This time it was "Ride the Donkey," a novelty hit that is sweeping the French-speaking Acadiana region of Southwest Louisiana.

"It's the hottest song out right now in the Cajun/zydeco genre," says Todd Ortego, owner of the Music Machine store in Eunice, La., the unofficial Cajun prairie capital. He also co-hosts "The Swamp & Roll Show" on local radio station KBON.

"It was the best seller through the holiday season, being that it was cute so the little kids really liked it, too," Ortego says. "And it was a Cajun-type song that the grandparents bought for their grandkids ... it might be a door to exposing younger people to Cajun and zydeco music."

The title track to the latest Swallow Records album from Don Fontenot et Les Amis de la Louisiane, "Ride the Donkey" is the latest reworking of a Cajun standard going back at least as far as Nolan Cormier & the Louisiana Aces' 1971 Swallow hit "Hee Haw Breakdown." It was later adapted into "Zydeco Hee Haw" by Boozoo Chavis.

"It's a variation of the Mardi Gras jig that many bands have covered," Ortego notes. He says that Fontenot's version is distinguished by its story line. "A guy goes to the livestock auction barn and buys this cute little donkey, and his friends pick on him for it. But it has this little sexual double-entendre where he meets this lady and she wants a little ride on the donkey, so you can take that as you may -- but it's not that obvious for kids."

Unlike most of Fontenot's recordings, "Ride the Donkey" is in English, as are such previous Cajun novelty hits as Rockin' Sidney's much-covered (and similarly suggestive) 1985 zydeco smash "My Toot Toot" and Keith Frank's 1995 zydeco interpretation of "Movin' On Up," the theme to TV show "The Jeffersons."

THE SOILEAU CONNECTION

"It happens now and then," Ortego says of the occasional Acadiana novelty hit, "and it usually traces back to Floyd Soileau."

Soileau is the venerable head of Ville Platte-based Flat Town Music Co., home of the legendary Swallow label (Soileau is pronounced "swallow"), zydeco label Maison de Soul (home of Rockin' Sidney and Frank) and Flat Town Music (BMI) -- publisher of "Hee Haw Breakdown."

"Previous CDs by Fontenot were all traditional Cajun, all in French," Ortego says. "Then they popped out with this novelty song, and Floyd in his wisdom made it the title cut of the album, even though it seemed out of character from what the band had done before. I was even kind of leery of his decision, but it paid off once again. I just got another 10 of them in today."

Chris Soileau, VP of his father's company, says that "Ride the Donkey" so far has garnered greater attention from radio than Horace Trahan's bootyful novelty hit of two years ago, "That Butt Thing," which Flat Town distributed. Seconding Ortego, he says, "It's getting more broader response from all age groups (because) parents don't have as much problem with the content."

But Soileau also notes that "Ride the Donkey" has served Flat Town and Cormier well by "reintroducing the public" to a venerable copyright.

"It's a win-win situation for the original writer and the current performer, so everybody's happy," Soileau says. "Mr. Cormier should be pleased at the end of the year when he gets his royalties."

Reuters/Billboard

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