Return To 60’s Main Menu Recording Artists Of The 60s
JOE HENDERSON
“SNAP YOUR FINGERS”
(Grady Martin, Alex Zanetis)
Todd 1072
No. 8 July 7, 1962
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Joe Henderson (not to be confused with the jazz sartophonist of the same name) was born in Como,
Mississippi, around 1938. Shortly after, he and his family moved to Gary, Indiana, where Joe remained
until he went off on his own to Nashville in 1958. Henderson’s roots were in the Baptist Church, and over
the next few years he performed with various gospel groups like the Fairfield Four.
In the early ’60s, Henderson came to the attention of the disk dealers at Todd Records. Some initial
waxings, such as the silky smooth “Baby Don’t Leave Me,” sounded fine to those ears that managed a listen,
but all of Joe’s Todd sides failed to click–until “Snap Your Fingers.”
“Snap Your Fingers”, a catchy, hook-laden number with an uncanny Brook Benton sound, became
Henderson’s lone chart-shaker. A now-collectible album was released, and for the next two years, the
Todd
label issued a little pile of soulful sides. “Big Love” (#74, 1962), “The Search Is Over” (#94, 1962), and
others were slick yet sincerely soulful. Apparently, these disks also sounded a little too much like the
then-popular and well-established Brook Benton.
In 1964, the prestigious Kapp label, then Ric Records, gave Henderson a try at the charts, but he fared no
better with these outings.