CLARENCE "FROGMAN" HENRY

Clarence Henry II was born March 19, 1937, in New Orleans and grew up in Algiers, Louisiana, located on the west bank of New Orleans. His early musical influences included Fats Domino, Professor Longhair and Shirley and Lee--all New Orleans products as well.

Henry started performing professionally while in high school as a member of Bobby Mitchell's band in New Orleans. Young Clarence sang and played piano and trombone for Mitchell, a popular local recording artist at the time.

One night in 1955, the band was playing at the Joy Lounge in Gretna, just across the Mississippi River from the city, when Paul Gayten heard Henry sing Ain't Got No Home. Gayten, a staff musician for Chess Records, liked the song and sent a tape to Leonard Chess in Chicago. Chess was so impressed, he made a trip to the Joy Lounge to hear Henry. Shortly thereafter, Henry signed a contract with Argo Records, a Chess subsidiary.

Henry recorded Ain't Got No Home, which he composed himself, and Argo released it in October, 1956, as the "B" side of a song called Troubles, Troubles, co-written by Henry and Gayten. Papa Stoppa, a leading disc jockey in New Orleans, began playing the record on WJMR radio. He didn't get much reaction when he played Troubles, Troubles, but when he flipped the record over, the response was quite different.

"The people in the radio audience didn't know who was singing the song, and they didn't know the title of the song, but they liked it," Henry explains. "So they said, 'Play the frog song by the frog man,' and that's how I got my name."

Henry sang in three different voices in Ain't Got No Home: the deep "frog" voice, the high "girl" voice and his own natural voice. He says he developed the "frog" voice by imitating the many frogs and alligators that inhabit Louisiana, while the "girl" voice was modeled after Shirley Goodman of Shirley and Lee.

Henry went on to use the "frog" voice, which became his trademark, on several other songs, such as The Little Green Frog. But Ain't Got No Home, which peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Top 100 in January, 1957, was the only "frog" song that became a hit.

(I Don't Know Why I Love You) But I Do, a catchy rhythm-and-blues tune co-written by Gayten and Robert Guidry (also known as Bobby Charles), became Henry's biggest hit (No. 4 on Billboard) in March, 1961, and he followed that up with a cover of the Mills Brothers' classic You Always Hurt The One You Love in May, 1961. That record reached No. 12 .

In 1964, Henry combined with the Bill Black Combo and the Jive Five to do a national tour with the Beatles, who were just beginning to change the course of music history. "I enjoyed the Beatles, especially Paul McCartney; he and I became great friends," Henry says in his Southern drawl. "We did 18 dates all over the country and had a wonderful time."

Henry stopped recording in 1975, but in 1982, a popular film centered around a Baltimore Diner in 1955 featured Henry's recording of Ain't Got No Home. The movie, Diner, helped the "frog man" gain recognition from a new, younger audience.

Henry can also be heard singing Ain't Got No Home in several other films, including The Lost Boys (1987) and Rage in Harlem (1991). But the personable singer primarily credits syndicated talk-show host Rush Limbaugh for the resurgence of the song.

"Rush Limbugh, who is a good friend of mine, picked Ain't Got No Home for his hungry and homeless show," Henry says with pride. "And everybody caught onto the song, and he revived it and brought it back to popularity; he made it a big hit for me again. Even the young kids listening to the song today, they think it's a new song. But it's an old song."

Ironically, Henry was touring with Limbaugh on a Caribbean cruise in January, 1991, when he started having trouble walking. "When I got home from the cruise I found that I had a ruptured disc in my neck." He was wheelchair bound; he couldn't feed himself, and he couldn't even pick up the phone to answer it. Delicate surgery repaired the damage, with amazing results. Although the operation left Henry without pain, he had to learn to walk again.

"Rush Limbaugh announced to the people (on his radio show) about my operation, and they started sending me flowers and money and candy and cards," Henry beams. "So many people have been so good to me around the world. And I've played all over the world--France, Germany, Sweden, England, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, the Caribbean--you name it. I've been there," Henry declares. "I've worked on Bourbon St. for 21 years.

"I've been doing some one-night special engagements, like in Cleveland, but I still do a lot of local stuff," Henry says. "I've been doing a lot of conventions and private parties in the New Orleans area." Just as Ain't Got No Home is making a comeback on the airwaves, Clarence "Frogman" Henry has beaten the odds to resume his singing career.

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