“I hear records all the time on the radio that with a little time and a few little changes here and there could have been monstrous songs,” Earl King told the Bitter Southerner. “Sometimes just a little twisting and a little tender care can turn something OK into something great.”
Born Earl Silas Johnson IV in 1934 in New Orleans, King was a blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He started playing guitar at 15 and performed in talent contests. He soon became a regular performer at the Dew Drop Inn.
A Booker T. Washington High School graduate, King released his first record as Earl Johnson in 1953. He started performing as Earl King in 1954. The owner of Specialty Records suggested that he bill himself as King Earl, but the typesetter reversed the names.
As a performer, King was described as “flamboyant “ by the New York Times. He sang “with bluesy ease … playing guitar solos that curled and sliced across the rolling New Orleans beat.”
King recorded hundreds of singles with a variety of labels. His biggest hit was “Those Lonely Lonely Nights” in 1955. Throughout his career, he collaborated with such greats as Fats Domino, Dr. John, Professor Longhair, the Neville Brothers, Lee Dorsey, Allen Toussaint and Ray Charles.
“King’s discs were among the rare ones where the words were as important as the music, where blues guitar was balanced with second-line piano, and where the B-sides were as strong as the A-sides,” the Bitter Southerner states. “King has written some of the smartest, catchiest, sturdiest songs to ever come out of Louisiana. Once King’s songs were written, though, they became the basis for one of the most spontaneous stage acts around.”
King was 69 when died in 2003.
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