The young singer said he had no way to get there. One evening, Fats Domino played Abbeville, and Fats invited Charles to a show in New Orleans. Along the way, though, he seems to have pioneered a genre called swamp pop. Charles recorded for Chess until 1958, but his records only sold locally.
They tried follow-ups called "Watch It, Sprocket," which wasn't something people actually said, and "Take It Easy, Greasy," which was, but the record was a little too, well, greasy to be too popular. Haley's record was one of the best sellers of 1956, and both Chess and Charles made some decent money from it. John: A New Orleans Legend In The Hall Of FameĬhess recorded him, though, and put the song out, changing Guidry's name to Bobby Charles almost immediately, Bill Haley grabbed it for himself. The sentence ended with the word "white" and a question mark, though. Chess didn't hesitate: He sent the kid a ticket, and when Charles showed up at his office, Chess said something I can't say on the air. Somehow, though, the kid wound up singing the song over the phone to Leonard Chess, whose Chess Records in Chicago was the hottest blues label in town. At that moment, as would happen countless times in the future, the song "See You Later, Alligator" came to him, fully formed.įats didn't want the song, and told the young man he didn't want to sing about alligators. One night as he left a gig, Charles said to his friends, "See ya later, alligator," and one of them yelled back, "In a while, crocodile." Charles stopped in his tracks. It was a life-changing experience for the young man, and he found himself with a new ambition: to write a song for Fats. The group played Cajun and country music and, after he passed through town and played a show, Fats Domino's music. When he was around 13, Robert Charles Guidry began singing with a band around his hometown of Abbeville, La., deep in the Cajun swamps. Singer, songwriter and swamp-pop pioneer Bobby Charles poses for a portrait in 1972.
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