Trivia

Inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.

Is one of the refugees inside the Superdome in New Orleans, Lousiana, after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. (August 2005)

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 (under the category Non-Performer).

His first recording was in 1957 as a stand-in for Fats Domino on Domino's record "I Want You to Know", on which Toussaint played piano and Domino overdubbed his vocals.

Toussaint played piano, wrote, arranged and produced a string of hits in the early and mid-1960s for New Orleans R&B artists such as Ernie K-Doe, Chris Kenner, Irma Thomas (including "It's Raining"), Art and Aaron Neville, The Showmen, and Lee Dorsey, whose first hit "Ya Ya" he produced in 1961.

Toussaint died in the early hours of November 10, 2015, in Madrid, Spain, while on tour. Following a concert at the Teatro Lara on Calle Corredera Baja de San Pablo, he had a heart attack at his hotel and was pronounced dead on his arrival at hospital.

His first success as a producer came in 1957 with Lee Allen's "Walking with Mr. Lee". He began performing regularly in Bartholomew's band, and he recorded with Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Lee Allen and other leading New Orleans performers.

His father, Clarence, worked on the railway and played trumpet.

A significant early influence on Toussaint was the syncopated "second-line" piano style of Professor Longhair.

In 1960, Joe Banashak, of Minit Records and later Instant Records, hired Toussaint as an A&R man and record producer.

In his teens he played in a band, the Flamingos, with the guitarist Snooks Eaglin, before dropping out of school.

The youngest of three children, Toussaint was born in 1938 in New Orleans and grew up in a shotgun house in the Gert Town neighborhood, where his mother, Naomi Neville (whose name he later adopted pseudonymously for some of his works), welcomed and fed all manner of musicians as they practiced and recorded with her son.

Toussaint was drafted into the United States Army in 1963 but continued to record when on leave. After his discharge in 1965, he joined forces with Marshall Sehorn to form Sansu Enterprises, which included a record label, Sansu, variously known as Tou-Sea, Deesu, or Kansu, and recorded Lee Dorsey, Chris Kenner, Betty Harris, and others.

Toussaint appeared on Eric Clapton's 2010 album, Clapton, in two Fats Waller covers, "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" and "When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful".

He was an American musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer, who was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, described as "one of popular music's great backroom figures".

He was a producer for hundreds of recordings, among the best known of which are "Right Place, Wrong Time", by his longtime friend Dr. John, and "Lady Marmalade" by Labelle.

His final recording, American Tunes, titled after the Paul Simon song, which he sings on the album, was released by Nonesuch Records on June 10, 2016.

In the 1970s, Toussaint began to work with artists from beyond New Orleans artists, such as B. J. Thomas, Robert Palmer, Willy DeVille, Sandy Denny, Elkie Brooks, Solomon Burke, Scottish soul singer Frankie Miller (High Life), and southern rocker Mylon LeFevre.

Allen Toussaint learned piano as a child and took informal music lessons from an elderly neighbor, Ernest Pinn.

Toussaint was a musical mentor to Swedish-born New Orleans songwriter and performer Theresa Andersson.

His late-blooming career as a performer began when he accepted an offer to play a regular Sunday brunch session at an East Village pub. Interviewed in 2014 by The Guardians Richard Williams, Toussaint said, " I never thought of myself as a performer.... My comfort zone is behind the scenes.".

After a lucky break at age 17, in which he stood in for Huey "Piano" Smith at a performance with Earl King's band in Prichard, Alabama, Toussaint was introduced to a group of local musicians led by Dave Bartholomew, who performed regularly at the Dew Drop Inn, a nightclub on Lasalle Street in Uptown New Orleans.

In January 2022, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously to rename one of the city's thoroughfares, "Robert E. Lee Boulevard", to "Allen Toussaint Boulevard" in his honor, which came into effect later the same month.

In December 2009, he was featured on Elvis Costello's Spectacle program on the Sundance Channel, singing "A Certain Girl".