The Mark Steyn Show is made with the support of members of The Mark Steyn Club. St. Louis Blues Nat King Cole Buy this song. "She sang blues so well," said W C Handy, "that people hearing her records sometimes thought that the singer was colored." By submitting, you give JAZZIZ Magazine permission to keep you updated via email or customized online advertising. At the time of his death in 1958, aged 84, Handy was earning more than $25,000 in royalties a year from that song alone. I asked. Although it was the Argentines who refined this dance into the more sensual tango, it was, per Handy, also a part of Negro life on the Mississippi. Handy's own memories of the town included an "odd gent who called figures for the Kentucky breakdown ...the one who everlastingly pitched his tones in the key of G". During his destitute period in that Mississippi town, he had seen a grieving woman, drinking heavily. Here's Nat as the "Father of the Blues", dressed as its composer was wont to garb himself for musical soirées. Perhaps he was more like his very proper preacher father than he knew, but he preferred to present himself more as an anthropologist of the blues than as a writer thereof. That's an awful lot of detail for something he "neither saw nor heard", but, as I said, few songwriters have ever written more about writing their songs. You can find more details about the Steyn Club here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership. It was one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song and remains a fundamental part of jazz musicians' repertoire. Handy and was first recorded and released by Prince's Band in 1916. Re those last enthusiasts, one can't but wonder if Emperor Haile Selassie's chaps wouldn't have done better against the Italians had they gone into battle playing this most famous of all the novelty re-interpretations of the song. Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was a musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. The Moors brought it to Spain, and Negro slaves took it to Cuba, where it became the habanera (as in the famous aria from Carmen, "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). But he didn't really get hooked, until one night, playing with his band in Cleveland, Mississippi, he saw a local group get more money for one blues number than his boys earned for the whole evening. © 2020 Mark Steyn Enterprises (US) Inc. All rights reserved. Pimps in boxback coats and undented Stetsons came out to get a breath of early evening air and to welcome the young night. Twenty years earlier, W C Handy had been given a sixty-fifth birthday tribute at Carnegie Hall, which included a song written in his honor by J Fred Coots (of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town") and Benny Davis (of "Baby Face"). When British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald first visited the United States, his hosts chose this song to play to him as representative of distinctively American music. If you are already a member, please log in here: I don't think Mark is much of a Western swing fan, but the Bob Wills or Merle Haggard versions are interestingly different from any here. Louis Blues” has become one of the most famous, celebrated, and recorded jazz standards in history. Louis Blues” has become one of the most famous, celebrated, and recorded jazz standards in history. He was determined not to make the same mistake with his next song. Watching American cities burn across the map all summer long is a little dispiriting for those of us foreigners whose first acquaintance with these burgs was through American songs. No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of Mark Steyn Enterprises. The time we were able to spend in Montreal with you and your team was beyond remarkable. No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of Mark Steyn Enterprises. When Nazi Germany occupied France, American songs became frowned upon, if not outright banned. Handy named the song after the town which had inspired it, and went down to Pee Wee's saloon, a musicians' hangout at 317 Beale Street. Handy" I get transported to the world of The Music Man and Robert Preston's declaration regarding the best marching band music ever.AND please don't say that we might not have another Mark Steyn Christmas Show to attend – the show must go on! Copyright © 2018 JAZZIZ Magazine, All Rights Reserved. In 1912 he wrote his first hit, the first big-selling blues, "The Memphis Blues", but he was foolish enough to sell it outright for a mere fifty dollars. It was covered by Hugo Montenegro & Orch., Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, Porteña Jazz Band, Sveriges Jazzband and other artists. But it has its admirers on the PM's side of the ocean, too: in 1934, when Prince George, father of the present Duke of Kent, married Princess Marina of Greece, this was the song they danced to at their wedding; it was also one of the Queen Mother's favorites. This is a lovely unmannered version: And here, by way of contrast, from around the same time (the early Nineties) is Cleo Laine. She started her recording career at Victor Records, singing "Everybody's Crazy 'Bout the Doggone Blues, But I'm Happy", "When I Hear That Jazz Band Play", "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "I Ain't Got Nobody". "Saint Louis Blues" is a popular American song composed by W. C. Handy in the blues style and published in September 1914. It was also one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song. Submission of reader comments is restricted to Mark Steyn Club members only. From 1896 to 1900 Handy had worked as a bandmaster in Henderson, Kentucky, whose other great musical alumnus is Grandpa Jones of "Hee Haw" fame, and whose principal non-musical claim to fame is the painter and naturalist John James Audubon. He was by trade a composer and a lyricist - that's to say, he wrote words and music for what he hoped would be hit songs. I wouldn’t know. I had now settled on the mood...". But the real thing: western swing requires being able to swing, and half these pseudo-western outfits can't. No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of Mark Steyn Enterprises. receive the latest by email: subscribe to steynonline's free weekly mailing list. When the show failed, he took up teaching and then worked in a foundry, where he started an amateur brass band. We'll be adding to the archive in the months ahead, but, even as it is, we hope you'll find the new SteynOnline music home page a welcome respite from house arrest without end. On the levee there, he had heard the roustabouts singing a number called "Looking for the Bully". Since first appearing in 1914, “St. He decided to begin with a downhome ditty "fit to go with twanging banjos and yellow shoes... A flood of memories filled my mind. The poolhall crowd grew livelier than they had been during the day. Armstrong would return to this song many times throughout his career, beginning with a version he recorded in 1929 with trumpeter Red Allen and trombonist J.C. Higginbotham. I feel the form is that other popular songs by say, Porter or the Gershwins are 'songs' despite the tune being in many cases as recognisable, and in several cases, the song being introduced as an instrumental. Within a few years, every recording and piano roll company had issued the song; within a few more years, Handy was receiving an annual royalty of $25,000. Louis Blues” (W.C. And so, by Handy's own account, we can pinpoint the birth of "The Saint Louis Blues" to one night in September 1914. But she's on top of this one, and living the lyric: And finally I mentioned, à propos the Glenn Miller arrangement above, that there had been many novelty interpretations of the song. A short history of … “St. He later said: “Well, they say life begins at forty. Indeed. According to Handy, the tango was originally an African jungle dance, the tangana. I can't help thinking that the illustration of Rita Hayworth was at least as inspiring to our brave boys fighting Nazism and Japanese imperialism as Glenn Miller's rendition of the Saint Louis Blues March. 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