Cookie and his Cupcakes | |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Boogie Ramblers |
| Origin | Louisiana, United States |
| Genres | Swamp pop |
| Years active | 1950s-1970s |
| Past members |
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Cookie and his Cupcakes was an American swamp pop band from south Louisiana, best known for their 1959 hit "Mathilda", the unofficial anthem of swamp pop music. [1]
The band originally started as the Boogie Ramblers, led by Shelton Dunaway (August 3, 1934 – November 19, 2022). [2] [3] Huey "Cookie" Thierry (born in Roanoke, Louisiana, August 13, 1936 – September 23, 1997) [4] joined in 1952, and shared lead vocals and tenor sax with Dunaway. [2] Other original members were Sidney "Hot Rod" Reynaud (tenor sax), Marshall Laday or LeDee (guitar), Ernest Jacobs (piano), Joe "Blue" Landry (bass) and Ivory Jackson (drums). [5] The band was based in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
They started playing in 1953 as the house band at the Moulin Rouge Club in Lake Charles. [6] In 1955, the Boogie Ramblers released "Cindy Lou" and "Such As Love" on Goldband Records. They became a popular regional live act, and toured with Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino. In 1956, Cookie began being the front man and the name of the band was changed to "Cookie and the Boogie Ramblers". [2] Soon after, the band switched to its final name after hearing it shouted in jest from an audience. [2] In 1957, they recorded their signature song "Mathilda" for Judd Records. After initial struggles to get the song recorded they were able to use KAOK's studio. [6] The record rose to number 47 on the Billboard pop chart in early 1959, [7] and is regarded as the unofficial anthem of the swamp pop genre. [8] They followed up with a number of highly regarded but less commercially successful singles in the early 1960s, including "Belinda", "Betty and Dupree", and "Got You on My Mind"; the latter reached the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1963. [2] They also recorded for Khourys Records. [9]
In August 1965, Thierry moved to Los Angeles to work outside the music industry, [4] leaving the Cupcakes to continue without him. [2] Cookie was replaced as lead singer by "Little Alfred" (or "Lil' Alfred") Babino (January 5, 1944, Lake Charles – November 14, 2006). With Ernest Jacobs as bandleader, the group continued for several years but dispersed in the early 1970s.
Thierry was rediscovered in the early 1990s and played at occasional blues festivals, reunited with the rest of the band, until his death in 1997. Thereafter, the band, led by Lil' Alfred, continued to perform at clubs in Louisiana and southeast Texas. Babino died at his residence in Lake Charles in 2006. [10]
Sidney Simien, known professionally as Rockin' Sidney, was an American R&B, zydeco, and soul musician who began recording in the late 1950s and continued performing until his death. He is best known for his 1985 single "My Toot-Toot", which reached top 20 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and earned him a Grammy Award.
The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French, New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The music of the northern portion of the state starting at Baton Rouge and reaching Shreveport has similarities to that of the rest of the US South.
Swamp pop is a music genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s by young Cajuns and Creoles, it combines New Orleans–style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French Louisiana musical influences. Although a fairly obscure genre, swamp pop maintains a large audience in its south Louisiana and southeast Texas homeland, and it has acquired a small but passionate cult following in the United Kingdom, and Northern Europe
John Fred Gourrier was an American blue-eyed soul, swamp pop, rock and roll, and R&B performer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, best known for the 1967 hit song "Judy in Disguise ".
Katie Webster, born Kathryn Jewel Thorne, was an American boogie-woogie pianist.
Lonnie Brooks was an American blues singer and guitarist. The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in Rolling Stone, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman." Howard Reich, a music critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote, "...the music that thundered from Brooks' instrument and voice...shook the room. His sound was so huge and delivery so ferocious as to make everything alongside him seem a little smaller."
Joseph Denton "Jay" Miller was an American record producer and songwriter from Louisiana, whose Cajun, swamp blues, and swamp pop recordings influenced American popular culture.
The Boogie Kings are an American Cajun swamp pop and blue-eyed soul group.
C. C. Adcock is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and blues rock musician, noted for his cajun, zydeco, electric blues and swamp pop-influenced sound and for his efforts to preserve and promote swamp pop music. He is also a Grammy-nominated music and film producer and film and TV composer.
Sonny Thompson, born Alfonso Thompson or Hezzie Tompson, was an American R&B bandleader and pianist, popular in the 1940s and 1950s.
Goldband Records is an American record label based in Lake Charles, Louisiana, founded in 1945 and best known for its Cajun and R&B recordings in the 1950s and 1960s. Its founder, Eddie Shuler, claimed "the record business is nearly always 90% hype and 10% record".
"This Should Go On Forever" is a popular song of the south Louisiana rock and roll genre known as swamp pop. It was written by J. D. "Jay" Miller and Bernard Jolivette
Warren Storm was an American drummer and vocalist, known as a pioneer of the musical genre swamp pop; a combination of rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun music and black Creole music.
Cornelius Green III, known professionally as Lonesome Sundown, was an American blues musician, best known for his swamp blues recordings for Excello Records in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Camille Bob, also known as Lil' Bob or Little Bob, was an American rhythm and blues singer and musician who led the dance band Lil' Bob and the Lollipops.
Gabriel Perrodin, known as Guitar Gable, was an American Louisiana blues, swamp blues and swamp pop musician. He was best known for recording the original version of "This Should Go On Forever", and his part in the vibrant swamp blues and pop scene in Louisiana in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Herman Guidry, better known as "Sticks" Herman, was a Louisiana blues musician of the 1950s. He recorded for Eddie Shuler's Goldband Records, including "Teenage Baby", though "Give Me Your Love" / "Lonely Feeling" on Tic Toc were less well received.
George Khoury was an American pioneer swamp pop and cajun record producer known for co-writing and composing the No. 1 hit song "Sea of Love" by Phil Phillips as well as "Mathilda" by Cookie and his Cupcakes.
Jimmy Wilson was an American West Coast blues singer, best known for his 1953 hit "Tin Pan Alley".
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