Today in Music (1939): “The Saints Go Marching” marched onto the charts

When the Saints Go Marching In Louis Armstrong

Writer(s): James M. Black, Katharine E. Purvis (see lyrics here) First Charted: April 1, 1939 Peak: 10 US, 6 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 24.05 video, -- streaming

Awards (overall): Click on award for more details. Awards (Armstrong): Awards (Bruce Springsteen):

About the Song: “When the Saints Go Marching In,” also known as “When the Saints Are Marching In” and simply “The Saints,” has “African-American spiritual origins, so its history is vague at best.” TY2 It was likely passed down from generation to generation via oral tradition until someone wrote it down. TY2 It gained attention as a traditional slavery-era spiritual and it has been suggested it developed in the Bahamas. FU The song promised “an end to suffering for the righteous,” SS a reference to the Book of Revelations. SS It has famously been used as a funeral hymn. Many African Americans in New Orleans belonged to fraternities, societies or burial clubs and when one of their own died, the song would be played in a mournful, slow tempo as the funeral parade headed from the church to the cemetery. After the service, the song would be played again, but with a more exuberant tempo and mood. TY2 This helped the song evolve into a “joyous hymn, especially in New Orleans,” SS and standard often played by jazz bands. WK Lyricist Katharine Purvis and composer James Milton Black published the song as “When the Saints Are Marching In” in 1896. She was the daughter of a Methodist minister who became a music teacher at the seminary of a Methodist Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. FU Black was a hymn composer, choir teacher, and Sunday school teacher who worked at the same church. FU The song was published again as “When the Saints Go Marching In” in 1927 with similar words and music. FU The Paramount Jubilee Singers were the first to record it in 1923. Over the next few years it was recorded by the Four Harmony Kings (1924), the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers (1924), Wheat Street Female Quatet (1925), Bo Weavil Jackson (1926), Deaconess Alexander (1926), Rev. E.D. campbell (1927), Barbeque Bob (1927), Blind Willie Davis (1928), the Pace Jubilee Singers (1928), DX and Memphis Minnie (1935), sometimes under slightly different titles. SS SecondHandSongs.com notes there have been more than 700 recordings of the song, SH including versions by the Beatles with Tony Sheridan, Harry Belafonte, Bing Crosby, Fats Domino, Ella Fitzgerald, Connie Francis, the Isley Brothers, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, Lady Gaga, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Guy Lombardo, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Tears for Fears, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ike & Tina Turner, the Weavers, and Hank Williams. The song remained relatively unknown nationally until Decca Records asked Louis Armstrong to record some songs in the Dixieland tradition. He tapped into some of his own classics from the 1920s as well as this hymn he knew from childhood. SS Whle the song had been a staple in New Orleans for years, it was Armstrong’s recording which turned it into an American jazz standard. It became the “universally known anthem” for the 1940s Dixieland revival. SS Resources: DX Robert M. W. Dixon, John Godrich, & Howard Rye (1997). Blues and Gospel Records 1890–1943. Oxford University Press: Oxford, NY. FU James J. Fuld (1966). The Book of World Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk. Crown Publishers, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 641-2. SH SecondHandSongs.com SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 750-1. TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 246. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/11/2020; last updated 11/30/2025.

On This Day (1837): Benny Goodman recorded “Sing Sing Sing”

Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) Benny Goodman

Writer(s): Louis Prima, Leon Berry (see lyrics here) Recorded: July 6, 1937 First Charted: April 9, 1938 Peak: 7 US, 12 GA (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 70.63 video, 45.61 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: By the start of the Swing era in 1936, Benny Goodman was its king. He started playing clarinet professionally at the age of 16 and formed his own permanent band by the time he was 25. “Sing, Sing, Sing” was the band’s most renowned performance with solos by Benny as well as drummer Gene Krupa (on his last hit before leaving the band) and trumpeter Harry James. This instrumental includes interpolation of “Christopher Columbus,” PM a Chu Berry song which was written for Fletcher Henderson. SS “Sing, Sing, Sing,” which Goodman called a “killer diller,” NPR’99 was the closer at the bandleader’s legendary Carnegie Hall concert on January 16, 1938. It was the first time jazz comprised a full concert instead of being part of a larger show SS and marked the birthplace of the legitimacy of the genre. NPR’99 “Sing, Sing, Sing” was written by Louis Prima in 1936, but was dramatically reworked as an instrumental by Goodman to become what Steve Sullivan called “the all-time house rocker of the swing era” in his book Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings. SS He credited the song with exemplifying “the sky-high excitement of Big Band jazz at its greatest.” SS Helen Ward, who was initially slated to sing on the track, noted that Gene Krupa was supposed to stop drumming at the end of the third chorus, but when he kept going, Goodman chimed in with his clarinet. The reslt was an eight-minute cut which took up both sides of a 12-inch 78 rpm record, a break from the traditional three-minute recordings which could fit on a 10-inch 78. WK The recording was immediately well-received: Down Beat magazine’s Tom Collins said the performance “will make record history.” SS Resources: NPR’99 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. Pages 42-45. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 179. WK Wikipedia Related Links: Last updated 9/5/2023.