The Doo Wop Cafe and Doo Wop Cafe Radio site

Shortly after I moved to Los Angeles in 1979, a friend introduced me to Paul Gayten. We soon became close friends and, for reasons I'll never know, he adopted me as if I were the son he never had. For the next decade, we spoke, on the phone or in person, several times a week, as he mentor'd me in the ways of show business.

I had known of Paul ever since, as a thirteen year old, I bought his "Nervous Boogie" after hearing it on Dick Clark's American Bandstand and watching Frannie Giordano dance the Bop to it. I later bought Paul's "Windy" and "The Hunch," although I preferred the Bobby Peterson original.

By the time I met Paul, I'd also become familiar with his earlier work, thanks to my travels as a record collector and finding his sides on OKeh, as well as the Route 66 reissue of his DeLuxe and Regal sides with Annie Laurie, who became one of my favorite female singers. Most of the information in this article comes from our many conversations over the years and the photos are from Paul's scrapbooks.

Paul Gayten was born in Kentwood, Louisiana on January 29, 1920. His mother, Aris, was the sister of the great blues pianist Little Brother Montgomery and his grandfather owned a juke, where music was played by one or two musicians. The grandfather played violin and all his uncles played piano.

As Paul grew up, he was infatuated by jazz pianists Bud Powell and Art Tatum, although his own playing bears no resemblance to either. Even at an early age, he realized that stardom was based on one's uniqueness and developed his own style. Similarly, his singing is his own. He sings a melody straight, with none of the Baptist
melismas; the Gaytens were Roman Catholic, like many Louisiana blacks, and his singing reflects that background.

Prior to World War II, Paul played in the bands of Don Dunbar and Doc Parmley. While with the latter, the enterprising young lad moonlighted with his own band, Paul Gayten's Sizzling Six, which featured future bebop star Teddy Edwards on tenor sax. The two would remain friends until the end of Paul's life.

During the war, Gayten led the band at the Army base in Biloxi, Mississippi, after which he moved to New Orleans, where he began a long-term solo engagement at the Club Robin Hood. His first trio featured Edgar Blanchard on guitar, George Pryor on bass and future Downbeat poll winner Robert Green on drums.

In January, 1947, Paul and his trio cut what was to be the first New Orleans hit of the Rhythm & Blues era, "True (You Don't Love Me)," written by Creole trumpeter Don Albert and his pianist Lloyd Glenn. Later in the year, Gayten's girl singer, Annie Laurie, revived Buddy & Ella Johnson's "Since I Fell For You." The Buddy &
Ella version had failed to chart two years earlier and this is the version which created a standard. Paul sang lead on the #5 hit, "Hey Little Girl," which was later done by Professor Longhair, who was somehow credited
with authorship on his version.

Speaking of songwriting, a young singer named Roy Brown brought Paul an unfinished song which Gayten "doctored" into recordable form and took to DeLuxe owner Jules Braun. The song, "Good Rockin' Tonight" went on to be a cornerstone of rock'n'roll as recorded by Wynonie Harris, Elvis Presley and even Pat Boone. Paul did not take a writing credit, as he felt his contributions were only minimal.

Next was Regal, the label DeLuxe co-owner Fred Mendelsohn formed when DeLuxe was taken over by King in 1949.

For local vocalist Larry Darnell, Paul penned "For You My Love," which turned out to be his biggest copyright, covered at the time by Pearl Bailey, Nat King Cole & Nellie Lutcher, Lionel Hampton, June Hutton and Ray McKinley (Paul's favorite version), and later revived by many, including Lou Rawls and Ray Sharpe. The band backed Chubby Newsome on her #8 "Hip Shakin' Mama" in 1949.

Also with the Gayten band, Darnell recorded "I'll Get Along Somehow," with its famous rap ("Yes, you're way up on top now, and you want to be free..."), itself revived by Nancy Wilson, among others, and interpolated into "The Glory Of Love" in a 1957 doo-wop version by the Velvetones on Aladdin. Larry was also one of the many who covered Louis Prima's big 1951 smash, "Oh Babe."

The hits continued on Regal, duets with Annie on "I'll Never Be Free," a pop hit by Kay Starr & Tennessee Ernie and originally done by Lucky Millinder. Mendelsohn asked Rudy Toombs, writer of Ruth Brown's "Teardrops From My Eyes," to come up with an answer to "Open The Door, Richard" and the answer was "I Ain't Gonna Let You In," a saucy duet between Paul and Annie.

The instrumental "Fish Tails," written by guitarist Jack Scott and Danny Mendelsohn (no relation), was covered by Erskine Hawkins on RCA Victor. Paul's band quit en masse when Scott's wife, Jewel King, hit with "3 X 7 = 21." Their dream of a co-op band, the all-for-one fantasy typical of so many sidemen, ended, as do most, dashed upon the stones of reality.

Scott later returned to join Paul's new band, formed in New York, which included such stellar sidemen as Eddie Barefleid, Hank Mobley, Ray Abrams, Cecil Payne, John Hunt and Sam Woodyard.

Gayten was riding high. He traded in his Cadillac for a new 1950 Jaguar. When he drove it up into the auditorium in Kansas City, though, the fans, upon seeing it, remarked, "Poor Paul Gayten. He had to trade his Cadillac for that little children's car." Laughing every time he told that story, Paul exclaimed, "My people are the funniest people in the world. They didn't know, my Jaguar cost twice as much as that Eldorado!"

Paul, Annie, Larry, Chubby and Little Jimmy Scott, who joined the troupe after leaving Lionel Hampton's band when Hamp's wife, Gladys, refused to up his salary following his hit, "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," all toured the country.

They played the Hollywood Palladium, Harlem's Apollo, New York's Town Hall, where they co-starred with Dizzy Gillespie, and Cleveland's Club Tia Juana, where their opening act was the Charlie Parker Quintet with young Miles Davis.

"The thing I loved most about Bird was how open-minded he was," said Paul. "His little groupies would follow us around after the show as we hit the other clubs and he'd hear some R&B or country musician and say, "Listen to him.' They'd think he was putting the guy down and demean him for only being able to play one thing. Then Charlie woul say, `No, but listen to how beautifully he plays that one thing.' His favorite act at the time, believe it or not, was the Clovers. Bird dug all kinds of music, like all the true greats do."

Paul made a few more records for Regal, "Goodnight Irene" with the Coleman Brothers, "Gold Ain't Everything," written by Jessie Mae Robinson, and another by fellow New Orleanian, Louis Prima, "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah."

By 1951, Regal was having financial difficulties, so Fred Mendelsohn sold his contracts on Paul, Annie, Larry and new signee Titus Turner to Columbia's OKeh division to pay off pressing plant bills. He kept Jimmy Scott to start a new label, Roost, and later brought Big Maybelle to OKeh.

Paul's first OKeh sessions were done in New York with his band, augmented by Bill Doggett. His and the other artists' dates were produced by Joe Thomas and Howard Biggs, who'd arranged the final Regal sessions.

Moving back to New Orleans, Paul found an Xavier University student named Lee Allen and formed a new, local band around the talented tenor saxman. A two week gig at the Brass Rail turned into two years. During this period, they cut "Cow Cow Blues," for which Paul received a gold record, and which became the basis for Ray
Charles's recording of "Mess Around."

The Brass Rail was a local show biz hangout, both for local entertainers and for traveling radio and movie stars. Paul was good at spotting celebrities and would flatter them by playing a bit of their songs when they came in.
But, by the end of 1953, he grew tired of bandleading and took up the Chess brothers on their offer to join up with them as a combination talent scout, producer, promotion man, songwriter and part time recording artist.

For their Checker label, he cut "Get It" and "You Better Believe It." Switching over to the Argo subsidiary, he hit with a revival of the 30s 52nd Street jazz classic, "The Music Goes Round And Round," Fats Domino-style.

Paul found young Clarence Henry and recorded him singing his tune, "I Ain't Got No Home," one of rock'n'roll's great hits. Also for Chess, he produced Bobby Charles's "Later Alligator," which went on to greater success as recorded by Bill Haley.

Always generous to other performers, Paul was sitting at the piano one day when one of his wife, Odile's high school students, Bobby Mitchell, was fooling around with a country song called "I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday." Paul encouraged him to sing it in a hillbilly style and, with Justin Adams on guitar, played on the record.

During this Chess period, Paul was involved with recordings by Chuck Berry, playing piano on "Carol," Etta James, Lorez Alexandria and others. With Eddie Bo, he wrote one of Etta's big hits, first cut by Eddie, "My Dearest Darling."

Perhaps his biggest success with Chess was as co-writer and producer of Clarence Henry's "But I Do." Allen Toussaint wrote the horn charts and Nat Perrilliat plays the tenor sax obligatos.

Part of his duties at Chess was to follow their rowdy stars, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, around the country and get them out of whatever messes they got themselves into. Whether it involved putting up bail or paying off the police, Paul was the man in charge. His loyalty was well rewarded. When it came time to open up a Los Angeles office, Paul was the man to run it.

He built a home in a well-to-do section, high on a hill in Ladera Heights, at the time a white neighborhood. His neighbors included Dragnet's Jack Webb and his wife Julie London. Paul drove around in his vintage Rolls Royce and Odile drove her Cadillac to the school where she taught remedial reading and home economics.

When Leonard and Phil Chess decided to sell their company, Paul formed his own label, Pzzaz, where he recorded Lorez Alexandria and the final studio recordings of Louis Jordan. But the independent record scene was fading and getting proper distribution was becoming difficult so, after a few years, Paul Gayten retired from the music business.

But he missed show biz, so when my band started recording, he came to every session and many of our gigs and TV appearances, renewing old acquaintances with Dick Clark and others and having the time of his life.

I've always felt Paul was a much-neglected performer, in terms of legacy, so I convinced my friend Andy McKaie to let me do a compilation of his Chess work in 1989 and I got Fantasy to license Fred Mendelsohn's remaining masters,which were in the Gayten garage, to put together a Paul/Annie CD for Specialty in 1990.

At 9:05 on the morning of March 26, 1991, Paul died suddenly from heart failure connected with loss of blood due to a bleeding ulcer. A week earlier, I had played him a cassette of the as-yet-unreleased Specialty CD. He was very proud of it, and especially happy that I'd included his favorite of his Regal recordings, Eddie Barefield's instrumental, "Suzette."

His funeral, at Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, was well attended by his music business cronies, Herb Abramson, Russ Regan, Ralph Kaffel and his dear friend, Phil Chess. Pallbearers included fellow New Orleans legends Lee Allen and Earl Palmer.

Per Odile's wishes, a brief musical program of some of Paul's hits, sung by Ernie Andrews and myself and a hymn sung by Lou Rawls was accompanied by L.A. jazzmen Art Hillary, Herman Riley, Henry Franklyn and John Boudreaux, with arrangements by Teddy Edwards, who was in too much pain to attend.

I am not alone when I say I have never known a truer and more loyal friend than Paul Gayten.

..... Billy Vera