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Slim Harpo

Slim Harpo

I Got Love If You Want It

The Louisiana harmonica stylist whose swamp blues singles crossed into the pop charts and the sets of British rock bands.

APPLE MUSIC

I Got Love If You Want It

Slim Harpo

About

MOODS · swamp blues · harmonica-driven · laid-back groove · Southern roadhouse · R&B charting · rock-adjacent · unhurried vocal drawl · danceable shuffle · 1960s blues revival

BIOGRAPHY

Slim Harpo, born Isiah (or James Isaac) Moore in Lobdell, Louisiana, began performing in Baton Rouge bars as 'Harmonica Slim' before adopting his lasting stage name at his wife's suggestion. Working with producer J.D. 'Jay' Miller in Crowley, Louisiana, he debuted on Excello Records in 1957 with 'I'm a King Bee' backed with 'I Got Love If You Want It.' He broke into the national charts with 'Rainin' in My Heart' in 1961 and hit number one on the R&B chart with the largely instrumental 'Baby Scratch My Back' in 1966. He kept running a trucking business through the decade, recruited fellow bluesman Lightnin' Slim for his touring band in 1968, and was preparing his first European tour and new sessions when he died of a heart attack in Baton Rouge in 1970.

WHY THEY'RE COOL

Slim Harpo helped define swamp blues with a harmonica-driven sound flexible enough to land on Billboard's pop and R&B charts alike, and his songs were quickly picked up and reworked by British and American rock groups in the 1960s. 'Baby Scratch My Back' took him to number one on the R&B chart, and his catalog's pull across the Atlantic, playing venues like the Fillmore East, marked him as one of the more commercially successful blues artists of his era.

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