Joe Clay

Rockabilly singer and guitarist Joe Clay stood poised for major success in 1956 after performing on The Ed Sullivan Show at age 17 and securing a deal with RCA Records. Sullivan nevertheless instructed the teenager to perform the Platters’ subdued “Only You” rather than his energetic “Duck Tail,” while his controlling manager barred appearances beyond New Orleans and ultimately alienated RCA. Born Claiborne Joseph Cheramie in Louisiana’s Cajun region, Clay joined a country band at 12 that soon landed a spot on WWEZ radio. When RCA launched its Vik Records subsidiary and contacted the station in search of new artists, the label offered Clay a contract; he responded, “Hell yes!” Having already cut “Sixteen Chicks,” “Goodbye Goodbye,” and “You Look That Good to Me” in Houston, Clay was brought to New York to record with guitarist Mickey Baker, guitarist Skeeter Best, bassist Leonard Gaskin, and drummers Bobby Donaldson and Joe Marshall in one of the earlier integrated studio sessions of the era. The wild sides failed to connect. Although Clay echoed Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley and reached Sullivan months before Presley did, his only notable achievement at the time was contributing backing tracks to several Elvis recordings. For the following three decades he performed in New Orleans’ Bourbon Street lounges before taking a bus-driving job. By the 1980s, long after he had stopped playing, Clay had become a sensation across Europe without his knowledge. A West German label released a ’50s-revival album spotlighting his work that gained immediate traction, while persistent English promoter Willie Jeffrey spent years locating him through classified ads, DJ outreach, and industry contacts before finally securing a 1986 tour of England.