Swamp Pop - Legacy

Legacy

Since the genre’s origin in the mid-1950s, over 20 swamp pop songs have appeared in the Billboard Hot 100. Five of these songs broke into the Top 10, and three of them reached number one. While swamp pop drew heavily on New Orleans rhythm and blues, it reciprocated by making a detectable impact on songs like Lloyd Price’s “Just Because,” Earl King’s “Those Lonely Lonely Nights,” Little Richard’s “Can’t Believe You Want To Leave” and “Send Me Some Lovin’,” and Clarence "Frogman" Henry's "(I Don't Know Why) But I Do" and “On Bended Knee” (both Bobby Charles compositions). Swamp pop also left its imprint on the related but distinct genre known as “swamp blues,” including Slim Harpo’s classic “Rainin’ In My Heart.” Jerry Lee Lewis recorded many swamp blues/swamp pop type songs most notably the Cookie and the Cupcakes hit "Mathilda", Harpo's "Rainin' in my heart" and a version of the blues standard "Got you on my mind" that is probably based on the Cookie interpretation.

Swamp pop’s impact on popular music is heard in the Rolling Stones’ cover of Barbara Lynn’s “You’ll Lose A Good Thing” and “Oh Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin’)”, the Honeydrippers’ rendition of Phil Phillips’ “Sea Of Love,” Elvis Presley’s remake of Johnny Ace’s “Pledging My Love,” and even The Beatles’ swamp-inspired “Oh! Darling.”

The work of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Tony Joe White is sometimes referred to as swamp rock, the latter being a distinct genre that drew more on 1960s hard rock than on the 1950s rhythm and blues sound that helped to define swamp pop.

Swamp pop influenced Tex-Mex music, particularly the recordings of Freddy Fender (real name Baldemar Huerta), whose early 1970s swampy songs like “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” and “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights.” (South Louisiana and southeast Texas audiences generally consider Fender a full-fledged swamp pop musician.)

Although the genre began a slow decline with the onslaught of the British Invasion, swamp pop music continues to draw devoted fans to south Louisiana and southeast Texas festivals and nightclubs. Only a few younger swamp pop musicians, such as Don Rich, are replacing the original generation of swamp pop pioneers, most now in their sixties. Some younger non-swamp musicians, such as Cajun musician Zachary Richard and rockers Marc Broussard and C. C. Adcock, have acknowledged a strong swamp pop influence. (Adcock co-produced a documentary, released in 2009, titled Promised Land: A Swamp Pop Journey, which focused on his swamp pop supergroup Lil' Band o' Gold; this group features swamp pop pioneer Warren Storm on drums and guest vocals by Tommy McLain.) A sizeable catalog of swamp pop recordings, both vintage and new, are on compact disc, guaranteeing that future audiences will be able to enjoy this distinctive American sound.