Jessie Hill, the New Orleans R&B icon forever linked to his enduring hit “Ooh Poo Pah Doo,” came into the world on December 9, 1932, in the Ninth Ward of the Crescent City. Growing up near Eddie Bo, Oliver Morgan, and Prince La La made a musical path seem natural, and during his teenage years he kept time on drums for Kid Arnestine and Freddie Domino. In 1951 he launched his own outfit, the House Rockers, recruiting guitarist Little Eddie Lang along with siblings Melvin and David Lastie on trumpet and saxophone. The band worked country-and-western clubs around town for roughly twelve months, then traveled through the northern states backing a drag revue fronted by Bobby Marchan before the unit disbanded. Back home, Hill sat behind the drums for Professor Longhair; witnesses recall no surviving tapes, yet they describe him as the most intuitively supportive percussionist Longhair ever had. He next joined Huey “Piano” Smith & the Clowns and, in 1958, assembled a fresh edition of the House Rockers featuring David Lastie, guitarist Alvin “Shine” Robinson, bassist Richard Payne, and drummer John Boudreaux, freeing Hill to concentrate on vocals alone.
The song “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” is said to have begun with an otherwise anonymous local pianist called Big Four, who performed it while playing Shy Guy’s Place in exchange for drinks and gratuities. Hill heard the number with the House Rockers present, jotted the melody and words onto a paper sack, and later added an introduction borrowed from Dave Bartholomew. Whatever its uncertain beginnings, the track stands as one of New Orleans R&B’s signature statements—an exuberant, wordless call-and-response that distilled the spirit of French Quarter nights. After polishing it onstage, Hill recorded a demo he took to Joe Ruffino’s Ric and Ron labels; Ruffino declined yet suggested approaching Joe Banashak’s Minit, which booked time at Cosimo Matassa’s Cosimo’s Studio. That session marked the first production work by Allen Toussaint. Issued in early 1960, “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” quickly became a Mardi Gras favorite, ultimately moving 800,000 copies, reaching the Billboard R&B Top Five, and climbing to the pop Top 30. Hill and the House Rockers embarked on a national trek that included a celebrated stop at New York’s Apollo Theater, but disputes over finances caused the group to fracture before a scheduled date in Washington, D.C.
Upon his return to New Orleans, Hill cut “Whip It on Me,” which scraped the Billboard Hot 100 before fading. The next single, “Scoop Scoobie Doobie,” scored a major local success yet never registered nationally. Further Minit releases such as “I Got Mine” and “Oogsey Moo” drew scant attention, and after one final attempt to revive his breakthrough with “I Can’t Get Enough of That Ooh Poo Pah Doo,” Hill departed the label in 1962. Seeking renewed momentum, he relocated to California, where he connected with fellow New Orleans transplants Harold Battiste, Dave Dixon, and Mac Rebennack—the future Dr. John—who encouraged him to set performing aside temporarily and focus on songwriting. In the ensuing years, Ike & Tina Turner, Sonny & Cher, and others recorded Hill’s material, and he collaborated directly with Willie Nelson. In 1972 he issued the Blue Thumb album Naturally, an ambitious yet uneven effort that found few buyers. Despite his West Coast accomplishments, mounting debts and a deepening drinking problem persisted. After parting ways with Battiste over creative differences, he lost a staff songwriting post; while serving time in Los Angeles County Jail for unpaid traffic tickets, his car—containing every piece of his songwriting archive—was stolen.
Hill came back to New Orleans in 1977, yet steady gigs and writing assignments proved scarce, so he briefly drove his own taxi, a black Cadillac he called “The Poo Cab.” Escalating alcohol and drug use led to repeated DWI convictions and the eventual loss of his license. Sporadic live outings, usually thrown together with pickup musicians, frequently collapsed into chaos, and for a period he had no fixed address. Benefit concerts raised money in his name but failed to restore either his finances or his career. On September 17, 1996, Hill died of heart and kidney failure; he was buried beneath a plywood marker in New Orleans’ Holt Cemetery.
