Rockin' Sidney
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Rockin' Sidney Simien (April 9, 1938–February 25, 1998) was an American R&B, Zydeco, and soul musician who began recording in the late 1950s and continued performing until his death.
Simien was born into a sharecropper's family in the tiny farming community of Lebeau, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Sidney took up the guitar at an early age. He started his musical career at age 14 or 15 playing harmonica and guitar. His first gig was as backup for his uncle Frank Simien. By Sidney's late teens, he was leading his own band as Sidney Simien and His All Stars, which included several members of his family. By the age of 18, he recorded the first of many records.
Rockin’ Sidney was a veteran Cajun-Zydeco musician who played almost every style of music, from the Caribbean beat to blues. His credits include “No Good Woman”, a small hit in Louisiana in 1962. However, it was the flip side, “You Ain’t Nothing But Fine” that brought him his first national attention as a songwriter. (The song was covered later by the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Rockpile, and Geraint Watkins.)
Although his success is based upon his identity within the Zydeco music community, Sidney did not start out playing the accordion or seeking fame as a Zydeco artist. He sort of stumbled into it in the mid 1970s, having tried his hand at swamp pop and the blues. Heavily influenced by local legends like Slim Harpo and Cookie & the Cupcakes, Sidney made his first R&B-styled recordings on the Louisiana record labels Fame and Jin during the late 1950s. He was often backed by George Lewis on harmonica and Katie Webster on piano. Rockin’ Sidney also recorded on Rod Records.
In 1965, he and his band The Dukes signed with Louisiana-based Goldband Records. He took to wearing a turban and was known as "Count Rockin Sidney". During this period he cut well over 50 R&B, soul, and blues singles such as "Something Working Baby" and "Soul Christmas", without much success. After a brief stint with the Fame Records label in 1957, Sidney, switched recording labels and began releasing records for industry legend Floyd Soileau and his Jin Records label. For nearly six years, Sidney pumped out material for the Ville Platte label and in 1963 his single "No Good Woman" caught on. Although the single sold well in the region of South Louisiana and East Texas, and was well received by music critics it just missed landing on the national Top 100. In total, Floyd Soileau released nine Rockin’ Sidney singles between 1957–1964, "I suppose it was the mid-'70s when I suggested that he pick up the accordion and start doing Zydeco which was then making a comeback.
Between the mid-1960s and the late 1970s, Sidney cut well over 50 singles for the Louisiana-based Goldband label, working in a variety of contemporary blues, soul and R&B modes; none proved successful. The late seventies found Simien performing solo organ gigs at Lake Charles hotels and lounges when he recognized Zydeco's growing popularity. Since Zydeco was a part of his Creole heritage, Sidney quickly learned the accordion and added it to his long list of other instruments. Simien began playing zydeco, a traditional folk music of Louisiana. Soon he was playing dances. One of the highlights of a Rockin' Sidney performance was his Clifton Chenier and Buckwheat Zydeco parodies. For Chenier, Sidney dressed up as the Zydeco monarch, complete with a crown, cape and gold tooth. While the Buckwheat bit was done with a ventriloquist dummy. His first Zydeco album, Give Me a Good Time Woman was released in 1982 on the Maison de Soul label.
He already knew keyboards and that was half the battle," said Soileau. In the late 70s, Sidney's was recording for a new label, Bally Hoo, and started his own publishing company, Sid Sim Publishing. His Zydeco talents were immediately recognized and he had another successful recording on his hands with "Louisiana Creole Man." He also signed a lease agreement with Floyd Soileau whereby his recordings would be distributed on Soileau's Maison de Soul Records label and, in return, Solileau's Flat Town Music Company would share profits. By the early '80s, Rockin' Sidney had recorded two successful albums for Maison de Soul, "Give Me A Good Time Woman" and "Boogie, Blues 'N' Zydeco".
Rockin’ Sidney, also known as Sidney Simien, became an internationally known figure as the originator of the much-covered, Cajun-feeling song, “My Toot Toot.” Simien wrote the song, and in October 1984, included the tune in his third album, “My Zydeco Shoes Got the Zydeco Blues.” The entire album was recorded in his home studio in Lake Charles, where Simien played all the instruments. In January 1985, “My Toot Toot” was released as a single in Louisiana and Texas, and became the first true regional hit.
It became an underground hit locally and thanks to Cleon Floyd, manager of R&B singer (and uncle to) King Floyd, it became a huge New Orleans hit. He heard the crowd's reaction to the song at a bill headlined by Solomon Burke. Cleon was also the president of the Orleans Street Jocks Association and took twenty copies of the 45 back to the city; he had to reorder more very quickly. By Mardi Gras time, it was a jukebox and record hop smash, many artists included a cover in the huge jazz & heritage festival that May.
Many have considered Rockin' Sidney Simien to be a Zydeco legend. One of only a small handful of Zydeco artists to achieve significant commercial success, Rockin' Sidney scored big time in 1984 when his single "My Toot Toot" was certified a platinum record and won a coveted Grammy Award. "My Toot Toot" that became a national and international million-selling phenomenon in 1984. "My Toot Toot" became the first Zydeco record to get major airplay on pop, rock and country radio stations. The song's meteoric popularity hinged on its triple entendre catch phrase, "Don't mess with my toot-toot," that contained both a drug and sex connotation while its real meaning was a Cajun term of endearment meaning sweet heart, as in 'mà chere tout-tout.'
As with many commercially successful compositions, "My Toot Toot" has been re-recorded and covered by many artists since then including Fats Domino, Rosie Ledet, Jean Knight, Terrance Simien, Doug Kershaw, Denise Lasalle, Jimmy C. Newman and John Fogerty. The song has been re-recorded by so many artists, that it is almost impossible to track every cover. The single, which was initially released on the Maison De Soul Records label in Ville Platte, Louisiana, became so popular as a novelty dance number that the small Louisiana label just couldn't keep up with the sales demand. Huey Meaux got the original leased to Epic Records (a division of Columbia Records), where it was released nationally, and for a brief moment Rockin’ Sidney was making musical history. They managed to get Rockin’ Sidney into the country Top 40. It charted in the UK Top 100. It was on the country and western charts for 18 weeks. Rockin’ Sidney even spent one week at #98 in the pop charts. He was featured in People magazine and had numerous appearances on The Nashville Network now known as SPIKE TV. He also performed on a Showtime special with classic rocker John Fogerty. "My Toot Toot" was played in the motion pictures Hard Luck, One Good Cop, and The Big Easy.
It has been recorded in many a foreign countries. A Spanish version, "Mi Cu Cu," sold over a million copies in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Today it is very rare to find a Zydeco band or artist that doesn't have a rendition of the song somewhere in their catalog. Yet, Rockin’ Sidney was never been a one-hit wonder but rather a South Louisiana mainstay since 1957 when he cut his first side, "Make Me Understand," on the short-lived Carl label. After that, Sidney recorded "She's My Morning Coffee"/"Calling You" with Ville Platte's recordman Floyd Soileau on his fledgling Jin label. By 1963, the swamp pop/R&B artist had scored with "No Good Woman" that not only met regional success but also barely missed cracking the Top 100. The record's flip side, "You Ain't Nothing But Fine" was later given royal treatment by the Fabulous Thunderbirds on their debut album. In 1965, Count Rockin' Sidney signed with Eddie Shuler's Goldband Records in Lake Charles and recorded an assortment of tunes including "Tell Me" that was also covered by the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
It was recorded in many foreign languages. The song probably became more popular in Germany than it ever was in America. A beer company in Germany licensed it to use in their radio and TV commercials. They renewed the license in 1996 for $100,000 and the probably have renewed again since then. Over 20 years after "My Toot Toot" debuted, it's still making money. It will probably make money for his estate long after his death. The song is still drawing royalties from commercial use in Europe and cover versions done in several languages by dozens musicians.
When the song was at its peak, Simien was featured in Rolling Stone, People, Billboard and Music City News. He performed on numerous national TV shows, including Nashville Now now known as Spike Tv, Church Street Station, Hee-Haw, Austin City Limits, John Fogerty's Showtime Special, New Country and Charlie Daniels Jam. He was also a guest celebrity on You Can Be A Star.
Simien used royalties from "My Toot Toot" to purchase a radio station KAOK-AM in Lake Charles. He also bought Festival City, a six-acre entertainment complex in Lake Charles. Additionally, he started a new record label, ZBC Records.
After the success of "My Toot Toot," Sidney toured the United States and Europe heavily. He continued to record prolifically, characteristically playing all parts himself. Although nothing before or after has ever matched the career-defining success of "My Toot Toot," several of his songs such as "If It's Good For The Gander," "My Zydeco Shoes," "Jalapeño Lena", and "Ann Cayenne" have become Zydeco staples and are played regularly by other bands.
These baker dozen selections culled from three mid-to-late '80s releases on Sidney's ZBC Records imprint emphasize his nonpareil ingenuity that has never been duplicated in Zydeco. (Hot Steppin’, ZBC-101, garnered another Grammy nomination in 1986.)
Leading off this remarkable collection is the attempted "My Toot Toot" follow-up, the hilarious "Don't Mess With My Tush," that parallels its prequel with comical entendres, female background vocals and slap-happy drum machine beats. The biggest hit of this lot is interestingly not an original but a raw-sounding remake of Bob & Earl's "Harlem Shuffle" that provided Zydeco patrons its first line dance. Another morsel, the blitzing "Kicking, Asking And Taking Names" was inspired by a current political campaign whose rhetoric must have been nauseating enough to write a song. The cleverly crafted "Bounce" ("like a rubber ball") was a stab at starting a dance craze that, unlike its rebounding subject, failed to get off the ground.
While the arrangements may be unconventional relative to how some think of hot, sweaty Zydeco, the compositions nonetheless reveal how Sidney always innovated with lyrical intelligence, quick one-liners, imaginative sound effects and awe-inspiring entertaining performances. On "Bayou Cruise," Sidney simulates the sounds of a cruise ship and invites you to come along for a trip of "crawfish, women and song." The witty "King Zydeco" satirizes its patrons with rich, vivid imagery. His lyrics never lacked for great hooks that linked one verse to another, which is so contrary to the usual lyrically impoverished Zydeco ditty. He appeared on the Family Style album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan.
After a long bout with cancer, Rockin’ Sidney Simien succumbed to the disease in 1998, leaving his legacy to his wife, three sons, and four grandchildren. He remains one of the most influential, beloved, and imitated performers in Zydeco music history.
