Hey Delbert! We Wanna Know If You'll Be On Our Blog

Delbert McClinton may be best-known among other singer/songwriters (Stinky writes), despite winning 4 Grammys and releasing 20 solo albums. While still in his teens, McClinton and his band played desegregated Texas roadhouses. They backed blues artists passing through (Bo Diddley, Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters), and accompanied Jimmy Reed and Sonny Boy Williamson on short Southern tours.

Delbert’s first taste of international fame came when he played the harmonica on Bruce Channel’s “Hey Baby”, which reached #1 in the US and #2 in the UK in 1962. At the time, pick-up bands were more likely to have horns than harmonica, but Channel insisted on Delbert.

I had never really even been out of Texas, (Delbert told Lonestar Music Magazine.) So to go to England was a big deal. As for meeting the Beatles… we were all on common ground at that point. We were the same age, we had the same dreams, we were going to do the same things, and on and on and on. And it wasn’t until after I’d been back from over there, maybe a year before the Beatles broke it wide open, that John (Lennon) mentioned to somebody in an interview that he was encouraged by the harmonica on “Hey Baby.” So that has been romanticized now to the point where “I taught him everything he knew.”

McClinton’s band The Ron-Dels put out a single Delbert wrote (“If You Really Want Me To, I’ll Go”) that reached the Top 20 in some cities. They also covered “Hey Baby”, augmenting Delbert’s harmonica with 60’s-era organ.

Delbert’s friend Glen Clark had moved to Laurel Canyon and urged Delbert to join him, explaining that the artists’ community was a place where audiences were hungry for singer/songwriters. Delbert’s girlfriend had a car and a divorce settlement, so they made the trip. “And just like that, we became hippies,” as Delbert recalls. In California, Delbert further developed his unique mix of Texas Roadhouse Blues, country, R&B, and soul.

The duo Delbert & Glen released several albums. 1972’s Clean was produced by T-Bone Burnett, and 1973’s Subject To Change included Delbert’s “Let Me Be Your Lover", which was covered by Dr. Hook. Glen Clark was also a solid songwriter: his "I Feel The Burden (Being Lifted Off My Shoulders)" became a hit for Rita Coolidge. After a brief thirty-year break, Delbert & Glen released Blind, Crippled, & Crazy in 2013.

The Blues Brothers covered Delbert's “B Movie Box Car Blues”, which was pretty racy for the time with a line that sounds like, “She said she sure could dig it if I rode her.” Never mind that the lyric sheet reads: “She parked inside of town, laid the Rambler down, she said she sure could dig if I'd knew her”. After regaling his intended with tales of various hookups in a Rambler, a DeSoto, & the titular boxcar with “a hobo woman”, Delbert brings it all home with: “Look for me Sunday, gonna be there honey, with something special just for you.”

Yeah, a mouthful of hot death.

At Belushi & Aykroyd’s insistence, Delbert appeared on Saturday Night Live and performed Chuck Berry’s “Talking ‘Bout You”, which is included in Volume 1 of The Best Of Delbert McClinton. Delbert was linked to another SNL alum when his song “Weatherman" was featured in Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day. Volume 2 to follow!