Legendary New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint has died. He was 77 and reportedly suffered a heart attack after a concert in Madrid, Spain.
Best known for tracks like “Working In A Coalmine,” “Southern Nights,” and “Fortune Teller,” Toussaint was one of the key figures in southern R&B. He began playing piano when he was 7, and, in 1960, took a job at Mint Records, where he masterminded a number of the company’s biggest hits, including Irma Thomas’ “Ruler Of My Heart,” a track that was later re-recorded by Otis Redding as “Pain In My Heart.”
Toussaint was drafted into the military a few years later, but was discharged in 1965. That’s when he started working with Lee Dorsey, who famously recorded a number of Toussaint tracks, including “Coalmine.” Dorsey also had hits with Toussaint’s “Ride Your Pony,” “Everyhing I Do Gon’ Be Funky,” and “Get Out Of My Life Woman.”
Many of the tracks Toussaint wrote would become famous not through his own performances, but by acts like Robert Plant and The Doors. “Fortune Teller,” for instance, was written by Toussaint in the ’60s but was subsequently covered by The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Hollies, and more. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant even covered it on their excellent 2007 LP Raising Sand.
In the 1970s, Toussaint switched to a funkier style, working with New Orleans acts like The Meters, Dr. John, B.J. Thomas, and Solomon Burke. He arranged parts of several records by The Band, including 1971’s Cahoots and parts of The Last Waltz film.