Frank Lucas (New Album Alert! New #1 Single! )
Daddy B. Nice's #94 ranked Southern Soul Artist
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"The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling"
October 1, 2018:
New Album Alert!
Buy Frank Lucas's new MY BEST TO YOU album at CD Baby.
MY BEST TO YOU
1. The Ninga Ning Song (The Singing Ding-a-Ling)
2. Hot Chocolate Love
3. Don't Put out the Fire
4. Raining from My Eyes
5. I Left My Heart in Louisiana
6. Get Ya Groove On
7. Groove 2
8. Wanna Rock Ya Body
9. Mary Had a Baby
10. Good Thing Man
11. The D.L.B. Gt Man
12. Lucas Love Train
13. Hot N' Horny
14. Time to Move Along
Daddy B. Nice notes:
The "southern soul tent" promulgated by your Daddy B. Nice includes far-flung, seldom-heard recording artists like Jesse James ("I Lost My Baby On Facebook" --- #1 2014) and Charles "Big Daddy" Stallings ("In Love By Yourself," --- #1 2011). Frank Lucas is such an artist. His "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling" rivals Clarence Carter's "Strokin'" in pure, giddy and enraptured male narcissism.
His new song, "Lucas Love Train," his best in years, couldn't be more different. Done in a folk-singing style, it recalls the protest songs of Ritchie Havens ("Freedom") Buffy Sainte-Marie and Cat Stevens.
See #1 Single October 2018!
As of this writing, neither of the two new singles from this album are on YouTube. The first is a concert version of "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling" called "The Ninga-Ning Song," noteworthy for the sounds of the obviously schooled and enthusiastic,audience. Most of the verses are pared away in favor of the rhythm track and Lucas's special brand of scat-singing, which, if you really hate it, could be described as the sound of a dentist's drill. But if you love the original--the sheer "nonsense-song" craziness of it--you'll be waving your finger high above your head as you dance around in circles.
The balance of the set is material selected from Lucas's Dirty Ol' Man and American Bluester CD's.
This is a significant return to form from one of southern soul's most marginal and overlooked artists.
Buy Frank Lucas's new MY BEST TO YOU album and mp3's at CD Baby.
Shop for all of Frank Lucas's albums in Daddy B. Nice's CD Store.
September 1, 2014:
Frank Lucas debuts at #94 on Daddy B. Nice's Top 100 21st Century Southern Soul Countdown
See Chart
Listen to Frank Lucas singing the definitive version of "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling" on YouTube while you read.
September 1, 2014: Daddy B. Nice's Profile
Frank Lucas is one of those hard-to-define niche artists whose achievements are too easily dismissed and--in the case of Lucas's carnality--even shunned or abhorred by the same genre (southern soul) that celebrates sensuality.
On the other hand, it's likely Lucas was "driven" to southern soul and its underground network of independent radio stations (where even in "friendly" territory he's sometimes denied) by the Pollyannish rejections of the majority of mainstream stations. (Hard to believe in the age of hiphop content, but that's another story.)
"The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling" is the ultimate male mating call, like a rooster crowing, or like a big bull elk trumpeting in the high country, but this celebration of alpha-male ego is tempered, as it were, by the joy and hilarity the self-congratulation brings out in the singer.
In my favorite video of Frank Lucas, he's gyrating in high-stop sneakers, matching zebra shirt and do-rag, looking vaguely reptilian, definitely someone you'd cross the street to avoid after dark.
It's as if Lucas himself were a spectacle, or as if--because of the over-the-top nature of the lyrics--he becomes a spectacle in the very act of distilling the words to the audience without breaking down or cracking up.
The singer seems to be--MUST be, you think--laughing at himself. Nevertheless, on the surface at least, the singer is playing it straight, letting it all hang out, rhyming--
"...my ding-a-ling"
with--
"...I'm proud of that thing"
--with an earnestness that belies any detachment, much less self-reflection. And that, too, contributes to the legend of Frank Lucas and "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling."
Because the song really has become a kind of "cult song," making your Daddy B. Nice and countless other fans of the tune revel in the very unlikeliness of it all, the against-the-grain braggadocio of Frank Lucas coming out of nowhere to score an underground hit in the best risque tradition of Marvin Sease, Clarence Carter, Bobby Rush and Chick Willis.
Whether you love or hate the singer's blissful state of "being-full-of-himself," you can't ignore it. The melody's too catchy, the lyrics too explicit (or kitschy, depending on your point of view), the instrumental track too soulful.
(It's from the classic Rascals hit, written and performed by front-man Felix Cavaliere, "Groovin'". Betty Wright also used "Groovin's" instrumental track for her tale of first love, "Tonight Is The Night.")
Lost in the X-rated daydreams the song engenders is the masterful job Frank does on vocals. Covering up none of his twangy, somewhat tinny tenor, instead milking it for all it's worth, Lucas lapses (in a well-calculated manner) into long, almost satirically drawn-out notes and--even better--nonsense-syllable scat phrases that endear his scruffy style to the listener even more. "The Good Thing Man," from a vocalist's standpoint, is even more impressive.
Listen to Frank Lucas singing "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling" on YouTube.
Listen to Frank Lucas singing "Good Thing Man" on YouTube.
The Original Good Thing Man Single.
Dirty Ol' Man CD.
--Daddy B. Nice
About Frank Lucas (New Album Alert! New #1 Single! )
Frank Lucas's "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling" first charted on….
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "Breaking" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
1. "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling" -------------Frank Lucas
Bargain-Priced Dirty Ol' Man CD
Much enamored with Frank Lucas, your Daddy B. Nice discovered and subsequently recommended Lucas's "The Good Thing Man," recorded years earlier, to his readers:
5. "The Original Good Thing Man"-------------Frank Lucas
Bargain-Priced Dirty Ol' Man CD, MP3's
By coincidence, during the same time frame, Daddy B. Nice began writing "capsule reviews" with his charted singles, and at the end of the year "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling charted near the very top of the "Top 25" annual listing with the following commentary….
TOP 25 SOUTHERN SOUL SONGS OF 2009
6. "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling" ---------Frank Lucas
"I'm looking for a cherry, baby,
On my banana split. . . " says it all, but Frank Lucas just ain't gonna let that go.
The song alternates between the romantic (we're talking "romantic" from a masculine perspective here, ladies) and the funny. Romantic when it best approximates the feverish buzz of a man about to do the deed. Funny when it goes over the top and you can imagine the woman bursting into laughter.
The people in the "business" who are turning up their noses at the silliness and/or the "X-rated-ness" of the lyrics are the same people who were turning up their noses when Marvin Sease's "Candy Licker" and "Hoochie Momma" first came out--and they refused to play him, too.
The great melody and atmosphere are derived from The Rascals' "Groovin'" and even more recently from Betty Wright's "Tonight Is The Night."
>Bargain-Priced Dirty Ol' Man CD
In the "Year (2009) In Review," Daddy B. Nice wrote:
It was a year of great comedy records, from Unckle Eddie's "I'm Gone Tell Momma" with schoolgirl-sounding Crystal Dylite to Frank Lucas's ode to Don Juans (or Tiger Woods?) everywhere, "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling," not to mention Mel Waiter's wry assessment of 2009's economy, "Everything's Going Up."
…And "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling" was awarded:
Best Out-Of-Left-Field Song: Frank Lucas
"The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling"---Frank Lucas
Frank Lucas on YouTube:
Listen to Frank Lucas singing "The Good Thing Man" Live Onstage in Danville, Virginia on YouTube.
Listen to Frank Lucas singing "The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling (Rap remix)" on YouTube.
Listen to Frank Lucas singing "The Good Thing Man" on YouTube.
Poonanny connection:
Poonanny, the legendary, chitlin'-circuit, novelty-song recording artist who passed away in August of 2014, released a song called "My Ding A Ling" on his BRAND NEW CADILLAC album.
See Poonanny Artist Guide.
Honorary "B" Side
"The Good Thing Man (Single)"
The Man With The Singing Ding-A-Ling
CD: Dirty Ol' Man
Label: Frank Lucas / Jamstone
Dirty Ol' Man
The Good Thing Man (Single)
CD: The Original Good Thing Man Single
The Original Good Thing Man Single
Lucas Love Train
CD: My Best To You
The Ninga Ning Song (Singing Ding-A-Ling Live)
The Original Good Thing Man (CD)
I Left My Heart In Louisiana
CD: American Bluester
American Bluester
Don't Put Out The Fire
I Wanna Get Personal
Mary Had A Baby
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