Clarence "Frogman" Henry (born March 19, 1937, Algiers, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American rhythm and blues singer with impressive longevity, taking him from New Orleans to worldwide popularity via chart hits and movie soundtracks. The warm, happy sounds he created have spanned the generations winning new fans and retaining the original ones.

Clarence was born in New Orleans on March 19, 1937. His family moved to Algiers, in West New Orleans, in 1948 when the rents went up. Coming from a large family - 4 sisters and 1 brother - he himself has 10 children, 17 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. "My daddy played all kinds of string instruments, and the harmonica and piano - I don't care what, my daddy played it. My mamma kept us in the church, so we had to go to Sunday School."

At high school in Algiers he became well-known for his renditions of Fats Domino and Professor Longhair material, so his music teacher, William Houston, put a band of high school kids with Bobby Mitchell (of I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday fame) and Clarence played as a member of the Toppers for about three years. "I was playing piano and trombone and Steve Gabriel and I alternated; he'd play trumpet and I'd play piano, then I'd play trombone and he'd play piano."

Clarence graduated from high school in 1955. "By 1956 when I recorded Ain't Got No Home I had my own band. [Previously] I [had been] working for Eddie Smith, in his band."


Fats Domino and Professor Longhair were young Henry's main influences while growing up. When Henry played in talent shows, he dressed like Longhair and wore a wig with braids on both sides.
His trademark croak, utilized to the maximum on his 1956 debut hit "Ain't Got No Home," earned Henry his nickname and jump-started a career that endures to this day. "You Always Hurt the One You Love" and "(I Don't Know Why) But I Do", both from 1961, were his other big hits.
Henry opened eighteen concerts for The Beatles across the U.S. and Canada in 1964, but his main source of income came from the Bourbon Street strip in New Orleans, where he played for nineteen years. His name could still draw hordes of tourists long after his hit-making days had ended.
Clarence Henry's pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In April 2007, The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame honored "Frogman" for his contributions to Louisiana music by inducting him into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame.

Henry's trademark song "Ain't Got No Home" was featured on the soundtrack of the 1982 film Diner. It was used in a famous bathtub scene in the cult movie The Lost Boys with actor Corey Haim singing along to it. It achieved fresh notoriety in the 1990s through its use as the "Homeless Update" theme music on The Rush Limbaugh Show, and is still used as such as late as 2008. The song is in the movie Casino playing in the background as Joe Pesci asks Robert DeNiro for a 50K chip marker. Jimmy Buffett references Henry in his song "Saxophones."

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