Claude Trenier

Singer with the early rock'n'roll group the Treniers

Claude Trenier, singer: born Mobile, Alabama 14 July 1919; died Las Vegas, Nevada 17 November 2003.

Claude Trenier, with his identical twin brother Cliff, were the front men of the Treniers, who, in the mid-1950s, were among the first rock'n'roll groups to make an impact.

Claude and Cliff Trenier were born into a musical family in Mobile, Alabama in 1919. Their father, Denny, had been a saxophone player in New Orleans and their mother, Olivia, played the piano. Their older brother, Buddy, started singing in clubs in Mobile, and Claude and Cliff formed their first band, Alabama State Collegians, while still at college. When their academic work suffered and they were asked to leave, they determined to become professional entertainers, but Second World War service intervened.

In 1944 Claude Trenier made his first record, "I'm Gonna See My Baby", as part of Jimmie Lunceford's band, and Cliff joined him the following year, their first record together being "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz". Lunceford encouraged them to play on the fact that they were identical twins. One of them would walk off stage whilst singing a song and the other brother would enter from the other side of the stage, continuing where the other left off.

In 1946 Claude Trenier made "Weird Nightmare" with the legendary bass player Charlie Mingus, and four years later cut "Gold Ain't Everything" for RCA under the pseudonym of Choo Choo Train. In 1947 Claude and Cliff formed their own band with their brothers, Buddy and Milt, as well as Don Hill on alto saxophone and Gene Gilbeaux on piano, both of whom had been in the Alabama State Collegians. As early as 1949 they were calling themselves the Rock and Rollin' Treniers, and during "Everybody Got Together", they call out, "Come on, let's rock this house tonight." In 1952 they recorded the singles "It Rocks! It Rolls! It Swings!" and "Rockin' On Sunday Night".

During the Fifties, the Treniers recorded for Chord, London, Okeh, Vik, Brunswick and Dot, but they were essentially a live act, full of wild dancing, clowning and comedy stunts. Their exuberant style influenced the white rock'n'roll groups Bill Haley & His Comets and Freddie Bell & the Bell Boys. They appeared in the best of all the rock'n'roll films, The Girl Can't Help It (1956), where they perform a lively "Rockin' Is Our Bizness" (an early example of misspelling - their actual record dates from 1953). Despite being in their late thirties, they fell in with the teenage rock'n'roll phenomenon by recording "We Want a Rock'n'Roll President" (1956).

In 1958 they came to the UK as the support act for Jerry Lee Lewis, but the tour was ill-fated as Lewis arrived with his 13-year-old bride. Lewis was hounded out of Britain by the press and, although the tour continued without him, most concert-goers returned their tickets. Bruce Welch, later to form the Shadows, was there:

On the show was this black American band called the Treniers. Hank Marvin and I were at the back and we were really impressed at the way the sax players moved in unison, taken, I suppose, from the Glenn Miller days. It looked fantastic and we thought, "We

must do something like that because it looks so interesting from the front."

Some of the Treniers' records, "Go, Go, Go" (1951), "The Willie Mays Song" (1954) and "Get Out of the Car" (arranged by Quincy Jones in 1958) were popular, but big hits eluded them. Claude and Cliff were excellent comedians on stage, but they could argue off-stage. Cliff Trenier married and started a family, but Claude was never interested. He later explained, "I would be in bed with some girl and she would be on the phone to her husband telling him how much she missed him. I thought, if this is what goes on with marriage, damn marriage."

Always smartly dressed, the Treniers became one of the first lounge acts in Las Vegas and sometimes opened for Frank Sinatra. Cliff Trenier died in 1983 and Claude said recently, "The only thing I would change is to keep my twin brother here a little longer. He was a cigarette smoker and he wouldn't quit."

The Treniers continued with Claude's nephew, Skip, joining the band, but eventually Claude was the only original Trenier, although Don Hill remained on alto sax. They came to the UK in 1991 for a very successful appearance at a Hemsby Rockin' Weekender. There was a "Tribute to the Treniers" night in Las Vegas in 1998 when both Buddy and Milt joined Claude on stage.

Spencer Leigh