Frankie Ford (August 4, 1939 – September 28, 2015) was an American

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

and

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, best known for his 1959 hit "

Sea Cruise Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "sho ...

Biography

He was born in

Gretna, Louisiana Gretna is the second-largest city in, and parish seat of, Jefferson Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. "Gretna, Louisiana (LA) Detailed Profile" (notes), ''City Data'', 2007, webpage: C-Gretna "Census 2000 Data for the State of Lou ...

, as Vincent Francis Guzzo, across the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

from

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, and was the adopted son of Vincent and Anna Guzzo, who named him Vincent Francis Guzzo, Jr. He learned to sing and dance at an early age, and when at high school joined a group, the Syncopators, as singer and pianist. He was spotted by manager Joe Caronna, who took him to

Johnny Vincent John Vincent Imbragulio (October 3, 1927 – February 4, 2000), known as Johnny Vincent, was an American record producer for Art Rupe at Specialty Records. He founded Ace Records in 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi, 165 miles away from New Orlea ...

of Ace Records. Taking the stage name Frankie Ford, he made his first

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

s for Ace in 1958. He toured locally in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, before recording a vocal overdub on the song "Sea Cruise", a song written and originally recorded by

Huey "Piano" Smith Huey Pierce Smith, known as Huey "Piano" Smith (born January 26, 1934) is an American rhythm-and-blues pianist whose sound was influential in the development of rock and roll. His piano playing incorporated the boogie-woogie styles of Pete Joh ...

with his group, the Clowns, and featuring

overdub Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

bed bells and ships' horns. As Smith already had a record in the charts, and was away touring, the record label decided to release Ford's version, and it rose to #14 on the US

pop chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include re ...

and #11 on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

, selling over one million copies, and gaining

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

status. Ford toured widely around the US, but his later records were less successful, with his versions of "Alimony" and " Time After Time" only reaching the lower reaches of the national charts. He also recorded a

novelty record A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and wit ...

in praise of a local TV presenter, "Morgus the Magnificent", with musicians including

Mac Rebennack Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music encompassed New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B. Active as a session musician from t ...

and Jerry Byrne, but it failed to sell. Ace released an LP by Ford, ''Let's Take A Sea Cruise With Frankie Ford'', before the singer moved to

Imperial Records Imperial Records is an American record company and label started in 1947 by Lew Chudd. The label was reactivated in 2006 by EMI, which owned the label and back catalogue at the time. Imperial is owned by Universal Music Group. Early years to ...

in late 1960. He recorded with producer

Dave Bartholomew David Louis Bartholomew (December 24, 1918 – June 23, 2019) was an American musician, bandleader, composer, arranger, and record producer. He was prominent in the music of New Orleans throughout the second half of the 20th century. Originally ...

, and released a version of " You Talk Too Much", but Ford's recording missed out in competition with one by Joe Jones which was issued almost simultaneously. In 1961, his version of Boyd Bennett's 1955 hit " Seventeen" was Ford's last chart entry. Ford was drafted in 1962, and performed for troops in Japan,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. He later recorded occasionally for small labels, but mainly performed in clubs in and around New Orleans. He appeared in the 1978 movie ''

American Hot Wax ''American Hot Wax'' is a 1978 biographical film directed by Floyd Mutrux with a screenplay by John Kaye from a story by John Kaye and Art Linson. The film tells the story of pioneering disc jockey Alan Freed, who in the 1950s helped introduce ...

'', 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. Ford co-owned the Briarmeade record label, which issued several singles and albums by him from the 1970s to the 2000s. On May 16, 2010, at the Louisiana Music Homecoming in Erwinville, Ford was inducted into the

Louisiana Music Hall of Fame The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame (LMHOF) is a non-profit hall of fame based in Baton Rouge, the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana, that seeks to honor and preserve the state's music culture and heritage and to promote education about the state ...

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

Discography

Singles (selected)

* "Cheatin' Woman" / "The Last One to Cry" (1958) * "

" / "Roberta" (1959) - ''Billboard'' Hot 100 No. 14 / US '' Billboard'' R&B No. 11 * "Alimony" / "Can't Tell My Heart (What To Do)" (1959) - ''Billboard'' Hot 100 No. 97 * "Time After Time" / "I Want To Be Your Man" (1960) - ''Billboard'' Hot 100 No. 75 * "Chinatown" / "What's Going On" (1960) * " You Talk Too Much" / "If You've Got Troubles" (1960) - ''Billboard'' Hot 100 No. 87 * "My Southern Belle" / "The Groom" (1960) * " Seventeen" / "Dog House" (1961) - ''Billboard'' Hot 100 No. 72 * "Saturday Night Fish Fry" / "Love Don't Love Nobody" (1961) * "What Happened To You?" / "Let 'Em Talk" (1961) * "A Man Only Does (What A Woman Makes Him Do)" / "They Said It Couldn't Be Done" (1962)

Albums

* ''Let's Take a Sea Cruise with Frankie Ford'' (Ace, 1959) * ''Frankie Ford'' (Briarmeade, 1976) * ''New Orleans Dynamo'' (Stardust, 1984) * ''Hot and Lonely'' (Ace, 1995) * ''Christmas'' (Avantiavi, 1999) * ''Night Songs'' (Briarmeade, 2002) * ''That Can Be Used Again!'' (Briarmeade, 2003) * ''The Legend'' (Knight, 2006) * ''On the Street Where You Live'' (Briarmeade, 2009)

References

External links

*
Frankie Ford
at the

Rockabilly Hall of Fame The Rockabilly Hall of Fame is an organization and website launched on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relating to the artists and personalities involved in rockabilly. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennesse ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Frankie 1939 births 2015 deaths People from Gretna, Louisiana Ace Records (United States) artists American rhythm and blues singers American male singers American adoptees Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans Imperial Records artists Singers from Louisiana