Too soon?<\/p>\n
Probably, but that didn’t keep it from becoming a hit.<\/p>\n
In 1957, the world was caught up in one of the worst pandemics in American history. The “Asian Flu” (so called because it originated in Singapore) was responsible for about two million deaths worldwide, and given the world’s population at the time, that wasn’t that far behind COVID-19’s toll.<\/p>\n
New Orleans-based rock and roll pioneer Huey “Piano” Smith thought that sounded like a pretty great idea for a song.<\/p>\n
And I suppose he was right, because “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” became a decent-sized hit that summer, even though Smith released it right when the pandemic reached the United States, and even though the highest death toll was among teenagers and young twenty-somethings, the primary audience for rock and roll.<\/p>\n