BOOGIE RAMBLERS

 

Swamp pop band from Louisiana, founded in the early 1950s by trumpeter and pianist Ernest Jacobs. Other early members included guitarist Marshall Laday, drummer Simon "Kee-Dee" Lubin, and Shelton Dunaway - who joined the band in 1952 - on saxophone and vocals. The band was signed to Eddie Shuler's Goldband Records in the summer of 1952, but didn't record anything until three years later, when the lineup also included bassist Joe Landry, drummer Ivory Jackson, and tenor saxophonist Huey Thierry. They recorded close to twenty tracks but Shuler initially released just one single from the session, Cindy Lou / Such As Love, with vocals by Dunaway.

Around the same time (mid-1950s) the group added another saxophonist, Sidney Reynaud, to the lineup, and Thierry started singing alongside Dunaway, eventually becoming the front man of the band. When a shoeshine boy Mervin Lemelle jokingly called them "Cookie and the Cupcakes", they decided to adopt that as their new name.