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Richard Louis Holler (born October 16, 1934) [1] is an American songwriter, pianist, and performer, best known as the writer of the folk-pop standard "Abraham, Martin and John". The song has been recorded by numerous artists including Dion, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers, Emmylou Harris, Andy Williams, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, and Moms Mabley, among others. [2]
Holler was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. He moved with his family to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1951, where he later graduated from University High School and attended Louisiana State University for five years. It was while attending LSU that he began to play piano and organize bands and writing songs with his college friends. [1]
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Holler performed for two years on the local award-winning record rating TV teen show Hit or Miss along with movie critic Rex Reed and future actresses Donna Douglas and Elizabeth Ashley, During a January 1956 Teen Town Rally TV show he met musician brothers Ike, Tommy, and Jimmy Clanton. Holler was successful in signing the then under-aged guitar player and vocalist Jimmy Clanton to play with his band at that time, as well as Clanton's own neighborhood band, the Dixie Cats. In May 1956, the four-piece band of Holler on piano, Clanton on lead guitar, Mike Bankston on drums, and Ed Winston on tenor sax (with occasional bassist Leonard Root) was formed to play a four-night-a-week gig. A club owner later changed the band's name to Dick Holler and the Carousel Rockets, shortened to the Rockets.
The Rockets at times also included Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack, Grady Caldwell, Bobby Loveless (regional hit "Night Owl"), Jack Bunn, Junior Bergeron (Van Broussard band), Lenny Capello ("Cotton Candy", RIC Records), Bill Dunnam, Merlin Jones, Don Smith and Cyril Vetter (the writers of "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)", and others. Also sitting in at times was another Baton Rouge guitarist/vocalist/songwriter, Johnny Ramistella, [3] later known as Johnny Rivers.
By 1957, the Rockets were recording at Cosimo Matassa’s Studio in New Orleans. Holler and Clanton each got recording deals on Johnny Vincent’s Ace label and the Rockets backed Clanton on his first release, "I Trusted You". Soon Jimmy Clanton embarked on a solo career, and Holler continued to front the Rockets until signed by Herald-Ember Records in 1961. Herald-Ember changed the band name to Dick Holler and the Holidays.
From August 1962 until May 1965, the Holidays based and performed in and around Columbia, South Carolina. Their 1963 third single release, "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)", later become a hit in 1966 by the Swingin' Medallions.
Holler later disbanded the Holidays, and, at the urging of producer Phil Gernhard, rewrote one of his Baton Rouge songs as "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron". Recorded by Ocala, Florida, band the Royal Guardsmen in 1966 for Laurie Records, the song became an instant hit, peaking at number two in the U.S. and number eight in the UK Singles Chart.
In 1968, Dion (DiMucci)’s recording of Holler's composition in tribute to the fallen Bobby Kennedy, "Abraham, Martin and John" reached the Billboard Top Five becoming a folk-pop standard known worldwide. This song was considered of such significance that it was the first of twenty songs discussed in Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind America’s Best-Loved Patriotic Songs ( ISBN 0060513047), a book by Ace Collins.
"Abraham, Martin and John" also received the BMI Four Million Airplay award.
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In October 2007, at a performance in Baton Rouge, Dick Holler was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Holler shares time between Switzerland and Georgia, U.S. He has had several releases enter the European top 5 and top 10. Each year, Holler returns to Baton Rouge for a one night reunion with his old friends and musicians at the Baton Rouge Eagles' Club.
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.
Slim Harpo was an American blues musician, a leading exponent of the swamp blues style, and "one of the most commercially successful blues artists of his day". He played guitar and was a master of the blues harmonica, known in blues circles as a "harp". His most successful and influential recordings included "I'm a King Bee" (1957), "Rainin' in My Heart" (1961), and "Baby Scratch My Back" (1966), which reached number one on Billboard's R&B chart and number 16 on its broader Hot 100 singles chart.
Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.
Johnny Rivers is an American musician. His repertoire includes pop, folk, blues and old-time rock 'n' roll. Rivers charted during the 1960s and 1970s but remains best known for a string of hit singles between 1964 and 1968, among them "Memphis", "Mountain of Love", "The Seventh Son", "Secret Agent Man", "Poor Side of Town", "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" and "Summer Rain".
Maison de Soul is a Louisiana-based Zydeco and blues record label. It was founded in 1974 in Ville Platte, Louisiana by Floyd Soileau and remains under his ownership. It is one of four record labels under Soileau's Flat Town Music Company umbrella, and combined the Flat Town labels make up "the largest body of Cajun, zydeco, and swamp music in the world". Living Blues magazine has called Maison de Soul "the country's foremost zydeco label".
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 ".
"Abraham, Martin and John" is a 1968 song written by Dick Holler. It was first recorded by Dion, in a version that was a substantial North American chart hit in 1968–1969. Near-simultaneous cover versions by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and Moms Mabley also charted in the U.S. in 1969, and a version that same year by Marvin Gaye became the hit version in the UK. It was also a hit as part of a medley for Tom Clay in 1971, and has subsequently been recorded by many other artists.
That's the Way Love Is is the tenth studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released on January 8, 1970, on the Tamla (Motown) label. Built on the success of the title track originally taken from M.P.G., and much like Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" after its success, was released with intent to sell albums based on the success of one particular single. Gaye was showing signs of disillusionment from the label's powers-that-be mentality but it didn't affect the singer's performance as he gave a powerful vocal in the title track and was especially impressive with his version of The Beatles' "Yesterday". He achieved some success with a cover version of "How Can I Forget?", which just missed out on the US Pop Top 40, making #41, and reached #18 on the R&B Charts. Its B-side, a cover of Jimmy Ruffin's "Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got", made a separate chart entry, and peaked at #67 and #27 on the Pop and Soul Charts respectively. Gaye also recorded a version of Ruffin's "Don't You Miss Me a Little Bit Baby" for the album. The LP also features Gaye's rendition of the socially conscious tune "Abraham, Martin & John", which became a hit in the UK, peaking at #9 in June 1970. The single is widely regarded as a hint of what would follow a year later with his What's Going On. He also covered The Temptations' hits "I Wish It Would Rain" and "Cloud Nine".
"Shake Your Hips" is a song written by Louisiana bluesman Slim Harpo. He recorded it in February 1966 for producer J. D. Miller for a follow-up single to his hugely successful "Baby Scratch My Back". Miller's Excello Records released it as a single in June 1966 and in October, the song became the lead track for Slim Harpo's 1966 album Baby Scratch My Back, which was a long-term release in Excello's catalogue.
Jimmy Clanton is an American singer who became known as the "swamp pop R&B teenage idol". His band recorded a hit song "Just a Dream" which Clanton had written in 1958 for the Ace Records label. It reached number four on the Billboard chart and sold a million copies. Clanton performed on Dick Clark's American Bandstand and toured with popular artists like Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Platters.
Dion and the Belmonts were an American vocal trio prominent throughout the 1950s. All of its members were from the Bronx, New York City. In 1957, Dion DiMucci joined the vocal group the Belmonts. The established trio of Angelo D'Aleo, Carlo Mastrangelo and Fred Milano formed a quartet with DiMucci.
"Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" is a novelty song written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded in 1966 by the Florida-based pop group The Royal Guardsmen. The song was recorded at the Charles Fuller Productions studio in Tampa, Florida, and was released as a single on Laurie Records. Debuting at #122 on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 on December 10, 1966, the single skyrocketed to #30 on December 17, 1966, shot up again to #7 on December 24, 1966, and peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 during the week of December 31, 1966 ; made #6 on the Record Retailer (UK) chart in February 1967; was #1 in Australia for 5 weeks from February 1967; and #1 for 3 weeks in Canada. On the Hot 100, "Believer" at #1 kept "Snoopy" at #2 from reaching the Hot 100 summit from December 31, 1966, through January 21, 1967, after which "Snoopy" fell off while "Believer" stayed at the top for another 3 weeks. The song sold close to three million copies.
The Swingin' Medallions are an American beach music group from Greenwood, South Carolina, United States.
"Callin' Baton Rouge" is a country music song written by Dennis Linde. The song has been recorded by multiple artists since its composition. It was notably recorded by American country singer and songwriter Garth Brooks whose version was a chart-topping single in the 1990s.
The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame (LMHOF) is a non-profit hall of fame based in Baton Rouge, the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana, that seeks to honor and preserve the state's music culture and heritage and to promote education about the state's unique role in contributing to American indigenous and popular music in the 20th century.
"Double Shot " is a song first recorded by Dick Holler & the Holidays, written by Don Smith and Cyril Vetter. It was later recorded by the Swingin' Medallions who released it as their second single in 1966. Peaking at #17 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the recording became a hit although banned on many radio stations due to lines referring to drinking and sex: "worst hangover I ever had" and "she loved me so hard".
Cyril Vetter is an American songwriter with a career has spanned a variety of industries, including music, broadcasting and publishing. He owned TV and radio stations, a television production firm, newspapers as well as music recording and publishing companies. He may be best known for the popular song "Double Shot ", co-written with Don Smith.
Baton Rouge was an American hard rock band formed in 1986 in Pearl River, Louisiana. The band produced two albums and enjoyed limited success during the final part of the hair metal explosion in the early 1990s, before disbanding. All the band members went on to work with other hard rock recording artists Lance Bulen. Vocalist and guitarist Kelly Keeling performed with Michael Schenker Group and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Potliquor was a 1970s rock group from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The band was formed by George Ratzlaff and Guy Schaeffer after the breakup of a successful cover band named the Basement Wall. Like several other bands of the American South, their musical style was a synthesis of influences such as Little Richard, Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed, and more, making Potliquor a part of the nascent Southern rock genre. Potliquor released four albums plus a compilation album but had only one hit single written and sung by George Ratzlaff.
Phillip Arnold Gernhard was an American record producer, record label executive, and songwriter. He is best known for his successful collaborations in the 1960s and 1970s with Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, The Royal Guardsmen, Dion, Lobo, Jim Stafford, and the Bellamy Brothers.
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