and Korea. Returning to civilian life he found the music scene hadchanged radically. He cut various one-off singles for small labels, but by theearly 1970s his days as a recording artist seemed to be over. He embarked on acareer as a solo cabaret artist, singing pop standards to his own pianoaccompaniment to the eager tourists of New Orleans' Bourbon Street.Nevertheless, in 1978 he started retracing his roots by appearing in a cameorole in the film "American Hot Wax” and toured in Britain and Europe,recording the album New Orleans Dynamo in London in 1989.

He continued to record and perform through the 1990s. In1995 things came full circle as Ford returned to Johnny Vincent and hisregenerated Ace label for the album "Hot And Lonely", with newrecordings. Ford also co-owned the Briarmeade record label, which issuedseveral singles and albums by him from the 1970s to the 2000s. A trueambassador of New Orleans good-time music, Frankie Ford continued to perform andalways gaves the audience value for money. On May 16, 2010, at the LouisianaMusic Homecoming in Erwinville, Ford was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hallof Fame. The singer's last performance was at the 2013 Gretna HeritageFestival.

Ford died in Gretna at the age of 76 on September 28, 2015,following a long illness.

(Edited from This Is My Story, Wikipedia & Daily Mail)