49 years ago today, “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)” by John Fred & His Playboy Band entered the Billboard Top 40 chart. The song would make it to the #1 spot a few weeks later.

Musically, the hit has more in common with the mainstream pop sound of its day than with distinctly Louisiana styles, but it was written and recorded by Baton Rouge natives John Fred & His Playboy Band nonetheless.

The group’s leader–John Fred–scored his first minor hit in 1959 with “Shirley,” a track that he recorded at Cosimo Matassa’s New Orleans studio with the help of Fats Domino’s backing band. The 17-year-old was invited to perform the tune on American Bandstand, but turned down the opportunity because it conflicted with an important high school basketball game (Fred went on to play the sport at both LSU and Southeastern Louisiana University).

After wrapping up his college basketball career in 1963, Fred dove back into the music business. The singer enlisted his old tenor saxophonist Mickey Coerver, who helped him form a new band with baritone saxophonist Andrew Bernard, guitarists Jimmy O’Rourke and Hal Ellis, bassist Howard Cowart, organist Tommy DeGeneres, trumpeters Ronald Goodson and Charlie Spinosa, drummer Lester Dodge, and percussionist Joe Miceli.

The group, John Fred & His Playboy Band, released a string of duds on Shreveport’s Jewel record label before finally striking gold with “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)” in 1967. The song was an obvious play on The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky (With Diamonds),” which had topped the charts six months earlier.

John Fred & His Playboy Band garnered a little more success with their follow up “Hey Hey Bunny,” but the well dried up after that. Fred eventually switched gears to the production side of music in the 1970s, even leading a few sessions with Irma Thomas. He was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 1991, and passed away in 2005.