Many don’t know this but Floyd’s Record Shop in Ville Platte has a rich history of preserving the music of Southwest Louisiana.
Floyd Soileau started the shop more than 60 years ago.
Soileau got his start in the music business as a DJ at KVPI in the 1950s.
While DJing his colleague Chris Duplechin gave Soileau the idea to open a record shop in Ville Platte.
So, Soileau and his brother drove to New Orleans and brought back 200 dollars worth of records and a 60 dollar record player to start their record store right next to the KVPI studio.
Within a year Soileau moved into a new store and began recording music for local artists.
And from his time as a DJ Soileau knew when someone had a hit.
Soileau says “I always encouraged them when they came to record give me something of a story that will touch their heart or tickle their funny bones and maybe we got something to sell.”
Then in 1975 Soileau opened up Louisiana’s only pressing plant.
The plant would press records and make the picture sleeves for all his local artists but they would also get orders for across the country as well.
Right after Elvis’s death R-C-A had an overwhelming request for Elvis’s music so they reached out to Soileau and they printed 60 thousand of Elvis’s records.
But producing Cajun and swamp pop music was still the thing Soileau enjoyed the most which has lead to a huge collection of songs.
He says he has “close to 4,000 copyrights that he administers.”
His biggest hit was “Don’t Mess with my Toot, Toot” which won a Grammy in 1985 for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording Song.
You can listen to all this great Cajun and swamp pop music online at flattownmusic.com
