Willie Perryman answered to a pair of fitting nicknames across his long career. For most of his performing years, audiences knew him as Piano Red on account of his albino skin pigmentation; by the 1960s, however, he answered to Dr. Feelgood, a handle that matched the curative effect of his pounding, barrelhouse vocals and piano. His older brother, Rufus Perryman, performed and recorded under the name Speckled Red and shared the same early gift for the keyboard. By twelve, Willie was already playing, drawing some inspiration from Fats Waller yet developing his own approach. Throughout the 1930s he traveled occasionally with Barbecue Bob, Curley Weaver, and Blind Willie McTell, cutting a 1936 session with the latter, though he largely worked alone.
His major opportunity came in 1950 with a contract from RCA Victor. The first release, the boisterous “Rockin’ with Red,” climbed to number five on Billboard’s R&B chart. The number later resurfaced in other hands: Little Richard reworked it as “She Knows How to Rock” for Specialty in 1957, Jerry Lee Lewis tackled it for Sun (though the take remained unissued), and Little Jimmy Dickens reached the market first with his Columbia version. From the same initial Victor session, “Red’s Boogie” also scored strongly, as did the rag-inflected “Right String But the Wrong Yo-Yo”—later given a definitive reading by Carl Perkins at Sun—“Just Right Bounce,” and “Laying the Boogie” in 1951. Red settled into steady work in Atlanta clubs and on local radio, cutting many sides for RCA in both Atlanta and New York through 1958. Sales never repeated earlier peaks, yet the label still issued a 1956 live album recorded at the city’s Magnolia Ballroom that captured his high-voltage delivery. Chet Atkins oversaw Red’s final RCA date in Nashville in 1958, employing the pianist’s road band as support.
A 1959 Checker single, “Get Up Mare,” and eight Jax sides preceded his new identity as Dr. Feelgood & the Interns. The group debuted on Columbia’s OKeh imprint in 1961 with the self-titled rocker “Dr. Feelgood,” which finally placed the veteran pianist on the pop charts. Its B-side, “Mister Moonlight,” written and ostensibly sung by bandmember Roy Lee Johnson, later entered the Beatles’ repertoire. A fresh version of “Right String But the Wrong Yo-Yo” also charted for the doctor in 1962. He stayed with OKeh until 1966, appearing on five dates alongside veteran Nashville saxophonist Boots Randolph. From 1969 to 1979 Red held forth at Atlanta’s Muhlenbrink’s Saloon while fitting in numerous European tours. Cancer was diagnosed in 1984, and he died the next year.
