One Hit No More, No. 3: Frankie Ford & His "Sea Cruise" to a Hall of Fame

Fascinating dude, honestly.

“He was playing this schmaltz stuff in a bar. We requested 'Alimony,' which is one of his songs he hadn't played in years. He was overjoyed. He stopped playing and came and talked to us. And we were thrilled.”
- Robert Plant, yes that one

I'd put real money on a bet that the majority of the people who know Frankie Ford's, “Sea Cruise,” only know it as a jingle for a Red Lobster commercial. It could have been a Skipper's commercial for all that it matters, but more people would come up with that before they could dredge up Frankie Ford. Again, that's my bet. Alternately, a rock legend like Plant “thrilled” (his word) on meeting Ford and taht tells another story. I always get a kick out of stories like that. It’s not just the bond between artists, it’s also how they go to deeply unexpected places.

The two obituaries I read for Ford note the same thing, only without saying it outright: Ford never stopped working. To extrapolate a little from a line in the obituary in the New Orleans Times-Picuyane, his world shrank a bit after “Sea Cruise” plopped him on the national stage. (“[Ford] held down regular gigs at the Ivanhoe, the Backstage 500 Club, the Gateway, his own club at Toulouse and Bourbon, and finally Lucky Pierre's, presiding over a lounge-style act peppered by risque one-liners.”) Still, the man played American Bandstand, sure as that’s Dick Clark pitching a pack of gum in the introduction, and no one can take that away from him.

All that said, there’s a wart in this story and there’s no point talking around it. To preface it, I lifted this out of The New York Times’ obituary:

“In the late 1950s, [Ford] came to the attention of New Orleans record producers and label owners who were keen to craft “teen idols” - white singers who might tap into a larger market than what was available to black rhythm & blues singers.”

While I wouldn't state outright that Frankie Ford climbed to his big break up another man’s ladder - and I can't, really, not on this little research - the history of rock ‘n’ roll in general (see above) makes a pretty good case that I should be talking about Huey “Piano” Smith right now. According to Smith's Wikipedia page (scroll down), he recorded the first version of "Sea Cruise," only to have the label strip his vocals and replace them with Ford's. There could be more to the story, sure - during his induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame at Baton Rouge (“LMHOF BTR”), Ford explained this as a touring issue (i.e., Smith didn’t travel, whereas Ford did) - and Smith’s Wikipedia page doesn’t make any references to him leaving Louisiana. It also doesn’t mention any hang-ups about traveling, but it does note that Smith had two more gold records than Ford, so draw whatever conclusions from that that most brighten your day.

 

If you watch that video of Ford’s LMHOF BTR induction - and I'd skip the opening banter for your own good (a “massa” joke? jesus...) - you’ll hear him sing, I mean really sing. Both obits include people raving about Ford’s natural talent, and the man has great, heavily-walled lungs, no question. His performer’s knack for banter comes out, even in his tackiest stuff (and let your imagination run wild on the “risqué one-liners” he “sprinkled” into his shows), in his LMHOF BTR induction. I understand why those jokes squick people out, but he’s a man of his generation and culture - and all that implies* - but....c’mon, that’s showmanship down to that jacket/scarf combo.

[* Ed. - Those jokes make you cringe for good and normal reasons, but I don’t think anyone benefits from turning Ford's induction into Louisiana’s Music Hall of Fame a teachable moment. Casual racism was common at the time, the civil rights movement had just begun to confront Jim Crow, and so on. Condemn it, by all means, but there's no point in looking anywhere but at it.]

Pursuant to all of the above, the strangest thing I came across researching Ford was an album he recorded, On the Street Where You Live. After my first listen, I developed a theory that Ford was a crooner who stumbled into a big hit that one time he decided to try his hand at “this rock ‘n’ roll” business. (Think KISS’s “I Was Made for Loving You”). Nope. The real story is both stranger and incomplete. As it turns out, On the Street Where You Love dropped in 2009 through some obscure label called Briarmeade [Ed. - This is inaccurate; Spotify uses the release date sometimes, as opposed to a recording date.]. It’s basically an album of old standards - all of them street-themed - that Ford actually recorded God knows when, I only know the date of release, and what I see on that album. Also, the official Frankie Ford website? Not so good, but at least sporadically current. He recorded “On the Sunny Side of the Street” for the album, something I only know from Peggy Lee’s version, but, wherever they come from, I got a kick out of a couple other songs from On the Street Where You Live - e.g., “The Lonesome Road, “Grant Avenue,” and, closer to Ford’s vein, “Beale Street Mama.”

Whatever he did in 2009 [or whenever], the only other full album on Spotify that wasn’t a Greatest Hits was something titled Cruisin’ with Frankie Ford. The songs on that feels like a better introduction to Frankie Ford, one-hit wonder - and I say that after hearing his leering twist on “Standing on the Corner,” which sounds very different in Bobby Darin’s more commercial take (then again, those lyrics….whatever would twitter do with that shit?). If there’s one Frankie Ford song that I keep tripping over on my way between things, it’s “Whiskey Heaven,” a bar-song classic if I’ve ever heard one, a tipsy, irreverent salute to Bourbon Street. I found a video of him performing it (not the best venue, but…), but I also found “Alimony” the same way, the only other song of his where someone included the song’s name and the word “hit” in the same sentence.

Spotify had neither “Alimony” nor more than three of Ford’s albums - for the record, I didn’t touch the Christmas album, because I hate that shit – but the little research I did makes me think that Cruisin’ with Frankie Ford gets you close enough to his truest spirit. Or maybe just his public one. Ford does what he did well enough, all things considered, whether teen idol or bar-room bandleader or street-obsessed crooner (Beale Street? Grant Avenue?).