In its original vinyl incarnation, this album has long been an elusive and quite expensive commodity, a highly admirable 1970 attempt by prolific producer Allen Touissant to relaunch the once-thriving recording career of Crescent City mainstay Ernie K-Doe that’s been known until now primarily to serious New Orleans R&B aficionados. But a curious chain of events unfolded near the close of 2007 that underscores the uncanny impact of television advertising. The British drug store chain Boots plucked the LP’s lead track, the delightfully funky Toussaint-penned concoction “Here Come The Girls,” as background music for a clever Christmas commercial, igniting a U.K. sensation. Interest in the song and the album that spawned it spiked, and the Internet grapevine was abuzz with inquiries on how to secure a copy of either one. Now we have the debut CD release of that long-lost LP.
Here’s Ernie’s LAWDY MAMA:
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