Air Week: June 23-29, 2025

Lloyd Price would become one of the great hit-makers of early Rock n’ Roll, but this is the story of the “soul that came BEFORE Rock n’ Roll.” Lloyd was just a kid when bandleader and talent scout, Dave Bartholomew brought him to Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio in early 1952 to make a record of a tune he had heard Lloyd singing. “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” hit #1 during the summer of ’52, becoming an instant classic and contributing to the R&B foundation that would eventually lead to the birth of Rock n’ Roll. Matt The Cat presents clips from a lengthy interview with Lloyd Price from 2005 so that Lloyd can tell his story in his own words. He discusses how “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” was recorded, why he was drafted and sent to Korea and how is cousin Larry Williams almost took his song “Just Because” away from him. Lloyd was an entrepreneur, a record executive, a boxing promoter, a professional bowler as well as a R&B legend and early Rock n’ Roll icon. Hear his story and pay tribute to his life on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”

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