• Home
• E-Mail/
  Feedback

• Aaron Neville
• Barry White
• B. B. King
• Billy Holiday
• Bob Dylan
• Bonnie Raitt
• Cab Calloway
• Clarence 'Frogman' Henry
• Clyde McPhatter
• The Coasters
• Delbert McClinton
• The Drifters
• Dr. John
• Eric Clapton
• Etta James
• Fats Domino
• Ivory Joe Hunter
• Jackie Wilson
• James Booker
• Jerry Jeff Walker
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Jimmy Reed
• Lloyd Price
• Microwave Dave
• Otis Redding
• Ray Charles
• Platters
• Saffire
• Solomon Burke
• Rev. F. C. Barnes
• Tracy Chapman
• T.Graham Brown

  Clarence " Frogman" Henry is a New Orleans legend who has left the rock-and-roll world with some memorable songs.

Clarence was born in Algiers, Louisiana in 1937. As a child he studied piano and the trombone, instruments that he became somewhat accomplished in playing and which he is still playing to this day. He joined Bobby Mitchell's R& B band in 1953 and stayed with them for about two years before going on to other bands in the New Orleans area. He tried his hand at songwriting and recording also.

In late 1956 a song that Clarence had written helped him to become somewhat of an overnight sensation. That song was Ain't Got No Home. The song was leased to Argo Records in Chicago, with Clarence singing in a falsetto voice when he says he can " sing like a girl" and in a contrived, humorous voice when he says he can " sing like a frog." It was a fun novelty hit that vaulted to the number 3 position on the R& B charts and to number 20 on the pop charts. It also served to give the nineteen-year-old a nickname that would stick with him for life, " Frogman." The flip side of Ain't Got No Home was also very good. Titled Troubles, Troubles, it was an uptempo song on which Clarence shared writing credits with bandleader Paul Gayten.

Clarence Henry continued to perform around New Orleans in the late Fifties and early Sixties before he came up with his next big hit. Once again on the Argo label, he had two more records reach the Top Twenty, But I Do [also known as I Don't Know Why] and You Always Hurt The One You Love. The latter had been a number one hit for the Mills Brothers in 1944. These records were produced by Gayten and legendary New Orleans record producer Allen Toussaint. There were other minor hits also, such as On Bended Knees/Standing In The Need Of Love and Lonely Street. He switched to the Parrot label and just missed with a record titled Have You Ever Been Lonely.

Clarence Henry has been active on the music scene in New Orleans for many years since his fling with the charts. He performs in clubs and he is well known and well liked in his native city. His home was damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but he was not injured.

Source:   http://www.tsimon.com/henry.html

-----------------------------------

He could sing like a girl, and he could sing like a frog. That latter trademark croak, utilized to the max on his 1956 debut smash " Ain't Got No Home," earned good-natured Clarence Henry his nickname and jump-started a rewarding career that endures to this day around the Crescent City.

Naturally, Fats Domino and Professor Longhair were young Clarence Henry's main influences while growing up in the Big Easy. He played piano and trombone with Bobby Mitchell & the Toppers from 1952 to 1955 before catching on with saxist Eddie Smith's band. Henry improvised the basic idea behind " Ain't Got No Home" on the bandstand one morning in the wee hours when the crowd responded favorably, he honed it into something unique. Paul Gayten (New Orleans A& R man for Chess Records) concurred, hustling Henry into Cosimo Matassa's studio in September of 1956. Local DJ Poppa Stoppa laid the " Frogman" handle on the youngster when he spun the 45 (issued on the Chess subsidiary Argo), and it stuck.

Despite some fine follow-ups -- " It Won't Be Long," " I'm in Love," the inevitable sequel " I Found a Home" -- Frog sank back into the marsh sales-wise until 1960, when Allen Toussaint's updated arrangement melded beautifully with a country-tinged Bobby Charles composition called " (I Don't Know Why) But I Do." Henry's rendition of the tune proved a huge pop smash in early 1961, as did a Domino-tinged " You Always Hurt the One You Love" later that year.

Frogman continued to record a variety of New Orleans-styled old standards and catchy originals for Argo (Chess assembled a Henry album that boasted what may be the worst cover art in the history of rock & roll), even recording at one point with Nashville saxist Boots Randolph and pianist Floyd Cramer. But the hits dried up for good after 1961. Henry opened 18 concerts for the Beatles across the U.S. and Canada in 1964, but his main source of income came from the Bourbon Street strip, where he played for 19 years. You'll likely find him joyously reviving his classics at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival every year come spring -- and his croak remains as deep and melodious as ever. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide

Source:   http://www.mp3.com/clarence-frogman-henry/
artists/68600/biography.htmll