robert charles guidry born on feburary 21, 1938 in abbeville, louisiana, began his musicial career performing with a small band in his home town in abbeville. the band was formed in mt. carmel high school in after school hours. the combo begin playing for high school dances and other events around his home town. while bobby was in high school he wrote a song entitled “later alligator” that would kick up a fuss around the world that this louisiana teenager could never have imagined. “see you later alligator” would firmly establish bobby forever in rock n roll history. how many times have we heard someone say “see you later alligator” ? millions of of times of course not a bad tag to get attached to for one’s life time. just one song with all that attention getting “fame” would be enough, not for bobby charles he turned around and wrote another song that had almost the same impact, with “take it easy greasy”. i can remember in high school everybody saying “take it easy greasy – you got a long way to slide.” as with many things that come under the “magic” of (louisiana swamp lore) and can’t be explained to anyone’s satisfaction was the fact that a thousand miles away up in chicago, ill, leonard chess of “chess” records found out about bobby charles and his “two” novelty compositions. chess signed him to a record contract having never seen bobby charles – not bad for a teenager down in the louisiana back water swamps. the songs were recorded at cosimo’s recording studio on rampart street in new orleans. at that time bobby charles was robert guidry, leonard chess suggested a name change to bobby charles. the song became a local, then regional, then a national hit for bobby charles on the chess label. bobby began touring the usa with chuck berry with his now famous “see you later alligator”. bill haley and his comets recorded a cover version of “later alligator” which became a hit world wide. it is an absolute (historical fact) “see you later alligator” helped to establish bill haley as the father of rock n roll. for the rest of bill haley’s life “see you later alligator” was a part of his show, such was the impact of those “four words” simple as they were, they were as well known and spoken in every day conversation as often as the name “elvis”, and i ought to know i was a teen myself and remember both phrases being spoken as a daily part of our communication, hey did you hear what elvis said when fell in the “swamp” ? what “see you later alligator”. the songs of bobby charles have been recorded by a variety of artist, fats domino recorded bobby’s “walking to new orleans” and made it a hit, ray charles, etta james, lou rawls, clarence “gatemouth” brown, joe cocker, muddy waters, wilson pickett, jackie deshannon, tom jones, kris kristofferson, rita coolidge, bo diddley, delbert mcclinton, david alan coe, and jerry jeff walker have all recorded songs from the pen of bobby charles. today bobby is teaching america’s youth how to protect our environment by creating the childrens program “the solution to pollution”. in may bobby performed at the 3rd annual “ponderosa stomp” in new orleans, it was just like ole times hearing “see you later alligator” sung by a great american and swamp water blues artist. bobby charles and dale hawkins life long buddies together under one roof both having hits on chess records performing on stage at one of the most popular musical events of the year in the the “big easy”. from the cobb webb’s of time those oldie moldie sounds bring back “50′s moments to remember”.

~ Widmarc Clark