Danny White (July 6, 1931 – January 5, 1996) was an influential R&B singer and bandleader who worked in the New Orleans area.
Joseph Daniel White was born at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of seven children. He grew up in the Hollygrove neighborhood and the Seventh Ward. His show business career didn’t start until he returned from armed forces duty in California in the early 50s. And the 50s in the Crescent City was a good place to be if you wanted to be a singer as the city, was jumping with good time rhythm and blues. White got a residency at the Golden Cadillac club with his band the Cavaliers which lead to a stint on the much more lucrative tourist area of Bourbon Street at the Sho Bar. He started recording around 1958 when the great Huey Smith took him to see Johnny Vincent of Ace records. White’s sides were never issued at the time but have appeared in later CD’s.
During 1962, Connie LaRocca, who was a restaurant owner, had decided to start her own label which she called Frisco, and hired the talented singer/songwriter Al Reed to be her A & R man. He’d written a song called Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye which White and producer Wardell Q turned into a lovely blues ballad. It was a big hit locally and all over the Gulf Coast and has proved to be an enduring evergreen covered by a host of artists over the years. A lot of White’s following Frisco tracks were attempts to recreate the hit, but none of the came close to having the same magic. A few of the better sides were “Loan Me A Handkerchief, which was leased out to ABC and “Love Is A Way Of Life” which reportedly sold over 100,000 copies in 1964.
After the failure of these 45s to get White back in the charts, LaRocca agreed that White could try his hand cutting in Memphis, as DJ Hal Atkins urged in 1964. Production was handled by the Hayes/Porter team who not only supplied some fine material but also brought the best out of White’s limited vocal range. “Can’t Do Nothing Without You” is a great southern soul ballad, with White snarling and growling his way through the lyric in fine style. But not even with Atco distributing the 45 in 1965 did it break through.
In 1966 LaRocca closed Frisco down but White stayed in Memphis with Hayes and Porter, holding another session, this time at Stax. The excellent double sider “Keep My Woman Home” & “I’m Dedicating My Life” was leased out to Atlas records in New York to a resounding silence from buyers mainly because DJs did not play the record so it did not sell. However it gained popularity in U.K. discotheques, prompting British label Sue Records to issue it in the U.K., but it also failed to chart there.
Integration, lack of successful record sales, and the British Invasion led White to disband the Cavaliers in 1966. White club owners had stopped booking black R&B bands because they feared black patrons would alienate their white clientele. R&B was pushed off of radio playlists by British bands emulating their black R&B heroes. In 1968 Allen Toussaint brought White back into the studio to record two sides, "Natural Soul Brother" and "One Way Love Affair", which were released by Nashville record man Shelby Singleton's SSS International with little notice. Two more sides were recorded the following year, possibly in New York City or Washington, D.C., for Kashe Records. By 1969 White had left performing to manage the seminal New Orleans funk band The Meters, whose funky times were just beginning.
White left show business altogether in 1972 moved to Washington DC where he worked as a sales manager for a furniture company. Over the next two decades he returned to New Orleans periodically to visit family and occasionally appear on oldies shows. He considered the idea of returning there and open a booking agency, but he died January 5, 1996, after suffering a stroke. His music still lives on particularly in the Crescent City where several of his sides are always popular on oldies radio stations.
(Edited from Sir Shambling, Wikipedia & Ace liner notes)