Huey “Piano” Smith, whose two-fisted keyboard style and raucous songs propelled New Orleans R&B into the pop Top 10 in the late 1950s, died on Feb. 13 at his Baton Rouge home. He was 89.
Acquelyn Donsereaux, his daughter, confirmed his death.
Mr. Smith’s songs, including “Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu,” “Don’t You Just Know It,” and “Sea Cruise,” became New Orleans R&B and rock ‘n’ roll classics.
Mr. Smith was a pianist and bandleader known for his strong left-hand bass lines, splashy right hand, and forceful backbeat. His band, the Clowns, was led by a group of dancing lead vocalists, including Bobby Marchan, who frequently performed in women’s clothing.
Mr. Smith’s lyrics were filled with witty wordplay and catchy nonsense-syllable choruses. “I use slangs and things like that,” he was quoted as saying in John Wirt’s biography, “Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and the Rockin’ Pneumonia Blues” (2014), “When you put the music with words and things together, the songs just make themselves. And after you listen to it, it says something to you that you didn’t intend.”
Aerosmith, the Grateful Dead, Johnny Rivers, Patti LaBelle, Deep Purple, and many others have covered Mr. Smith’s songs. However, he struggled to collect royalties for more than a decade, and he declared bankruptcy in the 1990s. His label gave his song “Sea Cruise” to a white singer, Frankie Ford, whose voice was overdubbed over the backing track recorded by Mr. Smith and his band.
Huey Pierce Smith was born in New Orleans on January 26, 1934, the son of Arthur Smith, a roofer and sugar cane cutter, and Carrie Victoria (Scott) Smith, a laundry worker. He taught himself to play boogie-woogie piano, and by his teens, he was performing regularly at the Dew Drop Café, a top Black club in what was still a segregated city. He collaborated with Eddie Lee Jones, who performed and recorded as Guitar Slim and gave him the “Piano” moniker. Onstage, he also supported Lloyd Price and other New Orleans performers.
Mr. Smith also became a regular session player at J&M, Cosimo Matassa’s recording studio where the sound of classic New Orleans R&B was forged. His piano can be heard on the Smiley Lewis hit “I Hear You Knocking,” as well as on recordings by Earl King, Little Richard, and others.
In 1957, he formed the Clowns and had a nationwide hit with “Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” (later versions often rendered as “Rockin'”), which peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s rhythm-and-blues chart and No. 52 on the pop chart. “Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and the Sinus Blues,” a medically oriented sequel, did not fare as well.
