The “Golden Hits Of The 60s”
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ERNIE K-DOE
“MOTHER-IN-LAW”
(Allen Toussaint)
Minit 623
No. 1 May 22, 1961
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He was a wild one, that Ernie K-Doe–till the end. Often dressed in iridescent apparel and huge gold rings,
he’d jump about like a banshee during his unsettling sets, flippin’ and trippin’ and rippin’ perfectly new
suits. Even with an audience of 15 or less, Ernie K has been known to let loose. “I don’t like to brag,” he
told Almost Slim, author of Walking to New Orleans, “but I still believe I can out-perform any man in
show business. Ernie K-Doe can stop any show at the drop of a hat.”
“Mother-in-Law” is possibly the finest record to ever emerge from the bubbling New Orleans scene of the
early ’60s, and Ernie performed it with conviction. ‘”Mother-in-Law” wasn’t a hard song to sing,” he told
Dave Hoekstra of the Chicago Tribune, “because my mother-in-law was staying in my house. I was
married 19 years, and it was 19 years of pure sorrow. When I sang, ‘Satan should be her name,’ I meant
that … Oooh, she was a lowdown.”
The way Ernie remembers it, he literally found “Mother-in Law” in an overstuffed garbage can: “Allen
[Toussaint] had wrote it and thrown it away … I saw it in the garbage can and pulled it out. I looked at the
words and said, ‘Hey man, this is good. I want to do it.”‘ Others, like the tune’s creator, have disputed
Ernie’s tale.
He was born Ernest Kador, Jr., on February 22, 1936, in New Orleans, the ninth of eleven offspring. His
dad was a Baptist minister. For unreported reasons, Ernie’s aunt on his mom’s side raised him, and
religiously so. He sang in his Home Baptist Church, and toured with gospel groups while still a student
at Booker T. Washington High.
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When he was 17, Ernie moved to Chicago, where he recorded his first solo and secular sides for United
Records (none of the four cuts have been officially released). Back in New Orleans in 1954, K-Doe and
his Blue Diamonds began playing neighborhood clubs and bars. Savoy Record’s Lee Magid spotted the
act at the Tijuana Club and set up a session for them: only one single (“Honey Love” b/w “No Money”)
was released, though Specialty (“Do Baby Do”) and Ember (“Tuff Enough”) also issued some K-Doe sides.
Minit Records was set up by Joe Banashak in 1960; Ernie’s manager, Larry McKinley, was allegedly part-
owner of the operation. “Mother-in-Law” was Ernie’s third single for the fledgling label. It was Benny
Spellman–later noted for “Lipstick Traces” (#80, 1962) and the still later Rolling Stones revival “Fortune
Teller”–who provided the tunes hook with his deep intonation, in all the proper places, of the long-drawed
phrase “mother-in law.”
For the next couple of years, his 45s filed on to the charts– “Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta” (#53, 1961), “I Cried My
Last Tear” (#69, 1961) b/w “A Certain Girl” (#71 ), and “Popeye Joe” (#99, 1962). Even the ones that
didn’t sell well were solidly-crafted, and are now highly collectible efforts. Eventually, his releases
became fewer and farther between.
“Oh, Ernie K-Doe slipped up,” Ernie admitted to Almost Slim. “But I have to believe that I’m going to the
top. The only thing I know is singing and dancing. Ernie K-Doe is going back to the top. That’s all
there is to it.”