EXPIRED: 09/11/10 – Carlton “King” Coleman, 78, was, in the late 1950’s, a radio DJ at Miami station WMBM who happened to be in the right place at the right time.
And that place was near James Brown.
The year was 1959. James Brown wanted to capitalize on the success of the recent dance craze songs sweeping the nation – especially a bunch of songs about the new dance called the Mash Potato. For his stage show, Brown wanted to record a mashed potatoes-themed instrumental. However, his record company balked at the idea and wouldn’t allow it.
So Brown went behind his record companies back and recorded the track – with Brown on piano – at a smaller studio. The song was called “(Do The) Mashed Potatoes” and Brown played piano and shouted the song’s title. To prevent Brown’s voice from being recognized, the engineer overdubbed the shouted vocals with Coleman’s voice. They released the song under the name Nat Kendrick & the Swans to prevent anyone finding out it was James Brown on the track (Kendrick was Brown’s drummer).
uRdead2me 