Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price Cover (with lyrics)

"Stagger Lee" is the derivative of a popular American folk song first published way back in 1911. It was apparently based on a real-life story about the notorious pimp Lee Shelton, known as “Stag” who operated around one of the seedy St Louis districts in the late 1890s. The lyrics have varied across the many recorded versions since that time, but it seems the original storyline of the gambling-related cheating allegation and subsequent cold-blooded shooting murder of Billy Lyons by Stagger Lee has been retained in most. It certainly was the theme in the very successful release of the song by Lloyd Price in 1958, a version which rose to the top of both the R&B and US pop charts in early 1959 and is ranked at number 456 on Rolling Stone’s Greatest Songs of All Time List. The song also charted well around the globe, reaching number seven on the UK Singles Chart. I hope you enjoy my cover of this great song which uses a short, sharp, and rather frantic musical arrangement to dramatise the impact of this heinous crime against “poor old Billy”.