Lyrics | Artists | Professor Longhair

+1

Images

Professor Longhair

Professor Longhair was an American blues and R&B pianist and singer born Henry Roeland Byrd on December 19, 1918, in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and raised in New Orleans. After learning piano informally as a child, he began performing professionally in the late 1940s and took the Professor Longhair name while playing New Orleans clubs. In 1949, he recorded with the Shuffling Hungarians, including an early version of “Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” then reached his only national R&B hit in 1950 with “Bald Head,” released as Roy Byrd and His Blues Jumpers. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Profe...