Rock 'n' roll accepted me and paid me, even though I loved the big bands I went that way because I wanted a home of my own. I had a family. I had to raise them. Let's don't leave out the economics. No way.

He never ever learned to read or write so well, but he could play his guitar like he was ringing a bell.

When I was a kid I used to scoot under the table, and whenever company would come around you know or my sisters or parents would tell me, go under the table and I'd do it because it was entertainment for the family or aunts or whatever. And one time at the Paramount when I first did it, you know, Brooklyn Paramount, I did it in the act during an instrumental and it got a big ovation and so I coined it as one of the things I should do in the act. And since I've been doing it.

Prejudice doesn't make me mad. It just - I guess 'pisses me off' is the word.

All in all it was my intention to hold both the black and the white clientele by voicing the different kinds of songs in their customary tongues.

Could you imagine the way I felt, I couldn't unfasten her safety belt. All the way home I held a grudge, for the safety belt that wouldn't budge.

You don't just go to the studio and say, 'I'm going to write a hit.' It becomes a hit when people like your compositions.