Personalityby Lloyd Price
Songfacts®:
- Lloyd Price wrote this massive hit with Harold Logan. Although it is obviously about a woman, it attached itself to him, and he became known as Mr. Personality.
- The song was also recorded by Anthony Newley, and his version made #6 in the UK shortly before Price's recording hit. The B-side to the Newley recording was "My Blue Angel"; the original runs to just 2 minutes 35 seconds and was released on the ABC-Paramount label backed by "Have You Ever Had The Blues," apparently with no questionmark. >>Suggestion credit:
Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
Comments: 3
- Derek from IowaSorry Gerard from France but you fail as a self-appointed expert if you think this isn't a great song. In a way it's the R&B/Pop equal of James P. Johnson's The Charleston, both have an instantly recognizable repeated hook that make it a classic of its genre. None of those artists you mentioned have "dozens" of better songs (neither does Price obviously). Maybe stop watching so much Jerry Lewis?
- Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn June 28th 1959, Lloyd Price performed "Personality" on the CBS-TV program 'The Ed Sullivan Show'...
Two months & one day earlier on April 27th, 1959 it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; and on June 15th, 1959 it peaked at #2 (for 3 weeks) and spent 19 weeks on the Top 100...
Then on June 23rd, 1959 it reached #1 (for 4 weeks) on Billboard's R&B Singles chart; during 1959 he had two more #1s on the R&B Singles chart, "Stagger Lee" (for 4 weeks) and "I Gonna Get Married" (for 1 week)...
The 3 weeks the song was at #2 on the Top 100, the #1 record for those 3 weeks was "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton...
Between 1952 and 1976 he had nineteen records on the R&B chart; fourteen made the Top 10 with four reaching #1, his other #1 record was "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" in 1952...
He just miss having his 5th #1 on the R&B chart when "Come Into My Heart" peaked at #2 in 1960...
Mr. Personality celebrated his 81st birthday three months ago on March 9th, 2014. - Gerard from Toulouse, FranceDefinitely not one of the best recordings to come out of New Orleans for sure! The Nevilles, Irma Thomas or Dr John to name but a few have delivered much better stuff, each by the dozen. I'd also like to seize the opportunity to repeat that President Obama's famous "Yes we can" 2008 slogan was taken straight from a Lee Dorsey song that every American citizen should know by heart and regard as one of the most human, positive, noble (etc) statements ever written by an American! (If a French white guy can dig this from so far away, then everybody in the US should!)
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