The musicians who went on to birth swamp pop listened to (and often performed) traditional
Cajun music and Creole music (which later developed into
zydeco) as children, as well as popular country and western (
hillbilly) songs by musicians including
Bob Wills,
Moon Mullican, and
Hank Williams. However, as with other American youth in the mid-1950s, they discovered the alluring new sounds of
rock and roll and
rhythm and blues musicians such as
Elvis Presley,
Little Richard and
Fats Domino. As a result, these teenaged Cajuns and Creoles shifted away from
Louisiana French folk compositions including "
Jolie Blonde", "
Allons a Lafayette", and "Les flammes d'enfer", in favor of singing rock and roll and rhythm and blues compositions in English. At the same time, they switched from
folk instruments such as the
accordion,
fiddle, and iron triangle to modern ones including as the
electric guitar and bass, upright
piano,
saxophone, and drumming trap set. , c. 1963 By the late 1950s, swamp pop musicians had developed their own distinct sound and repertoires. They performed to receptive crowds in local dancehalls encompassing the Southern Club in
Opelousas, Landry's Palladium in
Lafayette, the OST Club in
Rayne, and the Green Lantern in Lawtell. In addition, they released recordings on local record labels, such as
Floyd Soileau's Jin label of
Ville Platte, Eddie Shuler's
Goldband of
Lake Charles, Carol Rachou's La Louisianne of Lafayette,
Huey P. Meaux's Crazy Cajun label of
Houston, and a number of labels owned by J. D. Miller of
Crowley, Louisiana (who also recorded swamp pop tunes for larger national labels, such as Ernie Young's
Excello Records label of
Nashville). Swamp pop musicians often adopted Anglo-American stage names that masked their Cajun
surnames. John Allen Guillot, for example, became
Johnnie Allan, Robert Charles Guidry became
Bobby Charles, Joe Barrios adopted
Joe Barry, Elwood Dugas became Bobby Page, and Terry Gene DeRouen was billed as Gene Terry. Some of these musicians changed their names because they were ashamed of their rural French heritage — a feeling shared at the time by a segment of the Cajun population. But economics motivated most swamp pop musicians: They wanted to sell records not only in southern Louisiana and southeast Texas, but beyond, where the pronunciation of
ethnic surnames sauch as Guillot, Barrios, and DeRouen eluded
record promoters,
disc jockeys, and consumers. Despite its obvious rock and roll and rhythm and blues influences, swamp pop was not devoid of folk characteristics. For example, Bobby Page and the Riff Raffs recorded "
Hippy-Ti-Yo", a bilingual rock and roll version of the traditional
Cajun French song "
Hip et Taiaut" and
Rod Bernard did the same with "Allons danser Colinda", another folk composition. Joe Barry re-recorded his swamp pop hit "I'm A Fool To Care" in French under the title "Je suis bête pour t'aimer". Randy and the Rockets issued "Let's Do The Cajun Twist", an English remake of the Cajun French favorite "Allons a Lafayette". ==Legacy==