Biography
Swamp pop performer Rod Bernard entered the world in Opelousas, Louisiana during the early 1940s and first broadcast professionally over KSLO Opelousas at the age of ten. Within two more years he was spinning records as a deejay at the same outlet, until his family relocated to Winnie, Texas in 1954. There he met local barber Huey Meaux, who would later emerge as a leading producer of Cajun material. While still a teenager Bernard assembled his initial group, the Twisters, and issued a pair of singles on Jake Graffagnino’s Carl imprint.
The band next committed King Karl’s “This Should Go on Forever” to Floyd Soileau’s Jin label, which subsequently assigned the master to Chicago’s Argo label; Bernard then carried the disc to Huey Meaux, by then the host of a French-language program on KPAC Port Arthur. Meaux arranged airplay across East Texas and delivered a copy to the Big Bopper, who aired it on KTRM Beaumont, Texas. Seven months passed before the track climbed into the pop Top 20. Bernard soon performed on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, where several lyrics were altered for broader appeal, and promptly inked a contract with Mercury Records. Although he laid down more than forty titles for the company, only four sides saw release, one of which, “One More Chance,” registered a modest pop-chart entry.
When his Mercury agreement expired in 1962, Bernard moved to Hall-Way Records, where Johnny and Edgar Winter frequently supplied instrumental support. He scored modest regional notice with an up-tempo rendering of the traditional Cajun number “Colinda,” after which he assumed the roles of deejay and musical director at KVOL before later serving as a sales executive at KLFY-TV, both stations based in Lafayette. He also appeared on local television alongside the Shondells, the ensemble he had helped establish in 1963. A dozen performances from the program were compiled in 1965 as the album Saturday Hop on the La Louisienne label, while the group additionally issued the single “Our Teenage Love” through Teardrop. Alongside Carol Ranchou of La Louisianne, Bernard launched the Arbee imprint; he continued to record albums throughout the seventies and remained on staff at KLFY-TV for many years. In the late 1990s he reentered the studio to cut The Louisiana Tradition.
The band next committed King Karl’s “This Should Go on Forever” to Floyd Soileau’s Jin label, which subsequently assigned the master to Chicago’s Argo label; Bernard then carried the disc to Huey Meaux, by then the host of a French-language program on KPAC Port Arthur. Meaux arranged airplay across East Texas and delivered a copy to the Big Bopper, who aired it on KTRM Beaumont, Texas. Seven months passed before the track climbed into the pop Top 20. Bernard soon performed on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, where several lyrics were altered for broader appeal, and promptly inked a contract with Mercury Records. Although he laid down more than forty titles for the company, only four sides saw release, one of which, “One More Chance,” registered a modest pop-chart entry.
When his Mercury agreement expired in 1962, Bernard moved to Hall-Way Records, where Johnny and Edgar Winter frequently supplied instrumental support. He scored modest regional notice with an up-tempo rendering of the traditional Cajun number “Colinda,” after which he assumed the roles of deejay and musical director at KVOL before later serving as a sales executive at KLFY-TV, both stations based in Lafayette. He also appeared on local television alongside the Shondells, the ensemble he had helped establish in 1963. A dozen performances from the program were compiled in 1965 as the album Saturday Hop on the La Louisienne label, while the group additionally issued the single “Our Teenage Love” through Teardrop. Alongside Carol Ranchou of La Louisianne, Bernard launched the Arbee imprint; he continued to record albums throughout the seventies and remained on staff at KLFY-TV for many years. In the late 1990s he reentered the studio to cut The Louisiana Tradition.
Albums
