Rockin' Sidney

Rockin' Sidney achieved zydeco's breakthrough international success in 1985 thanks to his novelty smash "My Toot Toot." Born Sidney Semien on April 9, 1938, in Lebeau, Louisiana, he turned professional on harmonica and guitar during his teenage years and cut his earliest R&B-styled sides for the Fame and Jin labels in the closing years of the 1950s. His initial regional success arrived with the 1962 single "No Good Woman." From the mid-1960s through the late 1970s he recorded more than fifty singles for Louisiana's Goldband imprint across blues, soul, and R&B styles, yet none gained traction. After switching to accordion he embraced zydeco, releasing his debut album in the genre, Give Me a Good Time Woman, on Maison de Soul in 1982. The following year he recorded My Zydeco Shoes Got the Zydeco Blues, which contained the track "My Toot Toot." Although Sidney reportedly disliked the song, it first caught on in local jukeboxes, then spread to regional radio, ultimately moving well over a million copies, charting in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and earning a Grammy Award. Subsequent commercial heights eluded him, but he stayed among zydeco's leading figures, launching his own Bally Hoo label and maintaining an active touring schedule until his death on February 25, 1998.