{"id":145075,"date":"2026-03-09T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=145075"},"modified":"2026-03-08T12:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T16:13:11","slug":"happy-birthday-lloyd-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=145075","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, &#8220;Mr. Personality&#8221; Lloyd Price"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/maxresdefault-e1552143146411.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/maxresdefault-e1552143146411.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-145076\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nIt&#8217;s the birthday of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Lloyd Price (born in 1933- he died in 2021 at the age of 88!) <\/p>\n<p>He moved into a rarified level of cultural status with his 1959 mega-hit &#8220;Personality&#8221; &#8211; which became one of those meta-hits, where singer became totally associated with said hit (&#8220;Mr. Personality&#8221; was his nickname). Singers go their whole careers without coming out with a single like that, where 40, 50 years later, when you&#8217;re still touring, people request it wherever you go. <\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MvPU-cvaKCM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\nHis &#8220;Lawdy Miss Clawdy&#8221; is a classic. He recorded it in 1952 (Elvis, of course, was hugely inspired by it), and the recording has such a jangly propulsive energy &#8211; that piano!! &#8211; the sax! &#8211; it feels like it was recorded in a juke joint on Saturday night, the dance floor crowded with people having a blast. It&#8217;s ALIVE. <\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nYO263wui1w\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For me, though, when I think of Lloyd Price, I think of his version of &#8220;Stagger Lee&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He didn&#8217;t write &#8220;Stagger Lee&#8221;, of course. Versions of it had been kicking around forever, from before the time of recorded music. &#8220;Stagger Lee&#8221; was a huge hit for Lloyd Price in 1959, selling over a million copies. His version sounds &#8230; triumphant, exultant, joyous, even though the lyrics are some seriously scary shit (this may be why it makes such an impression). There&#8217;s a chorus behind him, with sopranos shrieking &#8220;GO STAGGER LEE GO STAGGER LEE&#8221;, pushing Stagger on, cheering him on, and they sound like the wider population rooting for a criminal on the run, because the criminal is like them, comes from where they come from, represents something important. Criminal as celebrity. Those criminals who enter legendary status, like people &#8220;rooting&#8221; for John Dillinger, since who the hell wants to stick up for a BANK? <\/p>\n<p>In re: &#8220;Stagger Lee,&#8221; I need to point to Greil Marcus&#8217; classic, <i><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0142181587\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=0142181587&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=thesheivari-20&#038;linkId=328e0892e9f86c8a92cc4164cf6efc3a\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock &#8216;n&#8217; Roll Music<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=thesheivari-20&#038;l=am2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0142181587\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/><\/i>, which includes a small section about &#8220;Stagger Lee&#8221;, its history, its legacy, and all its permutations through the 20th century. It&#8217;s some of Marcus&#8217; very best stuff as a writer and cultural critic and I couldn&#8217;t begin to approach what Marcus draws out, the connections he makes. Marcus says that Lloyd Price, in his version, got &#8220;caught up in the legend&#8221; &#8230; and he really does.<\/p>\n<p>I love how Price fakes you out at the start of the song. &#8220;Stagger Lee&#8221; starts as a ballad, almost like &#8220;Gather around, kids, let me tell you a story&#8221; &#8230; it&#8217;s gentle. It pulls you in. This doesn&#8217;t last long. The second he starts the story &#8230; all hell breaks loose. The song EXPLODES. If it were a bedtime story, the kids would be lulled into a sense of safety with the opening, and by the end would be hiding under the covers, terrified and thrilled.<\/p>\n<p>Price&#8217;s version is exuberance unleashed. Recorded in 1959, the song sounds as fresh as if it was released yesterday. Fresher, actually. Fresher than contemporary stuff. It LEAPS at you. <\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FCPutYaGFlE\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the birthday of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Lloyd Price (born in 1933- he died in 2021 at the age of 88!) He moved into a rarified level of cultural status with his 1959 mega-hit &#8220;Personality&#8221; &#8211; which &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=145075\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145075"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190778,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145075\/revisions\/190778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}