Jay Chevalier

Joe J. Chevalier, known as Jay Chevalier (born March 4, 1936), is a singer and songwriter from the U.S. state of Louisiana who has achieved success in several musical genres since the late 1950s. A pioneer of rockabilly music, he is best known within Louisiana for his songs based on politics, sports, and his love for his home state. The first "Official State Troubadour," he is an inductee to the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, and the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame

Chevalier was born in Forest Hill near Lecompte and reared in the community of Midway in Rapides Parish just south of Alexandria, Louisiana. He claims to have grown up "poor and naked in the piney wood hills along the banks of Bayou Boeuf." In 1954, Chevalier enlisted in the United States Marine Corps where he formed his first band, which appeared in 1957 on Jimmy Dean's national day-time television program on CBS. Upon his discharge from the military, Chevalier recorded his first record, "Rockin [!!] Roll Angel". Gene Vincent had just recorded "Be-Bop-A-Lula", and the two became good friends and worked together in Norfolk, Virginia. Vincent died in 1971 at the age of thirty-six.

In 1959, three-time Louisiana Governor Earl Kemp Long, who was barred by the state constitution from succeeding himself, ran for lieutenant governor on an intra-party ticket headed by another former governor, James A. Noe of Monroe, the owner of KNOE-TV. Intrigued by the flamboyant character, Chevalier composed and recorded The Ballad of Earl K. Long which was initially banned from radio play because it was suspected to be a political ploy though Chevalier had not personally met Long. Within a short time the song found its way onto the airways and was enthusiastically received. It sold more than 100,000 copies in the state. Long lost his bid for lieutenant governor in December 1959 to Taddy Aycock, but he rebounded the next summer with a victory over Harold B. McSween for Louisiana's 8th congressional district seat. Long died before he could be seated, and McSween, the choice of the Democratic State Central Committee, took the seat after all.