Huey "Piano" Smith - It Do Me Good - 2CD DIGIBOOK

When it comes to good time rollicking rock’n’roll or rhythm’n’blues, there are few exponents to match Huey ‘Piano’ Smith. One of the greatest of New Orleans’ many pianists, Smith began his career with blues men like Guitar Slim and Earl King and enjoyed a string of classic hits in the late 1950s. During that time he wrote and recorded three of rock and roll’s most enduring classics, ‘Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu’, ‘High Blood Pressure’ and ‘Sea Cruise’, the latter featuring the vocals of Frankie Ford. His career continued well into the 1970s. This deluxe package is an upgraded version of a Charly CD released in the late 1980s, Pitta Pattin’. This collection - featuring the recordings he made for the Instant label in the late 1960s - has now been expanded to include several tracks not featured on the original including the ultra rare ‘Two Way Pock-A-Way’, ‘Epitaph To A Black Man’ and ‘The Whatcha Call ‘Em’ plus several newly discovered, previously unissued recordings. His powerful piano can be heard to good effect on the previously unissued, ‘I’m Boss Pt 2’ with its almost Northern Soul sound. Many of Smith’s early Instant 45s were big local hits in New Orleans and Louisiana without ever denting any national charts and have long been sought after by collectors, with some, like ‘Two Way Pock-A-Way’, proving almost impossible to find today. Also featured are versions of ‘Rockin’ Pneumonia’, ‘High Blood Pressure’ and ‘Don’t You Just Know It’ recorded for an Atlantic LP that was never released. By way of a bonus, Huey’s last known recordings made for Allen Toussaint’s Sansu company in 1978 make their CD debut here, more than thirty years after their first release on Charly vinyl. These are the last recordings of Huey Smith who retired from music to concentrate on his religious beliefs in the early 80s. He now lives in retirement in Baton Rouge but still happily acknowledges his huge contribution to New Orleans R&B and to rock’n’roll in general.