Some of the best-known records made at Cosimo Matassa’s studio used their own language to express the simple pleasures of living. Songs like Huey “Piano” Smith & The Clowns’ “Don’t You Just Know It,” Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” Jessie Hill’s “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” and Sugar Boy Crawford’s “Jock-A-Mo” featured phonetic vocalizations some might call nonsense lyrics.

"Those are celebration songs," Matassa explained, speaking ITom the cluttered office of his family's Frenc...