May 11, 1959: Detroit's Dave "Baby" Cortez Scores a #1 Hit with "Happy Organ"----The first pop/rock hit to feature the electronic organ as lead instrument!!!

May 11, 1959:
Dave "Baby" Cortez reached the top spot on the Billboard chart with "The Happy Organ"….

Northwestern High School

David Cortez Clowney, known by the stage name Dave "Baby" Cortez was born August 13, 1938 in Detroit, Michigan and was a product of Detroit’s Northwestern High School…

David Clowney was first tenor the Doo Wop group

THE VALENTINES

 As well as with The Jesters

 and The Pearls…

and even sang and played piano with

The Paragons…

He worked with these groups up until 1958…

 Following the breakup of THE VALENTINES, Clowney, renamed himself Dave "Baby" Cortez...

In 1959 he scored with the number one popular hit "Happy Organ."

-- the first pop/rock hit to feature the electronic organ as lead instrument!!!

The song was originally recorded under the name "The Dog and the Cat" with a vocal track that didn't work out. Cortez then added an organ solo and changed the title…

 A follow-up record, "The Whistling Organ," stalled at #61…

 Cortez would find his way back to the Top Ten in 1962 with another organ-heavy instrumental called "Rinky Dink"…

 In 2011, after a 39-year hiatus from recording, Cortez returned with a new album on Norton Records

backed by Lonnie Youngblood and His Bloodhounds, including underground luminary Mick Collins of the Dirtbombs and the Gories…

Dave “Baby” Cortez

 Just another cat outta Detroit!

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