Jerry Byrne

Gerard Donald "Jerry" Byrne was an American rock and roll singer from New Orleans, best known for his 1958 single "Lights Out". The son of Charles and Mayme Byrne, he was born and raised in the Irish quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, and, like his cousin Mac Rebennack, became strongly influenced by African-American rhythm and blues. He sang with Rebennack's band, the Loafers, who began performing in local bars and nightclubs. On one occasion in 1957, Byrne joined in with his hero Little Richard on stage in Slidell, Louisiana, and impressed Harold Battiste, then A&R man at Specialty Records, who signed him up soon afterwards to record. In February 1958, Byrne recorded the song "Lights Out" – a "blistering rocker" written by Rebennack with his friend Seth David – at Cosimo Matassa's studio, with a band that included Edgar Blanchard, Frank Fields, Art Neville, and Charles "Hungry" Williams. Harold Battiste played saxophone and produced the session. Released on the Specialty label, the record became a regional hit but failed to make the national charts. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_B...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)