You don’t have to check, puck. Singer and pianist Clarence “Frogman” Henry died Sunday in his native New Orleans, age 87. His ability to sing in a frog’s croak, a skill he said he developed to scare the girls at school, gave him both his nickname and his most enduring hit.
Henry was just 18 and playing in saxophonist Eddie Smith’s band when he improvised what became “Ain’t Got a Home” in a New Orleans club in the wee hours, making up the words as he went along. The crowd loved it when he started croaking, and a novelty hit was born, though it wasn’t recorded and released until late 1956. It became a No. 3 R&B hit and reached No. 20 on the Hot 100, giving Henry a place among New Orleans’ contingent of early rock ‘n’ rollers. The style remained popular through the mid-’60s, enough so that Henry was an opening act on the Beatles’ 1964 American tour.
“Ain’t Got No Home” wasn’t Henry’s biggest hit. He reached No. 4 in 1961 with his cover of “I Don’t Know Why (But I Do).”
Henry’s recording career ended as the New Orleans sound fell out of favor, but he remained active in clubs in and around the city until his death. He was scheduled to play the New Orleans Jazz Festival next month.