Written and first recorded by Huey “Piano” Smith & His Clowns (1959).
Hit version by Frankie Ford (US #14/R&B #11 1959).
From the wiki: “Ace Record’s biggest act in 1958 was Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and the Clowns, who had scored with ‘Rockin’ Pneumonia And the Boogie Woogie Flu’ in 1957 and ‘Don’t You Just Know It’ in 1958. After releasing ‘Don’t You Know Yockomo’ as a third single in early 1959, Huey and his Clowns had cut two more sides, “Sea Cruise” and ‘Loberta’ that Ace Records owner Johnny Vincent considered to have hit potential. But, he felt the recordings needed some ‘improvement’.
“While Smith and the Clowns were out on the road promoting, ‘Don’t You Know Yockomo’ (which never did chart nationally), Vincent called Frankie Ford to the studio to overdub his voice onto Smith’s backing tracks. Vincent also added new fog horns and boat bells to ‘Sea Cruise’. At one point it was planned that Frankie would take over as lead vocalist with the Clowns, but producer Joe Caronna stepped in and said, ‘Look, Huey’s doing fine right now … Why not release the record with Frankie?’.”
Frankie Ford, “Sea Cruise” (1959):