"New Jolie Blond" - Happy, Doc and the Boys

Happy Fats and Doc Guidry were two powerful promoters of Cajun-country music during the 1940s and 1950s.  Doc's history with governor Jimmie Davis stems from the 1930s.  In Cajun country, Jimmie's secret for winning votes was adding songs like "Jole Blon" and "Big Mamou" to his campaign program.   Happy Fats also sided with Davis, who he met in the late thirties.  According to Happy:

As far as my career is concerned I guess he helped me to get started in both recording and songwriting, for this and other favors I own him a lot.1   

Both Happy and Doc used the same promotion techniques to further their own careers.  According to musician Rod Bernard:

Happy would sell his show to used car lots and beer distributors and he's always done that.  In fact, if you see his truck around town he's got 'Happy Fats, Great Storyteller with compliments of Budweiser Beer, Evangeline Maid Bread' and all kind of things like that.  He's a real, real super-salesman.1

Happy Fats

Happy agreed:

We had a lot of sponsors. At one time we were on seven radio stations, most of it was live.  We did a lot of traveling, like on a Saturday we would play Opelousas, Lafayette, and Abbeville, three stations. Two of them were live from the stage of theaters they had linked with the radio stations.1

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.... hah, hah, hah, hah, hah......

Hoh, hoh, hoh, hoh, hoh.... heh, heh, heh, heh, heh....

Jolie blonde, mais, tu croyais i(l) y avait juste toi, 

Y'a pas juste toi, mais, dans le pays pour, moi, aimer.

Oh, mais, jolie blonde, 

Moi, je connais, moi, je m'en vas, mais, pour toujours,

De mourir, mais, c'est pas rien, (ma) jolie petite blonde, 

Mais, (c'est de) rester en bas de la terre, mais, si longtemps.

(Jolie Blond, you've been kicked around,

You've been bounced around alot,

But now, you've been bounced around,

Like you've never been bounced before,

This is the new Jolie Blond, the one we're talking about,

The one that we've always known, the one with the pretty golden curls.)

Jolie blonde, mais, 'gardez-donc, mais, quoi t'as fait,

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller, 

Pour t'en aller avec un autre que moi, 

Quel espoir et quel avenir, mais, moi j'peux avoir?

Church Point News
Aug 17, 1948

During record producer J.D. Miller's second session in late 1946, or probably 1947, the group entered his new recording studio in Crowley and covered the newly popularized Harry Choates song with a twist on the title called "New Jolie Blond" (#1005).  Backed up by fiddling duo, Oran "Doc" Guidry and Hanky Redlich, with Dalton Delcambre on steel guitar, it was Happy's attempt to capitalize on Harry's recent hit with "Jole Blon" that year... even mimicking Harry with an introductory chorus of "Eh, hah, hah!"   Happy had previously recorded the tune as "Nouveau Grand Gueydan" in 1939, with private plans to team up Harry and record "Jole Blon" in 1941.  However, after Harry left for the army in WWII and RCA cancelled the session because of shellac rationing, Happy recalls he lost his chance at scoring this hit:

"Jole Blon" had become a hit through Leo Soileau, myself, and Harry Choates who recorded it.  We were at this club in Lake Charles, they had a lot of soldiers that had come there from the local camp, from the Lake Charles air base and other places on a a Saturday night. And they loved this "Jole Blon". So I wrote to Steve Sholes at RCA and told him we ought to record this. And he wrote back and said "Well, there's a shortage of shellac during the war" and he give me all that.  In the meantime, Harry went off to Houston, he left the band and got in with a fellow by the name of Bill Quinn.  And he made 'Jole Blon' and it was a million seller.1,2

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.... hah, hah, hah, hah, hah......

Hoh, hoh, hoh, hoh, hoh.... heh, heh, heh, heh, heh....

Pretty blond, well, you thought it was just you,

It's not just you, well, in the countryside for me, to love.

Oh, well, pretty blond,

I know, I'm going to go away, well, forever,

Dying, well, that's nothing, (my) pretty little blond,

Well, (it's just) resting in the ground, well, such a long time.

(Jolie blonde, you've been kicked around,

You've been bounced around alot,

But now, you've been bounced around,

Like you've never been bounced before,

This is the new Jolie Blonde, the one we're talking about,

The one that we've always known, the one with the pretty golden curls.)

Pretty blond, well, so look, well, at what you've done,

You have left, you went away,

You went away with another,

What hope and what future, well, do I have?

By 1952, he recalled playing in the same lineup with Hank Williams on the Louisiana Hayride radio show.  It was a half-hour show where the rules dictated "no repeats".  Happy explains to author Ryan Brasseaux:

So, we played "Jole Blonde" there was a tremendous crowd that night.  Hank Williams was there playing.  We got on and we played "Jole Blonde" and when we got through playing it they started clapping.  Horace Logan, the station manager, was there so I though he wanted us to quit.  "No", he said, "play it again!"  "Well, you said no repeats".  We had to repeat on that network three times!2

1. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven
2. Cajun Breakdown: The Emergence of an American-Made Music By Ryan Andre Brasseaux
3. Lyrics by Stephane F and Jordy A

Release Info:
-A New Jolie Blond | Fais Do Do FDD F 1005 A
-B Dans La Platin (In The Lowlands) | Fais Do Do FDD F 1005 B

Find:
Jole Blon - 23 Artists One Theme (Bear, 2002)
Acadian All Star Special - The Pioneering Cajun Recordings Of J.D. Miller (Bear, 2011)