Rock music pioneer Lloyd Price of 'Stagger Lee' fame dies at 88 - CNN

Personality" for his smash recording of "Personality" and was known for adapting the New Orleans sound starting in the 1950s.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

"Lloyd Price is a man who did everything right at a time when what they called 'race records' were not supposed to cross over to the pop charts," said singer Tony Rich in inducting Price.

Rich also praised him for later creating record companies, owning radio stations and even promoting championship boxing matches in the 1970s.

"He's a very smart man, as we all know."

Rich said "Stagger Lee," released in 1958, was a true story of "ghetto life" that became a new kind of subject matter for radio.

It made possible countless other rock and rap songs that "Mr.