Louis Armstrong's The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings box set released

The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings Louis Armstrong

Recorded: 1926 to 1928 Released: August 22, 2000 Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US and UK) Genre: jazz

Tracks, Disc 1: 1. Gut Bucket Blues 2. My Heart 3. Yes! I’m in the Barrel 4. Come Back Sweet Papa 5. Georgia Grind 6. Heebie Jeebies 7. Cornet Chop Suey 8. Oriental Strut 9. You’re Next 10. Muskrat Ramble 11. Don’t Forget to Mess Around 12. I’m Gonna Gitcha 13. Droppin’ Shucks 14. Who’s It 15. King of the Zulus 16. Big Fat Ma and Skinny Pa 17. Lonesome Blues 18. Sweet Little Papa 19. Jazz Lips 20. Skid-Dat-De-Dat 21. Big Butter and Egg Man 22. Sunset Café Stomp 23. You Made Me Love You 24. Irish Black Bottom 25. [Pause Track] Tracks, Disc 2: 1. Put ‘Em Down Blues 2. Ory’s Creole Trombone 3. Last Time 4. Struttin’ with Some Barbeque 5. Got No Blues 6. Once in a While 7. I’m Not Rough 8. Hotter Than That 9. Savoy Blues 10. He Likes It Slow 11. Gambler’s Dream 12. Sunshine Baby 13. Adam and Eve Had the Blues 14. Put It Where I Can Get It 15. Washwoman Blues 16. I’ve Stopped My Man 17. Georgia Bo Bo 18. Drop That Sack [Common Take] 19. Drop That Sake [Rare Take] 20. Cornet Chop Suey 21. [Pause Track] Tracks, Disc 3: 1. Willie the Weeper 2. Wild Man Blues 3. Alligator Crawl 4. Potato Head Blues 5. Melancholy 6. Weary Blues 7. Twelfth Street Rag 8. Keyhole Blues 9. S.O.L. Blues 10. Gully Low Blues 11. That’s When I’ll Come Back to You 12. Chicago Breakdown 13. Weary Blues 14. New Orleans Stomp 15. Wild Man Blues 16. Wild Man Blues 17. Melancholy 18. Melancholy 19. You’re a Real Sweetheart 20. Too Busy! 21. Was It a Dream? 22. Last Night I Dreamed You Kissed Me 23. [Pause Track] Tracks, Disc 4: 1. Fireworks 2. Skip the Gutter 3. Monday Date 4. Don’t Jive Me 5. West End Blues 6. Sugar Foot Strut 7. Two Deuces 8. Squeeze Me 9. Knee Drops 10. No, Papa, No 11. Basin Street Blues 12. No One Else But You 13. Beau Koo Jack 14. Save It, Pretty Mama 15. Muggles 16. Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya? 17. St. James Infirmary 18. Tight Like This 19. Weather Bird 20. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love [Common Take] 21. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love [Rare Take] 22. Mahogany Hall Stomp 23. Knockin’ a Jug 24. [Pause Track] The following songs from the box set charted. (Click for codes to singles charts.) Muskrat Ramble (7/17/26, 8 US) Big Butter and Egg Man (4/9/27, 13 US) Keyhole Blues (10/29/27, 16 US) Potato Head Blues (12/10/27, 12 US) Hotter Than That (5/12/28, 10 US) Struttin’ with Some Barbeque (7/14/28, 14 US) West End Blues (9/15/28, 8 US) A Monday Date (12/1/28, 19 US) St. James Infirmary (5/4/29, 15 US) Once in a While (1/8/38, 15 US) Basin Street Blues (10/29/38, 20 US)

Rating: 4.800 out of 5.00 (average of 5 ratings) Quotable: “Jazz starts here.” – Blender Magazine Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Jazz starts here.” BL “This 4-CD set represents the ‘Rosetta Stone of Jazz,’ the ultimate Louis Armstrong collection.” JM “Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings are jazz’s Holy Grail, a venerable guide for anyone with the desire to explore the roots of this now century old art.” MC Armstrong “was not the first great player in jazz, but he was the first to elevate the soloist’s art to a position of primacy.” KM “A typical band embellished a song, but Armstrong took long solos, causing near riots of excitement.” MC “Between 1925 and 1929, Armstrong invented scat singing, defined swing and introduced the jazz solo. He laid the foundations for America’s first indigenous art form – and had a ball doing it. No wonder he was our first global pop star.” BL “Music could never be the same again.” KM “He did so through the medium of the 78 rpm sides he cut for Okeh with his Hot Five and Hot Seven units. This was a genuine case of records creating history.” KM These recordings “ushered out the era of acoustic recording where the soloist played into a huge cone and ushered in the electric method utilizing microphones.” MC “This four-CD set brings together all the recordings made during the period of the Hot Five and Hot Sevens along with all the attendant recordings that Armstrong was involved in during this breakthrough period.” CK “Armstrong continually cuts through with a crystalline brilliance he was never to recapture.” KM “When he opens West End Blues with a trumpet solo followed by the klop-klop of cymbals and his ‘waa-waa-waa’ scat in response to Johnny Dodds’ clarinet one can imagine listeners falling-out with excitement.” MC “If the tragic grandeur of his playing on ‘West End Blues’ is the pinnacle, it is all but matched on a dozen others.” KM “There are plenty trumpet licks rendered to keep scholars and students busy for years.” MC “Although this material has been around the block several times before – and continues to be available in packages greatly varying in transfer quality – this is truly the way to go, and certainly the most deluxe packaging this material has ever received with the greatest sound retrieval yet employed.” CK “Sonically, graphically, and in terms of comprehensiveness, this is truly the definitive study of Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings.” JM “Armstrong collectors will find everything from Armstrong’s Okeh record dates here, re-mastered, finally correctly according to many Armstrong scholars. Digitally re-mastered and pitch altered to the sound of Armstrong’s day. The music sound has significantly improved over previous Columbia/Legacy reissues.” MC “In addition to sounding better than the competition, it also sensibly lays out all the recordings Satchmo made during this period, grouping all the original Hot Five recordings from 1925 to 1927 (and all attendant material) together on the first two discs, all of the Hot Sevens on disc three, with the final disc devoted to the second coming of the Hot Five in 1928 along with the attendant material from the following year.” CK “Armstrong’s Hot Fives band comprised of his wife Lil’ Hardin Armstrong (piano/vocals), Kid Ory (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), and Johnny St. Cyr (banjo), were supplemented by tuba and drums to make the Hot Sevens. The last disc of the set features Armstrong and pianist Earl Hines, plus several big band recordings marketed under the popular Fives name.” MC “There are also several categories of ‘bonus tracks’ aboard this deluxe set, including the ‘Lil’s Hot Shots’ 1926 Hot Five Vocalion recordings, a 1927 Johnny Dodds session that became the prototype for the Hot Seven recordings that soon followed, and the only known alternate take of I Can’t Give You Anything but Love. You can’t have a Louis Armstrong collection without this historic set. Come to think of it, you can’t have any kind of respectable jazz collection without it, either.” CK Notes: Comes with an “extensive book with critical essays, photo galleries, full discographical info, includes Johnny Dodds’ & Lil Hardin’s rare sessions for the Vocalion and Brunswick labels, …main essay by grammy-nominated scholar Robert G. O'Meally, a personal reflection by producer George Avakian, and a collection of unrivaled historical value.” JM

Resources and Related Links: BL Blender Magazine’s 100 Greatest American Albums (10/08) MC Mark Corrota, AllAboutJazz.com (9/1/00) JM JazzByMail.com CK Cub Koda, All Music Guide KM Kenny Mathieson, The Wire. The Most Important Records Ever Made. (June 1992, issue 100). Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 8/4/2011; last updated 1/29/2022.

Today in Music (1950): The Weavers “Goodnight Irene” hit #1

Goodnight Irene The Weavers with the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra

Writer(s): Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter (see lyrics here) First Charted: July 1, 1950 Peak: 113 US, 14 HP, 110 CB, 16 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 1.82 video, 0.30 streaming

Awards (Leadbelly): Click on award for more details. Awards (Weavers): Click on award for more details. Awards (Ernest Tubb/Red Foley):

About the Song: Tasked by the Library of Congess with making field recordings, John and Alan Lomax traveled throughout the American South to capture prison hollers and folk ballads. “Goodnight Irene” was the “most famous song recorded on their travels.” TC They heard it in July 1933, as performed by Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter in Angola, Louisiana. He was 42 and serving his third stint in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. SS John Lomax said, “We came there looking for the roots of American black song and we certainly found them with Leadbelly.” TC He “sang spirituals, popular songs, field and prison hollers, cowboy and children’s songs, dance tunes and folk ballads, as well as his own compositions.” NRR As John Szwed wrote, he was “a man with a vast repertoire of traditional material and…such performing flair that he seemed to give off light when he sang.” SS “Goodnight Irene” was used “to open and close most of his concerts, in a conscious attempt to soften his rough-hewn image.” NPR John Lomax and Leadbelly took writing credits on the song, but it actually can be traced to African-American composer Gussie L. Davis, SS who, according to Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell in The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, first published the sentimental waltz in Cincinnati in 1886 and again in New York in 1892. JA Wolf and Lornell say Leadbelly would have learned the song in 1908 in his native Texas from his uncle Terrell. SS He reworked it to “fit his performing needs, accompanied as always by his Stella 12-string guitar.” SS The song focuses on “a troubled man who needs love and stability but doesn’t have the constitution for them…The singer calls for morphine and contemplates suicide. Yet the love that he feels for Irene is transcendent and gentle and life-giving.” TC “In that flowing waltz we have a sense of the love that he craves.” TC By the early 1940s, the song “was very familiar to everyone in the folk community.” SS Pete Seeger, of the Weavers, had befriended Leadbelly and knew first-hand the power of the song to captivate an audience. His group’s recording of the song, complete with “violins and other orchestra touches provided by Gordon Jenkins,” SS divided folk purists but made for a monstrously successful commercial recording, hitting #1 in 1950, just months after Leadbelly’s death. There were five other chart versions that year by the Alexander Brothers (#26 PM), Dennis Day (#17 PM), Frank Sinatra (#5 PM), Jo Stafford (#1 UK), and Ernest Tubb & Red Foley (10 PM, #1 CW). Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for The Weavers DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Alan Lomax DMDB Encyclopedia entry for John Lomax DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Pete Seeger TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 573-4. DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 67. NRR National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress The Full National Recording Registry NPR National Public Radio (1999). “The Most Important American Musical Works of the 20th Century” SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 747. Last updated 1/31/2024.

Edward Foote Gardner’s Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Songs of the Year, 1900-1949

Edward Foote Gardner Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Songs of the Year, 1900-1949

Edward Foote Gardner’s book, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1949 tackled the task of crafting charts for the popular songs of the pre-rock era. He developed a top 20 chart for each month of every year from 1900-1949. These are the top songs for each year based on that book. Check out other “songs of the year” lists here. 1900: George J. Gaskin “When You Were Sweet Sixteen” 1901: Big Four Quartet “Goodbye Dolly Gray” 1902: J.W. Myers “On a Sunday Afternoon” 1903: Bryon G. Harlan “Always in the Way” 1904: Bryon G. Harlan with Frank Stanley “Blue Bell” 1905: Henry Burr (as Irving Gillette) “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” 1906: Henry Burr “Love Me and the World Is Mine” 1907: Bryon G. Harlan “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” 1908: Haydn Quartet “Sunbonnet Sue” 1909: Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” 1910: Henry Burr “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland” 1911: Arthur Collins and Bryon G. Harlan “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” 1912: Heidelberg Quintet “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” 1913: Al Jolson “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” 1914: Billy Murray “He’d Have to Get Under, Get Out and Get Under, to Fix Up His Automobile” 1915: George MacFarlane “A Little Bit of Heaven (Shure, They Call It Ireland)” 1916: Billy Murray “Pretty Baby” 1917: American Quartet “Over There” 1918: Joseph C. Smith & Harry MacDonough “Smiles” 1919: Henry Burr with Albert Campbell “Till We Meet Again” 1920: Paul Whiteman “Whispering” 1921: Ted Lewis “All by Myself” 1922: Paul Whiteman “Three O’Clock in the Morning” 1923: Billy Murray with Ed Smalle “That Old Gang of Mine” 1924: Paul Whiteman “What’ll I Do?” 1925: Al Jolson “All Alone” 1926: George Olsen with Fran Frey, Bob Rice, & Edward Joyce “Always” 1927: Guy Lombardo with Weston Vaughan “Charmaine” 1928: Gene Austin “Ramona” 1929: Leo Reisman with Lew Conrad “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” 1930: Ben Selvin “When It’s Springtime in the Rockies” 1931: Kate Smith “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain” 1932: Ted Lewis “In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town” 1933: Joe Green’s Novelty Orchestra “In the Valley of the Moon” 1934: Ray Noble with Al Bowlly “The Old Spinning Wheel” 1935: Glen Gray with Kenny Sargent “When I Grow Too Old to Dream” 1936: Shep Fields “In the Chapel in the Moonlight” 1937: Guy Lombardo “When My Dream Boat Comes Home” 1938: Larry Clinton with Bea Wain “My Reverie” 1939: Will Glahe “Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrel)” 1940: Glenn Miller with Marion Hutton “The Woodpecker Song” 1941: Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly “Maria Elena” 1942: Vaughn Monroe “When the Lights Go on Again All Over the World” 1943: The Mills Brothers “Paper Doll” 1944: Dinah Shore “I’ll Walk Alone” 1945: Les Brown with Doris Day “Sentimental Journey” 1946: The Ink Spots “The Gypsy” 1947: The Harmonicats “Peg O’ My Heart” 1948: Jon Steele & Sandra “My Happiness” 1949: Perry Como “Some Enchanted Evening” Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “‘Songs of the Year’ lists” Edward Foote Gardner (2000). Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1949. Paragon House: St. Paul, MN. First posted 4/6/2019; last updated 12/22/2022.

Top 100 Songs According to Gardner’s Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1949

Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Top 100 Songs, 1900-1949

Edward Foote Gardner’s book, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century tackled the task of crafting charts for the popular songs of the pre-rock era. He developed a top 20 chart for each month of every year from 1900-1949. The charts also listed only song titles and not particular performers as it was common in the pre-rock era for multiple artists to have recordings of the same hit songs. This chart was created by first sorting songs based on total months at #1. The artist with the top-ranked version of the song is the one listed. Because there were multiple ties, songs were then listed in order of overall DMDB rank. An additional 64 songs which didn’t make this list were at #1 for 2 months. Check other lists based on charts, sales, and airplay here. 5 months at #1: 1. American Quartet “Over There” (1917) 2. Byron Harlan “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” (1907) 4 months at #1: 3. Arthur Collins with Byron Harlan “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911) 4. Henry Burr “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” (1905) 5. Ben Selvin “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” (1919) 6. Ray Noble with Al Bowlly “The Old Spinning Wheel” (1933) 7. Haydn Quartet with Harry MacDonough “Sunbonnet Sue” (1908) 8. Byron G. Harlan “The Blue and the Gray” (1900) 3 months at #1: 9. The Mills Brothers “Paper Doll” (1942) 10. Francis Craig with Bob Lamm “Near You” (1947) 11. The Harmonicats “Peg O’ My Heart” (1947) 12. Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1910) 13. Al Jolson “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” (1913) 14. American Quartet “Moonlight Bay” (1912) 15. Dinah Shore & Her Harper Valley Boys “Buttons and Bows” (1948) 16. Harry MacDonough with Elise Stevenson (as Miss Walton) “ Shine on, Harvest Moon” (1909) 17. Sophie Tucker “Some of These Days” (1911) 18. The Ink Spots “The Gypsy” (1946) 19. Henry Burr with Albert Campbell “Till We Meet Again” (1919) 20. Byron Harlan “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” (1906) 21. George Olsen with Fran Frey, Bob Rice, & Edward Joyce “Always” (1926) 22. Harry MacDonough “Down by the Old Mill Stream” (1911) 23. Haydn Quartet “Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet” (1909) 24. Heidelberg Quintet “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” (1912) 25. Paul Whiteman “Three O’Clock in the Morning” (1922) 26. Billy Murray with the American Quartet “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” (1911) 27. J.W. Myers “On a Sunday Afternoon” (1902) 28. Byron G. Harlan “Hello Central, Give Me Heaven” (1901) 29. Gene Austin “Ramona” (1928) 30. Paul Whiteman “What’ll I Do?” (1924) 31. Harry MacDonough “Hiawatha (His Song to Minnehaha)” (1903) 32. The Victor Military Band “Poor Butterfly” (1917) 33. Wayne King with Ernie Birchill “Goodnight Sweetheart” (1931) 34. Haydn Quartet with Harry MacDonough “Bedelia” (1904) 35. Heidelberg Quintet “By the Beautiful Sea” (1914) 36. George MacFarlane “A Little Bit of Heaven (Shure, They Call It Ireland)” (1915) 37. Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers “Now Is the Hour (Maori Farewell Song)” (1948) 38. Leo Reisman with Frances Maddux “Paradise” (1932) 39. Arthur Collins “Under the Bamboo Tree” (1902) 40. Joseph Smith with Harry MacDonough “Smiles” (1918) 41. Al Jolson “I Wonder What’s Become of Sally” (1924) 42. Dinah Shore “I’ll Walk Alone” (1944) 43. Henry Burr “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland” (1910) 44. Billy Murray “Pretty Baby” (1916) 45. Byron G. Harlan with Frank Stanley “Blue Bell” (1904) 46. Fred Waring with Clare Hanlon “Little White Lies” (1930) 47. Big Four Quartet “Goodbye Dolly Gray” (1901) 48. Elizabeth Spencer with Charles Hart “Let the Rest of the World Go By” (1920) 49. Metropolitan Orchestra “Creole Belles” (1902) 2 months at #1: 50. Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers “White Christmas” (1942) 51. Judy Garland “Over the Rainbow” (1939) 52. Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” (1927) 53. Paul Whiteman “Whispering” (1920) 54. Billy Murray “You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”)” (1906) 55. Vernon Dalhart “The Prisoner’s Song” (1925) 56. Peerless Quartet “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1911) 57. Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra “I’ll Never Smile Again” (1940) 58. Les Brown with Doris Day “Sentimental Journey” (1945) 59. Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908) 60. Artie Shaw “Frenesi” (1940) 61. Dooley Wilson “As Time Goes By” (1942) 62. Vaughn Monroe “Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)” (1949) 63. Billy Murray “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” (1904) 64. Glenn Miller with Tex Beneke & the Four Modernaires “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (1941) 65. Billy Murray “Yankee Doodle Boy” (1905) 66. Al Jolson “Sonny Boy” (1928) 67. Harry James with Helen Forrest “I’ve Heard That Song Before” (1943) 68. Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter’s Orchestra “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1944) 69. Larry Clinton with Bea Wain “Deep Purple” (1939) 70. J.W. Myers “In the Good Old Summertime” (1902) 71. Perry Como “Till the End of Time” (1945) 72. John McCormack “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary” (1915) 73. Van & Schenck “Carolina in the Morning” (1923) 74. Nick Lucas Tip Toe “Through the Tulips” (1929) 75. Henry Burr “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” (1909) 76. Johnny Mercer with the Pied Pipers “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” (1945) 77. Ben Selvin “Blue Skies” (1927) 78. Arthur Collins with Byron Harlan “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (1918) 79. Ted Lewis “In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town” (1932) 80. Victor Orchestra “The Glow-Worm” (1908) 81. Rudy Vallee “Stein Song (University of Maine)” (1930) 82. Billy Jones “Yes! We Have No Bananas” (1923) 83. Eddie Cantor “If You Knew Susie Like I Know Susie” (1925) 84. Wendell Hall “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’” (1924) 85. Dick Haymes with the Song Spinners “You’ll Never Know” (1943) 86. Paul Whiteman with Franklyn Baur “Valencia (A Song of Spain)” (1926) 87. Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly & Helen O’Connell “Amapola (Pretty Little Poppy)” (1941) 88. George Olsen with Joe Morrison “The Last Round-Up” (1933) 89. Paul Whiteman “My Mammy” (1921) 90. Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen “Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)” (1944) 91. Eddie Cantor “Margie” (1921) 92. Johnny Mercer & the Pied Pipers “On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe” (1945) 93. Peerless Quartet “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” (1915) 94. Blue Barron & His Orchestra “Cruising Down the River on a Sunday Afternoon” (1949) 95. Frankie Carle with Marjorie Hughes “Oh, What It Seemed to Be” (1946) 96. Billy Murray “Harrigan” (1907) 97. Henry Burr “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight” (1918) 98. Ethel Waters “Am I Blue?” (1929) 99. Vic Damone “You’re Breaking My Heart” (1949) 100. Steve Porter “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” (1900) Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “Lists Based on Charts, Sales, and Airplay” Dave’s Music Database: “Edward Foote Gardner’s Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century Songs of the Year, 1900-1949” Edward Foote Gardner (2000). Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century. Paragon House: St. Paul, MN. First posted 7/22/2014; last updated 12/1/2022.