JOE BARRY: ONE OF THE GREAT ONE-HIT WONDERS

Joe Barry's hit single 'I'm A Fool To Care' (1961) is one of those one-hit wonders that may sounds wholly insignificant to anyone encountering it now yet which will never be forgotten by those who heard it and bought it when it was new. Here was a Latino-white guy who sounded uncannily like Fats Domino - and at a time when Fats' records were always in the UK charts. The song had been a hit in the 1950s for Les Paul and Mary Ford. Barry's recording, produced by Huey P. Meaux, was released on the tiny Jin label and then re-pressed for national distribution by Mercury's subsidiary Smash. According to Wikipedia it reached the top 20 in the US Black Singles chart, although I'm sure they didn't call it that in 1961. Surely though it influenced Doug Sahm and many other so-called Swamp Rockers.

After Fats Domino quit Imperial and signed to ABC Paramount he issued a cover version of 'I'm A Fool To Care' - and to hear it is to hear Fats imitating Joe imitating Fats. Joe's version is better.

Joseph Barrios was born in Cut Off, Louisiana 70 years ago today - and died in the same place almost 5 years ago - in August 2004. According to mombu.com he "suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, chronic asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, cariomyopic disease, diabetes and an infected immune system."