16 Facts About Snooks Eaglin

Snooks Eaglin played a wide range of styles of music within the same concert, album, or even song: blues, rock and roll, jazz, country, and Latin.

Snooks Eaglin played songs that came to him on stage, and he took requests from the audience.

Snooks Eaglin lost his sight not long after his first birthday, having been stricken with glaucoma, and spent several years in the hospital with other ailments.

The Flamingoes did not have a bass player, and according to Snooks Eaglin, he played both the guitar and the bass parts simultaneously on his guitar.

Snooks Eaglin stayed with the Flamingoes for several years, until the group disbanded in the mid-1950s.

Snooks Eaglin's first recording was in 1953, playing guitar at a recording session for James "Sugar Boy" Crawford.

The first recordings under his own name were made by Harry Oster, a folklorist from Louisiana State University, who found Snooks Eaglin playing in the streets of New Orleans and recorded him in seven sessions between 1958 and 1960.

Snooks Eaglin played electric guitar in sessions for Imperial, with backup from a band including James Booker on piano and Smokey Johnson on drums.

Snooks Eaglin recorded 26 tracks for Imperial, many of which were songs written by Dave Bartholomew.

Snooks Eaglin's next recorded work was for the Swedish label Sonet in 1971.

Apart from his own work, Snooks Eaglin took part in recording sessions with Professor Longhair in 1971 and 1972.

Snooks Eaglin played guitar on the first album by the Wild Magnolias, recorded in 1973.

Snooks Eaglin joined Nauman and Hammond Scott of Black Top Records in the 1980s and obtained a recording contract with the label.

Snooks Eaglin died of a heart attack at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans on February 18,2009.

Snooks Eaglin had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008 and had been hospitalized for treatment.

For many years, Snooks Eaglin lived in St Rose, a suburb of New Orleans, with his wife, Dorothea.