Allen Toussaint – A True Great

The popular song composer, record producer and American musician, Allen Toussaint was born on 14th January, 1938. He was one of the most prominent statures in the genre of R&B. few of the songs that shot him to limelight are “Working in the Coalmine”, “Ride Your Pony”, “Get Out Of My Life Woman”, “Southern Nights”, “Brickyard Blues”, and “Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky”. Allen Toussaint grew up in New Orleans and got his first break in singing at the young age of 17 when he performed in Pritchard, Alabama with the band of Earl King. With his skills he was introduced to a group of local musicians who regularly performed at a night club at LaSalle Street Uptown and this group earned recognized as the “Dew Drop Set”.

For the most of his career, Allen Toussaint primarily worked for the Minit label under Joe Banashak, but following the selling of this label to one of its distributors, Toussaint entered into professional agreement with Marshall Sehorn and began working on their own individual recording label, which had earned the reputation as the Tou-Sea, Sansu, Deesu or Kansu. The year 1973 saw the creation of a recording studio better known as Sea-Saint by Sehorn and Toussaint. This recording studio is located in the locality of Gentilly in New Orleans.

In the 1960s we saw Toussaint write and produce a number of hits for the popular R&B artists in New Orleans and the list of these artists included Ernie K-Doe, Irma, Art and Aaron Neville, Thomas, The Showmen, and Lee Dorsey. Some of Toussaint’s popular songs like “Ruler of My Heart” were published under the stage name of Naomi Neville and Irma Thomas is credited with recording this song. This song was again recorded by Otis Redding and was named as “Pain in My Heart”. The song named “A Certain Girl” featuring Eric Clapton was one of the very first single numbers released in the year 1964 by the Yardbirds.

The 1970s saw him shifting tracks to a more groovier and funky sounds as he wrote and produced songs for the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indians tribe, The Meters and Dr John. In fact he also started working with the artists in New Orleans of the stature of Scottish Soul singer Frankie Miller, Willy DeVille, Elkie Brooks, Solomon Burke, Robert Palmer, and southern rocker Mylon LeFevre. He is also credited with organizing for horn music for album Cahoots in 1971.

One of his masterpieces recorded by Boz Scaggs is “What Do You Want the Girl to Do?” This song was a part of his album in 1976 and it reached to the 2nd position among the popular US pop numbers. Toussaint is also credited with giving the popular album of the 70s “From a Whisper to a Scream” and “Southern Nights”. These albums gave a new edge to his solo career which rocketed up during the 70s. The 70s era also saw him teeming up with Labelle and the production of album named Nightbirds, and its most catchy number was “Lady Marmalade”.

Later that year, Toussaint made news, as he tied up with Paul McCartney and Wings, to come up with the popular album Venus and Mars. During the 1980s and 1990s Toussaint recognized his talent in new shades as the hip-hop artists certified his compositions. In fact in the year 1998 Toussaint claimed his position in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A few of his popular albums are Life, Love And Faith, The Allen Toussaint Collection, and A New Orleans Christmas.

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