Joe Clay - Legend Is Now

Claiborne Joseph Cheramie was born in Harvey, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. An early interest in country music lead to young C.J., as he has always been known, becoming a good drummer by the time he hit twelve years old. He later added guitar and bass to his repertoire. By the early fifties the C.J. Cheramie Trio were regulars on Radio WWEZ out of New Orleans, with a thirteen minute slot on Saturdays. To this very day the C.J. Cheramie Trio can be found gigging in and around The Big Easy on any day of the week, but it was only for a short, tempestuous four years that C.J. performed under the alter-ego Joe Clay. Those years were from 1956 to 1960. And the story goes like this. C.J.'s reputation had lead to appearances on the famed Louisiana Hayride at the age of sixteen, where he made friends with the emerging firebrand, Elvis Presley. At least that's where they first met. Elvis played Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park, New Orleans on Thursday September 1st 1955. They had previously played The Louisiana Hayride on Saturday August 27th. D.J. Fontana had joined the group on a regular basis starting August 8th, but on September 1st he was sick. Joe was playing support on the gig and he stepped in to take D.J.'s place. One of Joe Clay's many brushes with fate. Early in 1956 one of the producers and broadcasting jocks at WWEZ, Jolly Charlie, received a letter from an agent for RCA Victor Records, which said they were on the lookout for regional acts to sign to their new subsidiary, Vik. This was a matter of mere months after 'Elvis the Pelvis' had been lured away from Sun Records in Memphis and had inked to the RCA Victor parent company. Vik had been set up as a response to the new Big Beat music that the teenagers were clambering for. In this way Joe Clay's first release on the label would be sandwiched between releases by Eddie Fontaine and The Treniers. Quite an eclectic bunch. Other artists on the label were Mickey & Sylvia, of 'Love Is Strange' fame, and Mickey Baker would soon play a part in the Joe Clay story. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. When the Trio were presented with the letter, young C.J. took up the challenge, and said he would cut a demo. He recorded 'Shake Rattle And Roll' and 'Flip Flop And Fly,' accompanying himself on a borrowed guitar, at the radio station offices in the Jung Hotel on Canal Street, New Orleans. He handed the tape back to Jolly Charlie. A month later C.J. got a call from RCA Records producer Herman Diaz Jr. in New York. Would he like to make a record? On April 25th 1956, Diaz flew C.J. up to Houston to the famed Gold Star Studio where Starday Records were cutting their great rockabilly sides. On the session C.J. was accompanied by Starday session stalwarts, Link Davis and Hal Harris. Joe remembers going through twenty-odd takes of each song on the Houston session, because the drummer was speeding up or dragging. Surprising considering the quality of the guitar stranglers on hand. Also very frustrating for Joe, an accomplished percussionist himself. Although Herman Diaz may have found it hard to believe that this kid was up to session standard, even though he obviously was. It was on the plane back to New Orleans from Houston that Herman Diaz asked C.J. what he was going to call himself, as Claiborne Cheramie was not the most easy and catching of rock 'n' roller's names. Hence, Joe Clay was born by shortening the first and re-arranging his first two names. Joe cut five tracks on April 25th 1956, from which his version of Rudy Grayzell's 'Ducktail', together with the Link Davis song, 'Sixteen Chicks', were chosen as his first record release on Vik 0211, released May 19th 1956. 'Ducktail's writer, Grayzell, had been influenced by Joe's old pal Elvis for the title of the song, and ironically had recorded the original version on Starday in the same studio and released the same month as Joe's. Because both versions were out at the same time, neither garnered good sales. Only one month passed before Joe was asked to come to New York City and record his next session. Apparently, Herman Diaz Jr. had not been pleased by the Houston session. If he could have seen into the future, would he argue with the untold thousands of rockabilly fans growing in number since the rediscovery of these sides in the seventies in Europe, who had claimed Joe's Houston sides to be rockabilly manna from Heaven? Anyway, Joe was booked into RCA Studio 1 in The Big Apple, May 24th. For this session Diaz had commissioned legendary rhythm and blues session guitarist and supervisor, Mickey Baker, to put a band together for the session. Baker duly corralled a quintet that included himself and Skeeter Best on guitars with two drummers! The resulting four tracks that were cut were truly awesome slabs of rockabilly/rhythm 'n' blues dynamite. From this session RCA culled 'Crackerjack' and 'Get On The Right Track' for Joe's second and final Vik 45, 0218, released July 21st. Pretty hot on the heels of the first waxing, but that's how fast releases happened in the fifties, if the current single was not taking off, put out the next. On the other hand, the speed of the second release might have had something to do with Diaz and his lack of belief in the first. After the New York session Joe returned home. A while later Herman Diaz called Joe about a big juke box convention in Chicago, and came and picked him up. Nat King Cole and Bobby Darin were two of the other artists set to appear live at the convention. It was the biggest audience Joe had yet played for. Nat Cole suggested to the young singer that he sing above people's heads in order to overcome his nerves. The convention was followed by a banquet, and just before the banquet a six feet five blonde was introduced wearing a skimpy costume, carrying a basket round in front of her filled with sixteen live chicks. On the basket hung a sign saying, 'Get it quick, it's on Vik, Joe Clay, Sixteen Chicks.' Oh, where is that photograph that someone among the audience must have snapped? Right after this Chicago visit Joe went back to New York to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, appearing with Nat King Cole. This was still May '56 and Joe was still promoting 'Ducktail'. Considering the amount of Sullivan Shows that have emerged an video and DVD by now, it's more frustrating that Joe's only appearance (before Elvis!), has not turned up so far. Even more surprising given the presence of Mr. Cole. For this appearance Joe rehearsed with a band for a week, and it wasn't until later he discovered that the guitarist was Barney Kessel, whom he had never heard of at that time. Not too surprising considering Kessel's extreme lack of rockin' history! Also a far cry in style from Mickey Baker! Joe's current record was still 'Ducktail' at this point, but the producers of the staid Ed Sullivan Talk Of The Town would not allow him to do it. This was at a time when Elvis Presley's first TV appearances on the Dorsey Shows and the Milton Berle Show had caused a furious controversy. Ed Sullivan had publicly declared his disinterest in booking Presley for his show, although he relented in July 1956, and presented Elvis in the first of three of his 'really big shews' in September. Meantime, young Joe, despite beating La Pelvis to the Sullivan Show, had to settle for a rendition of 'Only You'. C.J. kept playing as Joe Clay throughout the golden years of rock 'n' roll, appearing with the likes of Carl Perkins and LaVern Baker. But finding that New Orleans R&B took preference in popularity over the more raucous stripped down sounds of rockabilly, he quit the business and retired his Joe Clay persona in 1960. Relating an incident in which his manager left town with his earnings, Joe was quoted as saying, 'I [had] started playing on Sundays with a hillbilly band when I was 12. It was Hank Williams stuff. I was playing the stuff since I was itty-bitty. We just played what we felt - we didn't copy off anybody. But I had a label behin