Accordionist, singer, and songwriter Rockin’ Sidney Simien scored the bestselling song in the history of Louisiana’s zydeco music. His 1985 single, “My Toot Toot,” became a Grammy winner and an international sensation. The song inspired numerous covers, including a Spanish version, “Mi Cu Cu,” recorded by cumbia band La Sonora Dinamita, that sold more than a million records throughout Latin America. “My Toot Toot” was the peak of Simien’s songwriting career. Fats Domino, John Fogerty, Doug Kershaw, and others covered “Toot Toot,” and numerous zydeco and swamp pop bands have covered other Simien originals.

Simien was born on April 9, 1938, into a Creole-speaking farming family in the St. Landry Parish village of Lebeau. His musical talents emerged early as a guitar and harmonica player. By eighteen, he recorded his first single, “Make Me Understand.” He soon started performing as Rockin’ Sidney and had regional swamp-pop hits with “No Good Woman,” “She’s My Morning Coffee,” and “You Ain’t Nothing But Fine,” the last of which was later covered by the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

In the 1960s Simien performed as the turban-wearing “Count Rockin’ Sidney” and recorded blues and soul singles released by Goldband Records out of Lake Charles. Inspired by the popularity of zydeco icon Clifton Chenier, Simien switched to the accordion in the late 1970s, performing vaudeville-styled gigs that mocked Chenier and rising star Buckwheat Zydeco. However, a sleepless night in 1982 put his career on another level. Simien went into his home studio and revised a “Toot Toot” song he wrote ten years earlier. He mixed in double-entendre lyrics with Cajun and Creole sayings, like fais pas ça, or “don’t do that.” The new “Toot Toot” was born.

The song was filler on the second side of Sidney’s 1984 fourth album, My Zydeco Shoes Got the Zydeco Blues, published on Floyd Soileau’s Maison de Soul label in Ville Platte. After zydeco DJs discovered “Toot Toot,” the song became a top request on local pop and country radio stations. Airplay spread to Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Houston, a rare feat for a zydeco record. The momentum exploded nationally, landing “Toot Toot” into the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The hit won the 1985 Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording, the W. C. Handy Single of the Year, and the Handy Best Blues Song of the Year. Simien enjoyed international celebrity, with features in Rolling Stone and People magazines. He performed on Austin City Limits, Hee Haw, Nashville Now, and other national TV shows.

“Toot Toot” landed in two movies, One Tough Cop and Pure Luck. A German beer company paid $140,000 to license the song for its commercials. Local zydeco artists created answer songs, such as “I’m Messing with Toot Toot” by Leo Thomas and “Ka-Wann” by John Delafose.

Simien used the flood of royalties to buy radio station KAOK and Festival City, an entertainment complex in Lake Charles. He continued to perform and write songs, but none came close to matching “Toot Toot.” Other originals, such as “If It’s Good for the Gander” and “My Zydeco Shoes,” became zydeco standards.

Simien died from throat cancer on February 25, 1998, at the age of fifty-nine. He is buried in the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Cemetery in his hometown of Lebeau.