Andrew Bernard, co-writer of ‘Judy In Disguise (With Glasses),’ dies at 77 -- Obituaries, She Wrote

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Date Posted: 22:48:50 05/06/21 Thu
Author: The Advocate
Subject: Andrew Bernard, co-writer of ‘Judy In Disguise (With Glasses),’ dies at 77

BY JOHN WIRT | CONTRIBUTING WRITER MAY 6, 2021 - 10:00 PM

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/music/article_7935fed6-aed0-11eb-bdee-d3398bf0627d.html

Andrew Bernard, the co-writer of John Fred and His Playboy Band’s No. 1 song from 1968, “Judy In Disguise (With Glasses),” died Wednesday morning at his home in Baton Rouge. He was 77.

As co-producer, arranger and saxophonist with singer John Fred Gourrier, Bernard made major creative contributions to “Judy In Disguise” and the regionally popular singles that preceded it, “Up and Down” and “Agnes English.”

A New Orleans native who grew up in Houma, Bernard moved to Baton Rouge to attend LSU. In 1965, he received his bachelor's degree in music and joined the Playboy Band. Gourrier and Bernard composed “Judy in Disguise,” their madly catchy pop-soul-psychedelic hit at the two-bedroom house near the Perkins Road overpass where Bernard lived with his first wife and their three children.

“We needed some songs for an album coming up,” Bernard said in 2010. “We were trying to write something for the kids, for the teenagers, that they would like. So, we were going to do something really simple.”

Released in the U.S. by Shreveport’s Paula Records, “Judy In Disguise” was a global smash. John Fred and His Playboy Band toured the U.S. and Europe, appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” and met the Beatles at Apple Records in London.

A year after the success of “Judy in Disguise,” Bernard left the Playboy Band following his attempt to replace Gourrier as the group's leader. He also came to dislike “Judy In Disguise.”

“It wasn’t my favorite song,” Bernard said. “I thought it was too dumb and simple. I wouldn’t tell anybody that I wrote it. For 10 years, I wouldn’t play the song. We went all the way to the top, but with nothing coming behind it.”

After his music fame, Bernard worked in the north Louisiana oil patch until the early ’80s oil-boom bust.

He carried on music, leading his own group and performing with his vocalist sister, Judy. And he eventually worked with Gourrier again, co-writing songs that appear on the singer’s final album, 2002’s “Somebody’s Knockin’.”

Still feverishly creative in recent years, Bernard performed and recorded with Baton Rouge’s Henry Turner Jr. and Flavor and New Orleans singer-songwriter Carlo Ditta. A solo project was in the works at the time of his death.

Bernard also came to think less harshly of “Judy In Disguise (With Glasses).”

“Especially now that it pays some royalties,” he said.

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