Cruisin' With Frankie Ford

by Frankie Ford

Overview

This has both sides of all six singles Ford did for Imperial from 1960-62 and a couple of unissued tracks from the same era, as well as his 1984 Ace recording New Orleans Dynamo. The main attraction is the Imperial material, which was very hard to find before this reissue. Ford's association with Imperial wasn't very fruitful commercially, producing just a couple of small hits in covers of Joe Jones' "You Talk Too Much" and Boyd Bennett's "Seventeen." This batch lacks anything on the order of "Sea Cruise," but it's still pretty solid vintage New Orleans R&B, produced by Dave Bartholomew. Some of the cuts are sweetened up with strings and backup female singers, but it's mostly on the earthy side; when he slows the pace down on "Dedicated to Fats" and "One Hour," he can sound uncannily like Fats Domino. New Orleans Dynamo is well above average for a 1980s effort by a 1950s rocker; nothing new here (in fact, many of its songs are covers of old New Orleans classics), but Ford and the London musicians execute the Crescent City R&B sound convincingly. ~ Richie Unterberger

Product Details

Release Date:	11/24/1998
Label:	Ace
UPC:	0029667169622

Tracks

1. If You've Got Troubles
2. You Talk Too Much
3. They Said It Couldn't Be Done
4. Dedicated to Fats
5. The Groom
6. Doghouse
7. A Man Only Does (What a Woman Makes Him Do)
8. One Hour
9. My Southern Belle
10. Seventeen
11. What Happened to You
12. Love Don't Love Nobody
13. Let 'Em Talk
14. Saturday Night Fish Fry
15. Whiskey Heaven
16. Don't Drop It
17. A Certain Girl
18. Sick and Tired
19. Fine Thang!
20. Don't You Know Yockomo
21. Thank God (She Can't Read My Mind)
22. Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)
23. Rockin' Behind the Iron Curtain
24. Yours Truly
25. I Wanna Walk You Home
26. Bony Moronie

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Frankie Ford   Primary Artist,Piano
James Booker   Piano
Geraint Watkins   Piano
Wardell Quezergue   Trumpet
Justin Adams   Guitar
Jim Fisher   Drums
Pete Wingfield   Piano,Vocals
Mike Vernon   Percussion
Dave Bartholomew   Trumpet
Martin Winning   Sax (Tenor)
George French   Bass
Mo Witham   Guitar
Clarence Ford   Sax (Tenor)
Carl Blouin   Sax (Baritone)
Bob Fish   Guitar
Ian Bell   Guitar (Bass)
Warren Bell   Sax (Tenor)
Smokey Johnson   Drums

Technical Credits

Kelly Owens   Composer
Boyd Bennett   Composer
Cosimo Matassa   Engineer
Clyde Otis   Composer
Larry Williams   Composer
Joe Jones   Composer
Barry Hammond   Mixing,Engineer
Frankie Ford   Composer
Ellis Walsh   Composer
Louis Jordan   Composer
Naomi Neville   Composer
Pete Wingfield   Composer
Roy Brown   Composer
Mike Vernon   Producer
Duncan Cowell   Mastering
Dave Bartholomew   Composer,Producer
H. Smith   Composer
Tony Harris   Engineer
Terry Fell   Composer
Chris Kenner   Composer
John Durrill   Composer
Marie Vernon   Composer
Huey "Piano" Smith   Composer
Robert Guidry   Composer
Reginald Hall   Composer
Tommy "Snuff" Garrett   Composer
Johnny Vincent   Composer
J. Fisher   Composer
Brian Burrows   Design
Pearl King   Composer