Frankie Ford: The Gretna Kid Who Caught the Wave

The Gretna Kid Who Caught the Wave

Vincent Francis Guzzo Jr. was born on August 4, 1939, in Gretna, Louisiana — just across the river from New Orleans and close enough to absorb every note of the city's R&B explosion. Adopted as an infant, young Vincent showed musical talent early, singing and dancing before he could properly read. By high school, he was performing with a group called the Syncopators. He changed his name to Frankie Ford, and in 1958, at nineteen years old, he caught the wave that would define his career.

Sea Cruise

"Sea Cruise" is one of those songs that belongs to New Orleans the way beignets belong to Café du Monde. It was originally written and recorded by Huey "Piano" Smith with the Clowns, but Ace Records put Ford's vocal on top of Smith's arrangement — a common practice in the era that was controversial then and remains so now. Regardless of the politics behind the recording, "Sea Cruise" hit number fourteen on the pop chart and number eleven on the R&B chart in 1959, earned a gold disc, and became an instant classic.

The song is pure New Orleans rock and roll — a ship's horn, a rolling piano, and a vocal that sounds like the best night of your life on Bourbon Street. It's been covered, sampled, and featured in movies and TV shows for over sixty years.

After the Cruise

Ford's subsequent releases never matched "Sea Cruise," which is the curse of having a debut single that perfect. He was drafted in 1962 and performed for troops overseas. He continued recording and performing for decades, became a fixture on the New Orleans nostalgia circuit, and appeared in the 1978 film American Hot Wax. He was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

Frankie Ford died in Gretna on September 28, 2015, at seventy-six. He had one massive hit, and it was enough. "Sea Cruise" will outlive everyone who heard it the first time, which is the only kind of immortality that matters in rock and roll.