50 years ago: Al Jolson goes to #1 with “Sonny Boy”

Sonny Boy Al Jolson

Writer(s): Ray Henderson, Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown, Al Jolson (see lyrics here) First Charted: October 13, 1928 Peak: 112 US, 188 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.10 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Jolson was rehearsing for The Singing Fool, his follow-up to the first sound picture, 1927’s The Jazz Singer, when he needed to replace a song. He phoned the writing team of Henderson, DeSylva, and Brown with his request and they had a song ready the next morning. It has been suggested that the song they wrote, “Sonny Boy,” was intended as a joke, TY1 but their “joke”ended up the biggest hit of 1928 CPM and the biggest hit of Jolson’s career. That was no small feat, considering it was his twenty-first of twenty three #1 songs. PM In 1928, Ruth Etting (#6) and Jan Garber (#14) also found chart success with the song. In 1929, Gene Austin took it to #12 and in 1941 the Andrews Sisters revived the song with their #22 version. PM Ruth Brown, Petula Clark, John MacCormack, Mandy Patinkin, and Paul Robeson also recorded the song. WK “Sonny Boy” was an intergral part of P.G. Wodehouse’s short story “Jeeves and the Song of Songs,” which was dramatized on the British TV series Jeeves and Wooster (“Tuppy and the Terrier,” season 1, episode 2). Singer Eddie Fisher, who was born the year of the song’s release, was called “Sonny Boy” by his family. He shared in his autobiography that even after he’d gained fame in marrying Elizabeth Taylor, making $40,000 a week in Las Vegas, and hanging out with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Rocky Marciano, the nickname stuck. WK Resources: TY1 Don Tyler (1985). Hit Parade 1920-1955. Quill: New York, NY. Page 45. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 233 and 583. CPM Joel Whitburn (1999). A Century of Pop Music. Record Research, Inc.: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 43. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/20/2016; last updated 2/27/2023.

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50 years ago: Gene Austin “Bye Bye Blackbird” hit #1

Bye Bye Blackbird Gene Austin

Writer(s): Ray Henderson (music), Mort Dixon (words) (see lyrics here) First Charted: July 31, 1926 Peak: 13 US, 11 GA, 14 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.28 video, 1.25 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Composer Ray Henderson and lyricist Mort Dixon came together again for “Bye Bye Blackbird” after having a hit in 1923 with “That Old Gang of Mine.” “Bye Bye Blackbird” has “lasted as a standard into the twenty-first century.” SM Eddie Cantor introduced it in vaudeville DJ and it became the theme song for vaudevillian George Price. TY2 Sam Lanin’s Dance Orchestra was the first to record the song SM but Gene Austin, backed by piano, cello, and violin, made it a hit. It is speculated that the song is about a prostitute leaving her job and returning home to her mother. GEA Part of the confusion over the song’s meaning comes from the seldom-sung opening verse and verses about the bluebird. GEA However, the song’s popularity is also somewhat attributed to the line “pack up all my cares and woe” resonating with people during the Great Depression. TY2 The song has also been recorded by John Coltrane, Benny Krueger (#7, 1926), Peggy Lee, Nick Lucas (#4, 1926), Paul McCartney, Russ Morgan (#20, 1948), and Leo Reisman (#11, 1926). Cantor sang it again for the soundtrack of his 1953 biopic The Eddie Cantor Story. Lee sang it in the 1955 movie musical Pete Kelly’s Blues, in which she played alcoholic jazz singer Rose Hopkins. One of the most unusual recordings came During World War II when the Germans changed the words to the song and played it to demoralize American and British troops. GEA The song was also played over loudspeakers as a taunt by segregationists opposed to the Civil Rights Movement, most notably at the Selma to Montgomery marches. WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Gene Austin GEA Great Entertainers Archives (3/20/2013). “History of a Song: Bye Bye Blackbird” by David Lobosco DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 30. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Pages 144-5. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 482. WK Wikipedia First posted 2/24/2023.