Willie Egan

Born October 1, 1933, in Minden, Louisiana, rhythm and blues pioneer Willie Egan grew up amid severe hardship. His remote bayou surroundings required residents each year to cut a trail through the wetlands simply to reach the highway, while alligators posed constant danger; his father lost a hand and his brother a foot to the reptiles. At age nine he relocated to Los Angeles to live with his grandmother, where he taught himself piano on an instrument left on his uncle’s porch by listening repeatedly to recordings of Amos Milburn and Hadda Brooks; a neighbor, Arthur Alexander (distinct from the later country-soul singer), further instructed him in boogie style by marking numbers on the keys. In 1949 the fifteen-year-old recorded his first single, “It’s a Shame,” for J.R. Fullbright’s Elko Records under the name Little Willie Egans; after a growth spurt the diminutive was dropped, yet the release attracted scant attention, and Egan returned to local club work until 1955, when he signed with Larry Mead’s Mambo label and collaborated with singer-guitarist Lloyd Rowe on “Don’t Know Where She Went.” The partnership dissolved quickly, prompting Egan to resume recording alone; he next issued “Wow Wow” on Mambo, credited to Willie Eggins and His Orchestra. The track gained regional popularity across southern California, after which he followed with “Sometimes I Wonder.” When Fats Domino objected that the number resembled his own “Rosemary,” Egan replied that both compositions echoed Amos Milburn. His artistic peak arrived with the 1956 single “Wear Your Black Dress,” a driving jump blues in the manner of Ray Charles. The song drew inspiration from his wife Beatrice; as Egan later recounted, “Wear Your Black Dress” came about because I almost shot her. “I was sitting at home with a .38 in my lap, waiting for her to come home.” After transferring to Mead’s Vita imprint he released “Come On” and “She’s Gone Away, But,” then cut his final solo side, “Rock and Roll Fever,” in 1958. He subsequently joined Marvin Phillips in the veteran duo Marvin & Johnny, adding his name to an extended roster of musical partners; together they cut the unsuccessful “Baby Baby Baby” that same year, slipped back into the club circuit, and resurfaced on Hunter Hancock’s Swingin’ label in 1962 with “I’m Tired of Being Alone” and “Second Helping of Cherry Pie.” Egan again attempted a solo path, but a nightclub fire destroyed his gear, leading him to abandon performing and take work as a hospital orderly in Los Angeles. Two decades afterward, while living on unemployment, he was located by local R&B promoter Steve Brigati; unaware Egan was still alive, the British imprint Krazy Kat had already assembled his solo singles into the album Rock & Roll Fever, which sold briskly across Europe. Egan soon headlined London’s Electric Ballroom, supported by saxophonist Big Jay McNeely, and for Ace Records completed a fresh studio album, 1984’s Going Back to Louisiana. Following an extended struggle with cancer, he died in Los Angeles on August 5, 2004.