"This Should Go On Forever" is a popular song of the

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rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

genre known as swamp pop. It was written by J. D. "Jay" Miller and Bernard Jolivette

Background

King Karl (real name Bernard Jolivette), a black Creole swamp pop musician, composed the song around 1958. (Producer J. D. "Jay" Miller is listed as a co-writer even though he did not actually help to compose the tune.) Karl intended to record the song for the Excello label of Nashville, for which he, his bandmate Guitar Gable (Gabriel Perrodin), and their band the Musical Kings had recorded other swamp pop compositions. Excello did not like the song, however, and as a result Karl's version at first remained unreleased. In the meantime,

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...

swamp pop musician

Rod Bernard Rod Bernard () was an American singing, singer who helped to pioneer the musical genre known as "swamp pop", which combined New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun and black Louisiana Creole people, Creole music. He ...

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Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, heard Karl and his group perform the tune at the local Moonlight Inn nightclub. When Bernard learned that Excello had no intention of releasing the song, he asked Karl if he could record it for

Floyd Soileau James Floyd Soileau (born November 2, 1938) is an American record producer. Biography Soileau was born in Faubourg, a small community between Ville Platte and Washington, Louisiana. He grew up speaking Cajun French and did not speak English ...

's newly formed Jin label of Ville Platte, Louisiana. Karl approved, and Bernard and his group, the Twisters, recorded the song that year for Jin, using the same studio — Miller's MasterTrak Studio of

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, Louisiana — that Karl and his band had used to record their still-unreleased original version. In late 1958, Bernard's version became a regional hit in south Louisiana and

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, and, licensed to the Argo label of

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. In the US, it rose to the top 20 on the Hot 100 and R&B charts in 1959. Surprised by the song's success, Excello quickly released King Karl's original version. Other group, sought to record the song, by then, however, the general public regarded Bernard's version as the authoritative version. As a result, it was Bernard who appeared on American Bandstand, The

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Show, and elsewhere.

Chart positions

Cover versions

Other swamp pop groups, released their own versions of the song to capitalize on Bernard's success including: *Doug Charles and the

Boogie Kings The Boogie Kings (also known as The Fabulous Boogie Kings) are an American Cajun swamp pop and blue-eyed soul group. History The band formed in Eunice, Louisiana in 1955 consisting of teenaged members Doug Ardoin, Skip Morris, Bert Miller and Harr ...

*Gene Terry and the Downbeats *It has also been covered by Mike Ladd on Shadow Records NR8816 and is credited only to "J. Miller" on the 45 label.

Legacy

Today, "This Should Go On Forever" is considered an early classic of the swamp pop genre and is frequently performed by live bands in

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and

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in south Louisiana and east Texas.

References

Sources

* Shane K. Bernard, ''Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues'' (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996). * John Broven, ''South to Louisiana: Music of the Cajun Bayous'' (Gretna: Pelican, 1983). {{Authority control Music of Louisiana 1958 singles Swamp pop music Songs written by J. D. "Jay" Miller 1958 songs Argo Records singles