Born in 1943 in Crowley, La., the home of J.D. Miller's legendary recording studio, Bobby Allen was bound to pick up a finger-lickin'-good bluesy lick or two, hanging as he did with some of the stalwarts of the Excello sound, like Lazy Lester and Lightnin' Slim. But it wasn't so much the swampy Spanish moss that inspired Allen first big single – think Christmas mistletoe instead. Allen's "Please Santa Bring My Baby Back," with its B-side "Lonely Christmas Tears," which he recorded in Crowley around 1960 for Excello subsidiary label Soul Sound, is as much a part of the holiday canon as Charles Brown's "Please Come Home for Christmas" or Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa." Then, backed by his band the Exceptions, which featured Excello session regulars the Moore brothers, Allen created a funk masterpiece and future cult classic with "Soul Chicken," b/w "I Apologize." A mainstay soul frontman in the Acadiana area for years when not working a day job as a mechanical maintenance man at a Lafayette utility company, Bobby Allen now performs frequently these days with Lil' Buck Sinegal and the Top Cats.

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