Professor Longhair - It’s My Fault, Darling

Greyson & Horton, Respect Music, BMI

With his wildly idiosyncratic rhumba-mambo-calypso-blues piano and his signature cracking, yodeling vocals, Roy “Professor Longhair” Byrd became a beloved worldwide icon of New Orleans music. He began recording in the 1940s, cutting singles for various labels, including the classics Tipitina and Going To The Mardi Gras. After falling into obscurity in the 1960s, his career was revitalized with appearances in the 1970s at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival, as well as on PBS television’s Soundstage. He said that Crawfish Fiesta, cut with his touring band plus his old friend and protégé Dr. John on guitar, was his favorite recording, because it was the first session on which he had been given real artistic control. Sadly, it turned out to be his last record. He died at the age of 61 on January 30, 1980, the day it was released.