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The History of Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts
by Charly Mann
Chapel Hill has a long history of producing great bands, but none can match the longevity and outrageousness of Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. Throughout the sixties they were the most popular fraternity band in the country, and their fame and influence has stayed strong even after the death of Doug Clark in 2002.
Cover of their best album, from 1963, On Campus
Doug Clark started the group in 1955 when he was a student at Chapel Hill's segregated all-black Lincoln High School, which was actually located in Carrboro. The band was originally known as The Tops and then as the Doug Clark Combo in 1956. They performed primarily covers of 1950's rock hits. In early 1957 they added their version of the 1930's blues song Hot Nuts to their set list. The risqué nature of the song, and the rhythm and blues arrangement the band gave it, made it instantly popular among frat boys. From 1957 to 1963 they continued to improve their arrangement of Hot Nuts as well as add new verses to the song. The song became so identified with the group that by 1958 they were called Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts.
Doug Clark Combo 1956
Seeing the appeal of ribald material they soon built a repertoire of naughty songs. They quickly became in demand at fraternities and private parties up and down the East Coast. It was a novelty band because their material was never suited for the mass market, but they were also pioneers in how to be a successful college party band. They did something no other band did: made people laugh and smile throughout their entire show.
This is a picture the band autographed for me at one of their fraternity concerts in 1964
As a young boy of thirteen and fourteen I snuck into at least a half a dozen Hot Nuts shows between 1963 and 64 at various fraternities on Fraternity Court, including Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Nu, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Pi Lambda Phi. All the members of the group were cordial. John Clark, the saxophonist and Doug's brother, was the most outgoing and charming member of the group. Doug on the other hand was always the quietest and most reserved. While I was not the only Chapel Hill youth crashing these gigs, I think I was the only one who enjoyed the music more than the beer which was always readily available. I recognized at an early age that alcohol interfered with one's ability to concentrate on music, and was used primarily as a quick way to reduce inhibitions between members of the opposite sex.
The Hot Nuts 1963, left to right William "Chicken" Little, John Clark, Ralph Prince (vocalist), Doug Clark. Tommy Booth (piano), Walter Holmes, and Robert Tillman
In 1963 the Hot Nuts recorded their best album, On Campus, in a New York recording studio. Even though the song Hot Nuts first appeared on their debut album, Nuts to You, the definitive version of the song, both musically and lyrically, appears in On Campus. The album also contains several of their most popular songs, including Bang, Bang Lulu, Roly Poly, Barnacle Bill, and the The Big Wheel. By the time this album was released it was not unusual for the group to perform for between 4,000 and 8,000 people. They had huge followings in Atlanta, Dallas, and Baltimore, and also had regular gigs at universities throughout the North, South, and West, including the University of Texas, Yale, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, M.I.T., and the University of Virginia. Each Spring Break they played to huge crowds at Daytona Beach. In 1963 and 64 they added three female singers to the band, known collectively as The Three Cherries.
It should be remembered that at the time the Hot Nuts were most popular blacks were denied access to most hotels, movie theaters, and restaurants in much of the South. The band made their living playing for all-white fraternities. Few blacks were even admitted to the universities where they were performing, and some, like the University of Alabama and University of Mississippi, denied access to black students. Nevertheless, the Hot Nuts made a good living off the fraternity crowd. It is ironic that many administrations at southern universities decried and sometimes banned the Hot Nuts for their brand of music, but remained silent on the injustice of segregation at their schools.
Factoid: Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts recorded My Ding-A-Ling in 1961 for their first album Nuts to You. In 1972, Chuck Berry had the biggest hit of his career and his only #1 song with the same song.
Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts Discography
• 1961 Nuts to You (Gross)
• 1963 On Campus (Gross)
• 1963 Homecoming (Gross)
• 1964 Rush Week (Gross)
• 1965 Panty Raid (Gross)
• 1966 Summer Session (Gross)
• 1967 Hell Night (Gross)
• 1968 Freak Out (Gross)
• 1969 With a Hat On (Gross)
Comments:
Anne Ray Swindell
2:58 PM Sun 8/23/2009
The Hot Nuts played at CHHS for the Junior-Senior Prom in 1963. After Mother May had a talk with Doug Clark, the music was toned down a bit, and they never played at CHHS again! Mother May Marshbanks was our principal at the time.
Graham Carter
11:09 AM Wed 6/3/2009
I saw the Hot Nuts several times in the mid 60s. They always put on a memorable show that was based much more on talent than the naughthy content of their music. If you really listen to the words, you will find a high percentage of pop music is sexually suggestive.
C Womack
12:20 PM Tue 6/2/2009
Never heard of these guys, but they were 35 years before my time. I thought their song Hot Nuts was funny, and certainly tame compared to much of the Rap Music of my generation.
Walt Heath
5:21 PM Mon 6/1/2009
Thanks for giving Doug and the Hot Nuts their due. I don't recall any Chapel Hill media even acknowledging their existence in the 60s.
Frankie Justice
2:36 PM Mon 6/1/2009
What a blog! A piece on Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts followed by one on Thomas Wolfe - now that's covering a wide spectrum of Chapel Hill history.
Kim Long
10:57 AM Mon 6/1/2009
What most people don't know is that the Hot Nuts were one of the best bands of the sixties. They always had great muscians and vocalists, and were highly inventive with their arrangements. I recall them doing sets of nothing but straight dance music that were fantastic.
Al Davis
6:34 PM Sun 5/31/2009
That original version of Hot Nuts is great.
Don West
12:22 PM Sun 5/31/2009
I agree that their second album is their best, but their first is a close second, after that the material seemed too contrived.
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
I still laugh when I think of the Hot Nuts. Again, what a great gimpse of nostalgia. While they may have been irreverant, they were still funny and don't forget, talented as well. Hot nuts, hot nuts, get 'em from your peanut man.