Redbone – Witch Queen of New Orleans

“The Witch Queen of New Orleans” is a 1971 song by Redbone. The single was released from Redbone’s third album Message from a Drum, which is also titled The Witch Queen of New Orleans in its European release. The song peaked at No. 2 in the United Kingdom and No. 21 in the United States.

Embed

Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed.

Redbone - 'The Witch Queen Of New Orleans'

Redbone - 'The Witch Queen Of New Orleans'02:49

“The Witch Queen of New Orleans” is about a 19th-century practitioner of voodoo from New Orleans named Marie Laveau, referred to in the song lyrics as “Marie la Voodoo veau”. The song was written by the two Native American brothers of the group Redbone, Lolly Vegas and Pat Vegas. It shows influences from New Orleans R&B and swamp pop.

The song was released in 1971 with “Chant: 13th Hour” as the B-side in the US. It debuted in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in November 1971 in the US where it reach a peak of No. 21 in 1972 (chart date February 19, 1972). The song reached No. 2 in the UK single chart in October 1971 behind Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May”.

Redbone, their name a nod to their heritage, was a Native American band from Coalinga, California, led by the brothers Pat and Candido (“Lolly”) Vasquez. They were managed by Bumps Blackwell, who guided Little Richard and Sam Cooke to success. To avert discrimination, he convinced the brothers to use a different last name, so they became known as Pat and Lolly Vegas. Redbone earned an audience playing clubs on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles at the same time The Doors were on that scene.

Views: 0