You can discover music in all sorts of different ways. Sometimes a song catches your attention while playing in the background of a commercial or radio promotion. I think that is how I first tuned into “Cissy Strut” by the Meters—it was used in a promotional spot for WXPN.
Somehow, I missed the song when it became a hit in 1969. I heard plenty of R&B on the radio while growing up in Muncie, Indiana, so perhaps it simply didn’t catch my ear—or remain in my memory—because it was an instrumental. It reached No. 4 on Billboard’s R&B chart and No. 23 on the Hot 100, so plenty of other people certainly heard it.
What makes “Cissy Strut” remarkable is how much groove four musicians create without anybody overplaying. Art Neville’s organ, Leo Nocentelli’s clipped guitar, George Porter Jr.’s bass and Zigaboo Modeliste’s incredibly precise drumming fit together perfectly. There is plenty of open space in the recording, yet it never feels empty.
The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011. Not bad for an instrumental I first noticed playing behind a radio-station promotion.
It is one very cool piece of music.