Topic: Blues Singers Singing Pop and Country Songs

[dj]

Bumble Bee Slim (Amos Easton) recorded a nice version of "I Need Someone (Exactly Like You)".

[mmpresti]

Doctor Clayton's "Love is Gone"

[Pan]

Big Bill Broonzy:
- I Get(s) The Blues When It Rains, composed by Marcy Klauber and Harry Stoddard in 1929
- Bill Bailey, composed by Hughie Cannon in 1902
- Sixteen Tons, written by Merle Travis in 1947

If you have the patience to go through 13 minutes of this Robert Jr. Lockwood interview, you'll hear his very nice version of the old standard "Exactly Like You" in the end:

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/Exactly%2BLike%2BYou/video/x18we1_robert-jr-lockwood-interview-excerp

Cheers

Pan

[Pan]

Hi all

I think that most of the titles listed on the "waltz" thread would fit in this thread too. I won't go into re-listing them here, so here's just the link to the other thread: http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=83&topic=3475.0

Cheers

Pan

[dj]

Leroy Carr's "I Know That I'll Be Blue" is an interesting hybrid.  Carr sings a straight 12 bar blues for the first four verses, on the theme of his girlfriend/wife/lover saying she doesn't love him anymore and is going to leave.  Then, after singing a line that concludes "listen to what I say", he puts on his crooning voice and sings a verse (or maybe it's a chorus, I'm not familiar with the song) of a pop song on the same theme.  The performance by both Leroy and Scrapper is just sensational.       

[uncle bud]

I just heard a really good example of a couple of "blues" singers singing a pop song:  Walter Roland and Sonny Scott, recording as "The Jolly Two" doing a romping, infectiously good humored version of "Come On Down".  It's pretty much two-part vocal harmony throughout, with both men playing guitar and one of them taking a nifty single-string solo. 

Reviving an oldie.

DJ, I agree about how infectious this song is in Walter Roland and Sonny Scott's hands, and while it sounds vaguely familiar, I can't place it. Is this a cover of a pop song?

[dj]

Is this a cover of a pop song?

It was copyrighted, with Walter Roland listed as the composer, by Steve LaVere/Delta Haze in 1998.  I don't think I would take that as a necessarily accurate indication of authorship.

I couldn't find a label shot online, but both Bob MacLeod's composer list and the Online Discographical Project indicate that there is no composer credit on the label.

 

[Mr.OMuck]

Gary Davis did quite a few turn of the century popular tunes, usually as instrumentals. He insisted on teaching me one that I'd never heard before and still don't know the words to called "Got that Old Fashioned Love in My Heart"
Usually he let me call the tune so to speak in terms of what I wanted to learn but in this case he was rather insistent that I learn this piece, I still don't know why, maybe there was some structural thing he was trying to impress on me. He also did "Long way to Tipperary" and of course his United States March, a composite of various Sousa bits. He seemed to have a lot of fun with those tunes, often cracking up a he played them, so of course they were quite enjoyable for the listener as well.
This could be a whole thread unto itself but I'd have to place Billie Holiday in the category of Blues singers who sang pop and Jazz tunes. It has always seemed to me that her approach and ethos was that of a Blues singer. Ella Fitzgerald, on the other hand is clearly on the other side of the fence a pop- Jazz singer. You can admire her perfect, gem like phrasing and enunciation all you want, it ultimately doesn't grab me, BH on the other hand can sing complete drivel (Mandy is Two, for example) and make it sound like something's goin' on inside.

[uncle bud]

Is this a cover of a pop song?

It was copyrighted, with Walter Roland listed as the composer, by Steve LaVere/Delta Haze in 1998.  I don't think I would take that as a necessarily accurate indication of authorship.

I couldn't find a label shot online, but both Bob MacLeod's composer list and the Online Discographical Project indicate that there is no composer credit on the label.

Thanks, dj. I agree, not sure I'd take that 1998 copyright as proof of authorship. Roland certainly had some variety to his material, but I can't help but feel like this is from another source, both because of its pop structure and its dissimilarity from his other material. Or I guess it's Roland writing in a certain style. Whatever, it's a wonderful performance.

M. O'Muck, a couple other RGD pop tunes that come to mind: "I'm So Tired of Being All Alone" and "Bill Bailey". I've always wondered whether "Save Up Your Money, John D. Rockefeller Put the Panic On" had a old pop source.

[jtbrown]

In addition to "Just Because," John Jackson recorded "Nine Pound Hammer," "Muleskinner Blues," and "Waiting for a Train."  A version of the latter song is also included among Mississippi John Hurt's Library of Congress recordings.

[pkeane]

Well, I'm not sure if it really counts, but listening to Robert Johnson sing "They're Red Hot" I feel like I get some sense of his "pop" sensibilities.  It's quite unlike his blues style, and well-developed enough that I assumed he had plenty of other material for which he used it.

--peter keane

[oddenda]

I think one of these is posted somewhere hereabouts:

     John Cephas                 When I grow Too Old to Dream
     McKinley Ellis                The Sheik of Araby

are two that come to mind off the top of my pointy little head.

Peter B.

[dj]

Both Casey Bill Weldon and Washboard Sam recorded the pop song "Has My Gal Been Here".  Weldon recorded it first, in 1936.  Sam's version came three years later.  According to Bob MacLeod's list, composer credit on the Weldon recording is to William Weldon.  The Washboard Sam record apparently has no composer credited.

[dj]

Casey Bill Weldon recorded "Can't You Remember" at a September 6, 1936 session with Black Bob on Piano, Charlie McCoy on mandolin, and Big Bill Broonzy on guitar.  The song is a standard 16 bar with bridge form.  There's some really nice interplay between the steel guitar and mandolin on the opening instrumental verses.  Casey Bill puts on a real crooner's voice, and the whole effect of the song is reminiscent of a night club in Waikiki.   

[Bunker Hill]

I haven't listened to them for years but I seem to recall Tampa Red and the Mississippi Sheiks respectively reworking a couple of Hoagy Carmichael numbers - Georgia, Georgia Blues and Lazy River. Yes? No?