Rod Bernard () was an American singer who helped to pioneer the musical genre known as "swamp pop", which combined New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun and black Creole music. He is generally considered one of the foremost musicians of this south Louisiana-east Texas idiom, along with such notables as Bobby Charles, Johnnie Allan, Tommy McLain, and Warren Storm.
Life and career
Bernard was born in Opelousas, Louisiana. His parents were French-speaking Cajuns from working-class backgrounds and, as a child, he imbibed the traditional Cajun French music performed in his grandfather's dancehall, the Courtableau Inn, located in nearby Port Barre. There, he heard the music of noted Cajun musicians Aldus Roger, Papa Cairo, and Jimmy C. Newman, as well as zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier, all of whom would exert a strong influence on Bernard's music.
Around age eight, Bernard obtained his first guitar (an acoustic Gene Autry model) and, around 1950, he began to perform with the Blue Room Gang, a Cajun-country (or "Cajun swing" in the vein of western-swing music) troupe, sponsored by local Red Bird brand sweet potatoes. During this period, Bernard also hosted his own live music radio program on KSLO in Opelousas, singing Cajun and country tunes while strumming his guitar, in emulation of his musical hero, Hank Williams, Sr.
In the mid-1950s, however, Bernard came under the influence of rock and roll and rhythm and blues music, especially the sounds of Fats Domino and Elvis Presley. Around 1957 he helped to form a rock 'n' roll band made up of fellow Opelousas teenagers. Calling themselves The Twisters, they recorded two singles for the obscure Carl label of Opelousas. The next year Bernard and his group recorded the sultry ballad "This Should Go On Forever" for Floyd Soileau’s Jin label of Ville Platte, Louisiana. Leased to Argo Records of Chicago, the song became a national hit in 1959, propelling Bernard onto Dick Clark's American Bandstand, The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beechnut Show, and The Alan Freed Show, as well as onto tours with Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Avalon, Chuck Berry, and B. B. King, among others.
A follow-up single for Argo, "You're On My Mind", backed with "My Life Is A Mystery", failed to achieve the success of his initial national release. In late 1959, Bernard signed with producer Bill Hall of Beaumont, Texas, who switched the artist to Mercury Records, which unwisely replaced Bernard's earthy swamp pop style with lush violin sections and female choruses. Only one minor hit, "One More Chance", emerged from these Nashville sessions.
Around 1962, Bernard left Mercury for Bill Hall's own Hall-Way label in Beaumont, Texas. Recording with local artists Johnny Winter and Edgar Winter, he released several notable tunes, including "Fais Do Do", "Who's Gonna Rock My Baby", and a rock 'n' roll version of the Cajun folksong "Allons Danser Colinda", the latter of which achieved national airplay and remains a regional favorite in south Louisiana and east Texas.
A stint in the U.S. Marine Corps boot camp interrupted Bernard's musical career but, after several months, he returned to south Louisiana to form The Shondells (not to be confused with Tommy James' group) with fellow swamp pop musicians Warren Storm and Skip Stewart. (Bernard served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1962 to 1968, reaching the rank of sergeant.) During the mid-1960s, the group recorded several singles for the La Louisianne label of Lafayette, Louisiana, and they hosted a live dance program on KLFY-TV called "Saturday Hop". This program inspired their circa 1965 album, The Shondells at the Saturday Hop, issued on La Louisianne.
During this period Bernard recorded singles for Huey Meaux's Teardrop and Copyright labels, and for Soileau's familiar Jin label. Isolated singles appeared on the Scepter and Shelby Singleton's SSS International labels. These sessions included notable releases such as the Chuck Berry-type rocker "Recorded in England", the Cajun two-step inspired "Papa Thibodeaux", and the doleful ballad "Congratulations To You Darling".