Terry Clement and The Tune Tones- Teenage Rock

Terry Clement was born May 5th 1934 in Evangeline, Louisiana. His interest in music came from his family who were all musicians. He grew up loving Nathan Abshire and The Pinegrove boys.

He and his brother started their first band in 1949 as The Clement Brothers. Their first show was at the Silver Dollar Club in Crowley. They called themselves the Rhythmic Five and patterned their music after Nathan Abshire.

Terry first recorded for J.D. Miller's Feature label. Their first big song on the label was "Diggy Liggy Lo" in 1954. Terry's brother Purvis could not speak French all that well so he used "diggy,diggy,do" during some of song passeges and the hit was derivived from that.

In 1960 Terry recorded for Miller's rock and roll label; Rocko. The label started life as Rocket  in 1958 and was aimed at the rock and roll market. After recording rock and roll and swamp pop for Rocko, Miller began using the label for a harder form of R&B. Terry recorded for various Miller labels such as Cajun Classics, Zynn and Kajun. 

Terry was one of the most versatile performers recording artists to come out of south Louisiana. He recorded not only Cajun french sides but also recorded some great rock and roll sides.

It was a difficult time for Cajun music as Terry remembers-
                              
"Rock and Roll and swamp pop almost killed the cajun music clubs. Nobody wanted French bands. To survive we started playing rockabilly and swamp pop."





Terry Clement and the Tune Tones released "Sugar Bee" backed by "Teenage Rock" in 1960 on Rocko 517. The A side is a take on the Goldband hit of the same name. The B side is a rock and roll instrumental similar to the cuts Goldband was releasing. With its driving beat and accordion melody it is a fusion of Cajun and rock and roll that a lot of artists were blending at the time. On the label for the 45 it lists the author of the song as J. West. But this was one of a couple of pseudonyms that belonged to one Joseph D. Miller.

After his 1960's recordings for Miller, Terry's next release for Miller wasn't until the 1980's for the Kajun label. In 1984 Terry released a tribute album to Nathan Abshire on Miller's Kajun label. In addition to his recordings for Miller, he also did recordings for Khoury and Goldband.  He was inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Fame in 1993.

                                   
                                      Terry Clement and The Tune Tones
                                                  Rocko 517
                                               "Teenage Rock"
                                         Recorded 1961 in Crowley,La.



Resources
Acadian All Star Special
Early Cajun Music blog
John Broven- South to Louisiana