⬇️ BOOZOO CHAVIS ⬇️
(Wilson Anthony "Boozoo" Chavis)
DISCOGRAPHY 1990-2000 (16CD)
Chavis made his first recording in 1954, "Paper in My Shoe," based on a
song he heard performed by Creole accordionist Ambrose "Potato" Sam.
Chavis's version was an uptempo tune with a dance beat about being too
poor to afford new shoes or socks, so he placed paper in his shoes to keep
his feet warm when the holes in the sole got too large. The song, sung in
both French and English, was originally released on the Folk-Star label, a
subsidiary of Goldband, before being reissued by Imperial Records.
This recording was the first commercially released zydeco song and the
first zydeco hit, and was subsequently acknowledged as a zydeco standard.
The song was recorded at the instigation of local entrepreneur Eddie
Shuler, who teamed Chavis up with a rhythm and blues band named Classie
Ballou's Tempo Kings. The first recording session was not successful, so
Shuler brought whiskey in for subsequent takes, and the band lost their
inhibitions. An inebriated Chavis fell off of his chair at the end of the
released version of "Paper in My Shoe", so the song fades out, which was
one of the first records to use that technique.
Chavis was convinced that the recording was more successful than the
record companies claimed, later saying: "I got gypped out of my record. I
get frustrated, sometimes. I love to play, but, when I get to thinking
about 1955... They stole my record. They said that it only sold 150,000
copies. But, my cousin, who used to live in Boston, checked it out. It
sold over a million copies. I was supposed to have a gold record." As a
result, Chavis lost trust in the music business,[10] and over the next
thirty years only released three more singles: "Forty-One Days"
(Folk-Star, 1955), "Hamburgers & Popcorn" (Goldband, 1965), and "Mama!
Can I Come Home" (credited to the Dog Hill Playhouse Band, Crazy Cajun,
1974)..... (Wikipedia)