American
Singer best known for his 1950s hits Lawdy Miss Clawdy and Personality who set up his own
music publishing businessA man of huge energy and varied talents, Lloyd Price, who has died aged 88 from complications with diabetes, fully deserved his nickname of “Mr Personality”. This was a reference to his 1959 hit Personality, which reached No 2 on the US pop charts. His 1952 hit Lawdy Miss Clawdy, which was covered by a huge array of artists, from Elvis Presley and Paul McCartney to The Hollies, Solomon Burke and Joe Cocker, was a trailblazer for rock’n’roll and one of the first records to break down barriers between black and white audiences. “I revolutionised the South!” Price enthused. “Before Lawdy Miss Clawdy white kids were not really interested in this music.”
After a streak of hits in the early 1950s, many of them reaching the top end of the US R&B chart, Price was drafted into the US army. On demob, he enjoyed his biggest hit in 1959 with Stagger Lee, which topped the US pop chart. His other major hits included I’m Gonna Get Married, Lady Luck, Question and Misty. But he also enjoyed a parallel career as a music business trailblazer, setting up one of the first black-owned music publishing companies, Lloyd & Logan Music, and a pioneering black-owned record label, KRC.