Jessie Hill

Best remembered for the classic "Ooh Poo Pah Doo," New Orleans R&B legend Jessie Hill was born in the Crescent City's Ninth Ward district in 1932. By his teens he was playing drums in bands fronted by Kid Arnestine, Freddie Domino, Professor Longhair, and Huey "Piano" Smith. Hill learned "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" from a local pianist named Big Four, and with Allen Toussaint as producer, Hill's recording became a major hit, rising to the R&B Top Five and the pop Top 30. In 1962, he moved to California and made his living as a songwriter and cut solo recordings. He returned to New Orleans in the late 1970s, working day jobs and performing in his spare time before his death in 1996.