If you have ever heard a brass band blow through "Big Chief" on a secondline Sunday, or caught a guitar player lean into "Come On" at a late night set on Frenchmen Street, you have been touched by Earl King. You just might not have known his name. And that is kind of the whole story of Earl King in New Orleans: the man who wrote the soundtrack but let everyone else take the stage.
A Kid from the Seventh Ward with a Guitar and a Plan
Earl Silas Johnson IV was born on February 7, 1934, and grew up in the kind of New Orleans neighborhood where music was not a career choice so much as the air you breathed. He picked up the guitar at fifteen and did what young musicians in this city have always done: he started showing up. Talent contests at local clubs were the proving ground, and Earl started entering every one he could find. The biggest stage for that kind of thing was the Dew Drop Inn on LaSalle Street in Central City.
The Dew Drop was not just a nightclub. It was a barbershop, a restaurant, a hotel, and the beating heart of Black culture in postwar New Orleans. If you were a musician trying to make it, the Dew Drop was where you went to get noticed. Earl did more than get noticed. He became a regular, rubbing shoulders with Dave Bartholomew, Allen Toussaint, and Irma Thomas. He even published a handwritten gossip newsletter about the local music scene that musicians could read for a dime. The man was a content creator before content creation was a thing.
The Songs That Traveled the World
Earl King wrote songs the way New Orleans cooks: with feel, with flavor, and with a deep understanding of what makes people come back for more. His first hit, "Those Lonely, Lonely Nights," climbed to number seven on the Billboard R&B chart in the mid-1950s. But it was the songs that other artists picked up and carried forward that cemented his place in music history.
"Come On" is the one that traveled the farthest. Earl recorded it for Imperial Records, and the song caught fire in ways he probably never imagined. Jimi Hendrix covered it. Stevie Ray Vaughan covered it. Freddie King covered it. When your blues song ends up in the hands of players like that, you have written something that speaks a universal language. But the song started right here, in a studio on the banks of the Mississippi, with a New Orleans guitar player who knew exactly how to make a groove stick.
Then there is "Big Chief," a song so deeply woven into New Orleans culture that it practically qualifies as a municipal anthem. Earl wrote it, but it was Professor Longhair who recorded the most famous version in 1964. The song captures the spirit of the Mardi Gras Indians with a rolling piano line and a chant that anyone who has spent time in this city can sing from memory. Today, "Big Chief" is a staple for brass bands, piano players, and pretty much anyone who picks up an instrument in New Orleans. You cannot play a Jazz Fest without hearing it at least three times.
More Than a Songwriter
Earl King was not just the guy handing songs to other people. He was a sharp guitarist with a tone that could cut through a packed room, and his stage presence at the Dew Drop Inn and clubs across the city was the real deal. In 1954, he filled in on tour when Guitar Slim got hurt, which tells you something about how highly his peers regarded him.
His writing credits read like a playlist of mid-century New Orleans R&B. "Trick Bag" became a local classic. "Teasin' You" was recorded by Willie Tee. "Do-Re-Mi" ended up with Lee Dorsey. He worked with Dave Bartholomew at Imperial Records, backed by musicians like James Booker, Bob French, and the legendary arranger Wardell Quezergue. Every session was a masterclass in the New Orleans sound.
In the 1980s, Earl connected with Hammond Scott at Black Top Records and put out "Glazed," an album backed by Roomful of Blues that earned a Grammy nomination. It was a late career victory for a musician who had been quietly shaping American music for decades.
Why Earl King Matters to New Orleans
There is a certain kind of New Orleans musician who never gets the national fame they deserve but whose fingerprints are all over everything you love about this city's music. Earl King is that musician. His songs are in the DNA of brass bands, R&B, and the festival culture that makes this place unlike anywhere else on Earth.
At Dirty Coast, we think about this a lot. The city runs on the people who build the culture from the inside, the ones who write the songs that become secondline anthems and Jazz Fest sing-alongs. Our designs like WWOZ, Do Watcha Wanna, and Listen To Your City are love letters to that musical ecosystem. Earl King is one of the reasons that ecosystem exists.
He passed away on April 17, 2003, from diabetes complications, just one week before Jazz Fest. The timing felt like the universe making a cruel point: the festival could not have existed in the form we know it without the songs Earl King wrote.
Be a New Orleanian, Listen Like One
Next time you are walking down a street in the Marigny and you hear "Big Chief" drifting out of a bar, or you are at Jazz Fest and a guitarist tears into "Come On," take a second and tip your hat to Earl King. He is the reason those songs exist. He is one of the architects of the sound that makes this city feel like home, whether you were born here or you just got here last Tuesday.
And if you want to carry a little bit of that New Orleans music spirit with you, check out our WWOZ design or the Periodic Table of New Orleans. Because being a New Orleanian is not just about where you live. It is about what you listen to.
FAQ
Q: Who was Earl King?
A: Earl King (1934-2003) was a New Orleans R&B singer, guitarist, and songwriter who composed blues standards including "Come On" and "Big Chief." He got his start performing at the Dew Drop Inn and went on to shape the sound of New Orleans music for decades.
Q: What famous songs did Earl King write?
A: Earl King wrote "Come On," which was covered by Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Freddie King. He also wrote "Big Chief," famously recorded by Professor Longhair, and other New Orleans classics like "Trick Bag," "Teasin' You," and "Those Lonely, Lonely Nights."
Q: What was the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans?
A: The Dew Drop Inn was a legendary nightclub, hotel, and cultural hub on LaSalle Street in Central City that operated from 1939 to 1970. It was the most important venue in the development of New Orleans R&B and helped launch artists like Earl King, Allen Toussaint, and Irma Thomas.
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