Piano Red

by Bill DahlWillie Perryman went by two nicknames during his lengthy career, both of them thoroughly apt. He was known as Piano Red because of his albino skin pigmentation for most of his performing life. But they called him Doctor Feelgood during the 60s, and thats precisely what his raucous, barrelhouse-styled vocals and piano were guaranteed to do: cure anyones ills and make them feel good.Like his older brother, Rufus Perryman, who performed and recorded as Speckled Red, Willie Perryman showed an aptitude for the 88s early in life. At age 12, he was banging on the ivories, influenced by Fats Waller but largely his own man. He rambled some with blues greats Barbecue Bob, Curley Weaver, and Blind Willie McTell during the 1930s (and recording with the latter in 1936), but mostly worked as a solo artist.In 1950, Reds big break arrived when he signed with RCA Victor. His debut Victor offering, the typically rowdy Rockin with Red, was a huge R&B hit, peaking at number five on Billboards charts. Its surfaced under a variety of guises since: Little Richard revived it as She Knows How to Rock in 1957 for Specialty, Jerry Lee Lewis aced it for Sun (unissued at the time), and pint-sized hillbilly dynamo Little Jimmy Dickens beat em both to the punch for Columbia.Reds Boogie, another pounding rocker from the pianists first RCA date, also proved a huge smash, as did the rag-tinged The Wrong Yo Yo (later covered masterfully by Carl Perkins at Sun), Just Right Bounce, and Laying the Boogie in 1951. Red became an Atlanta mainstay in the clubs and over the radio, recording prolifically for RCA through 1958 both there and in New York. There werent any more hits, but that didnt stop the firm from producing a live LP by the pianist in 1956 at Atlantas Magnolia Ballroom that throbbed with molten energy. Chet Atkins produced Reds final RCA date in Nashville in 1958, using Reds touring band for backup.A 1959 single for Checker called Get Up Mare and eight tracks for the tiny Jax label preceded the rise of Reds new guise, Dr. Feelgood & the Interns, who debuted on Columbias Okeh subsidiary in 1961 with a self-named rocker, Doctor Feel-Good, that propelled the aging piano pounder into the pop charts for the first time. Its flipside, Mister Moonlight (penned and ostensibly sung by bandmember Roy Lee Johnson), found its way into the repertoire of the Beatles. A subsequent remake of Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo also hit for the good doctor in 1962. The Doc remained with OKeh through 1966, recording with veteran Nashville saxist Boots Randolph in his band on five occasions.Red remained ensconced at Muhlenbrinks Saloon in Atlanta from 1969 through 1979, sandwiching in extensive European tours along the way. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1984 and died the following year.