2013-07-08

Louis Jordan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Background information

Also known as "The King of the Jukebox"

Born July 8, 1908

Brinkley, Arkansas, United States

Died February 4, 1975 (aged 66)

Los Angeles, California, United States

Genres Swing

jump blues

jazz

blues

R&B

big band

comedy music

Occupations Bandleader, songwriter, singer, saxophonist, actor

Instruments Alto saxophone, saxophone, piano, clarinet

Years active 1932–1975

Labels Decca, Mercury

Associated acts Tympany Five

Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", he was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him no. 59 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Jordan was one of the most successful African-American musicians of the 20th century, ranking fifth in the list of the all-time most successful black recording artists according to Billboard magazine's chart methodology. Though comprehensive sales figures are not available, he scored at least four million-selling hits during his career. Jordan regularly topped the R&B "race" charts, and was one of the first black recording artists to achieve a significant "crossover" in popularity into the mainstream (predominantly white) American audience, scoring simultaneous Top Ten hits on the white pop charts on several occasions. After Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Louis Jordan was probably the most popular and successful African-American bandleader of his day.

Jordan was a talented singer with great comedic flair, and he fronted his own band for more than twenty years. He duetted with some of the biggest solo singing stars of his day, including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jordan was also an actor and a major black film personality—he appeared in dozens of "soundies" (promotional film clips), made numerous cameos in mainstream features and short films, and starred in two musical feature films made especially for him. He was an instrumentalist who played all forms of the saxophone, but specialized in the alto, in addition to playing piano and clarinet. A productive songwriter, he wrote or co-wrote many songs that became influential classics of 20th-century popular music.

Although Jordan began his career in big-band swing jazz in the 1930s, he became famous as one of the leading practitioners, innovators and popularizers of "jump blues", a swinging, up-tempo, dance-oriented hybrid of jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Typically performed by smaller bands consisting of five or six players, jump music featured shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. It strongly emphasized the rhythm section of piano, bass and drums; after the mid-1940s, this mix was often augmented by electric guitar. Jordan's band also pioneered the use of electric organ.

With his dynamic Tympany Five bands, Jordan mapped out the main parameters of the classic R&B, urban blues and early rock'n'roll genres with a series of hugely influential 78 rpm discs for the Decca label. These recordings presaged many of the styles of black popular music in the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and exerted a huge influence on many leading performers in these genres. Many of his records were produced by Milt Gabler, who went on to refine and develop the qualities of Jordan's recordings in his later production work with Bill Haley, including "Rock Around The Clock".

Early life and musical career

Jordan was born on July 8, 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas, where his father, James Aaron Jordan, was a local music teacher and bandleader for the Brinkley Brass Band and for the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. His mother, Adell, died when Louis was young.

Jordan studied music under his father, and started out on clarinet. In his youth he played in his father’s bands instead of doing farm work when school closed. He also played piano professionally early in his career, but alto saxophone became his main instrument. However, he became even better known as a songwriter, entertainer and vocalist.

Jordan briefly attended Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, Arkansas, and majored in music. After a period with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, with one of his band colleagues having been Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker, and with local bands including Bob Alexander’s Harmony Kings, he went north to Philadelphia and then New York. In 1932, Jordan began performing with the band of Clarence Williams, and when in Philadelphia played clarinet in the Charlie Gaines band.

In late 1936 he was invited to join the influential Savoy Ballroom orchestra led by drummer Chick Webb. Based at New York's Savoy Ballroom, Webb's orchestra was renowned as one of the very best big bands of its day and they regularly beat all comers at the Savoy's legendary "cutting contests". Jordan worked with Webb until 1938, and it proved a vital stepping stone in his career—Webb (who was physically disabled) was a fine musician but not a great showman. The ebullient Jordan often introduced songs as he began singing lead; he later recalled that many in the audience took him to be the band's leader, which undoubtedly boosted his confidence further. This was the same period when the young Ella Fitzgerald was coming to prominence as the Webb band's lead female vocalist; she and Jordan often duetted on stage and they would later reprise the partnership on several records, by which time both artists were major stars.

In 1938, Jordan was fired by Webb for trying to convince Fitzgerald and others to join his new band. By this time Webb was already seriously ill with tuberculosis of the spine. He died after a spinal operation on June 16, 1939, aged only 30; following his death, Ella Fitzgerald took over the band.

Early solo career

Jordan's first band, drawn mainly from members of the Jesse Stone band, was originally a nine-piece, but he soon scaled it down to a sextet after landing a residency at the Elks Rendezvous club at 464 Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The original lineup of the sextet was Jordan (saxes, vocals), Courtney Williams (trumpet), Lem Johnson (tenor sax), Clarence Johnson (piano), Charlie Drayton (bass) and Walter Martin (drums). In his first billing, as "Louie Jordan's Elks Rendez-vous Band", his name was spelled as "Louie" so people would know not to pronounce it "Lewis".

The new band's first recording date for Decca Records (on December 20, 1938) produced three sides on which they backed an obscure vocalist called Rodney Sturgess, and two novelty sides of their own, "Honey in the Bee Ball" and "Barnacle Bill The Sailor". Though these were credited to "The Elks Rendezvous Band", Jordan subsequently changed the name to the "Tympany Five" due to the fact that Martin often used tympany drums in performance. (The word "tympany" is also an old-fashioned colloquial term meaning "swollen, inflated, puffed-up", etymologically related to "timpani", or "kettle drum," but historically separate.)

The various lineups of the Tympany Five (which often featured two or three extra players) included Bill Jennings and Carl Hogan on guitar, renowned pianist-arrangers Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett, "Shadow" Wilson and Chris Columbus on drums and Dallas Bartley on bass. Jordan played alto, tenor and baritone saxophone and sang the lead vocal on most numbers.

Their next recording date in March 1939 produced five sides including "Keep A-Knockin'" (originally recorded in the 1920s and later covered famously by Little Richard), "Sam Jones Done Snagged His Britches" and "Doug the Jitterbug". Lem Johnson subsequently left the group, and was replaced by Stafford Simon. Sessions in December 1939 and January 1940 produced two more early Jordan classics, "You're My Meat" and "You Run Your Mouth and I'll Run My Business". Other members who passed through the band during 1940 and 1941 included tenorist Kenneth Hollon (who recorded with Billie Holiday); trumpeter Freddie Webster (from Earl Hines' band) was part of the nascent bebop scene at Minton's Playhouse and he influenced Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis.

Early 1940s

Jordan in 1946

In 1941 Jordan signed with the General Artists Corporation agency, who appointed Berle Adams as Jordan's agent. Adams secured an engagement at Chicago's Capitol Lounge, supporting The Mills Brothers, and this proved to be an important breakthrough for Jordan and the band.

The Capitol Lounge residency also provides a remarkable yardstick of the scale of Jordan's success. During this engagement, the group was paid the standard union scale of US$70 per week – $35 per week for Jordan and $35 split between the rest of the band. Just seven years later, when Jordan played his record-breaking season at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco during 1948, he reportedly grossed over US$70,000 in just two weeks.

During this period bassist Henry Turner was sacked and replaced by Dallas Bartley. This was followed by another important engagement at the Fox Head Tavern in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Working in the looser environment of Cedar Rapids, away from the main centers, the band was able to develop the novelty aspect of their repertoire and performance. Jordan later identified his stint at the Fox Head Tavern as the turning point in his career, and it was also while there that he found several songs that became early hits including "If It's Love You Want, Baby", "Ration Blues" and "Inflation Blues".

In April 1941 Decca launched the Sepia Series, a 35-cent line that featured artists who were considered to have the "crossover potential" to sell in both the black and white markets, and Jordan's band was transferred from Decca's "race" label to the Sepia Series, alongside The Delta Rhythm Boys, the Nat King Cole Trio, Buddy Johnson and the Jay McShann Band.

By the time the group returned to New York in late 1941, the lineup had changed to Jordan, Bartley, Martin, trumpeter Eddie Roane and pianist Arnold Thomas. Recording dates in November 1941 produced another early Jordan classic, "Knock Me A Kiss", which became a significant jukebox seller, although it did not make the charts. However Roy Eldridge subsequently recorded a version, backed by the Gene Krupa band, which became a hit in June 1942, almost a year after the Jordan recording came out; it was also covered by Jimmie Lunceford.

These sessions also produced Jordan's first big-selling record, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", originally recorded by Casey Bill Weldon in 1936, although again it did not make the charts. It too was covered by Lunceford, in 1942, whose version reached No. 12 on the pop charts, and it was also covered by Big Bill Broonzy and Jimmy Rushing.

Sessions in July 1942 produced nine prime sides, allowing Decca to stockpile Jordan's recordings as a hedge against the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban, which was declared the same month. The ban—imposed in order to secure royalty payments for union musicians for each record sold—led to Jordan's enforced absence from the studio for the next year, and it also prevented many seminal bebop performers from recording during one of the most crucial years of the genre's history.

"I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town" was an "answer record" to Jordan's earlier "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town", but it became Jordan's first major chart hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard's Harlem Hit Parade. His next side, "What's the Use of Getting Sober" (When You're Gonna Get Drunk Again)", became Jordan's first No. 1 hit, reaching the top of the Harlem Hit Parade in December 1942. A subsequent side, "The Chicks I Pick Are Slender, Tender and Fine", reached No. 10 in January 1943. Their next major side, the comical call-and response number "Five Guys Named Moe", was one of the first recordings to solidify the fast-paced, swinging R&B style that became the Jordan trademark and it struck a chord with audiences, reaching No. 3 on the race charts in September 1943. The song was later taken as the title of a long-running stage show that paid tribute to Jordan and his music. The more conventional "That'll Just About Knock Me Out" also fared well, reaching No. 8 on the race charts and giving Jordan his fifth hit from the December 1942 sessions.

In late 1942, Jordan and his band relocated to Los Angeles, working at major venues there and in San Diego. While in L.A., Jordan began making "soundies", the earliest precursors of the modern music video genre, and he also appeared on many Jubilee radio shows and a series of programs made for the Armed Forces Radio for distribution to American troops overseas. Unlike many musicians, Jordan's career was uninterrupted by the draft, except for a 4-week Army camp tour. Due to a "hernia condition" he was classified 4F.

Decca was one of the first labels to reach an agreement with the Musicians' Union and Jordan returned to recording in October 1943. At this session Jordan and his band recorded "Ration Blues", which dated from their Fox Head Tavern days but had a new timeliness with the imposition of wartime rationing. It became Jordan's first crossover hit, charting on both the white and black pop charts. It was also a huge hit on the Harlem Hit Parade, where it spent six weeks at No. 1 and stayed in the Top Ten for a remarkable 21 weeks, and it reached No. 11 in the general "best-sellers" chart.

Commercial success

Jordan in New York, July 1946, shortly after getting second billing to Glen Gray at the Paramount

In the 1940s, Jordan released dozens of hit songs, including the swinging "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (one of the earliest and most powerful contenders for the title of "First rock and roll record"), "Blue Light Boogie", the comic classic "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Buzz Me," "Ain't That Just Like a Woman (They'll Do It Every Time)", and the multi-million seller "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie".

One of his biggest hits was "Caldonia", with its energetic screaming punchline, banged out by the whole band, "Caldonia! Caldonia! What makes your big head so hard?" After Jordan's success with it, the song was also recorded by Woody Herman in a famous modern arrangement, including a unison chorus by five trumpets. Muddy Waters also cut a version. However, many of Jordan's biggest R&B hits were inimitable enough that there were no hit cover versions, a rarity in an era when poppish "black" records were rerecorded by white artists, and many popular songs were released in multiple competing versions.

Jordan's raucous recordings were also notable for their use of fantastical narrative. This is perhaps best exemplified on the freewheeling party adventure "Saturday Night Fish Fry", a two-part 1950 hit that was split across both sides of a 78. It is arguably one of the earliest American recordings to include all the basic elements of the classic rock'n'roll genre (obviously exerting a direct influence on the subsequent work of Bill Haley) and it is certainly one of the first widely popular songs to use the word "rocking" in the chorus and to prominently feature a distorted electric guitar.

Its distinctive comical adventure narrative is strikingly similar to the style later used by Bob Dylan in his classic "story" songs like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" and "Tombstone Blues". "Saturday Night Fish Fry" is also notable for the fact that it dispenses with the customary instrumental chorus introduction, but its most prominent feature is Jordan's rapid-fire, semi-spoken vocal. His delivery, clearly influenced by his experience as a saxophone soloist, de-emphasizes the vocal melody in favor of highly syncopated phrasing and the percussive effects of alliteration and assonance, and it is arguably one of the earliest examples in American popular music of the vocal stylings that eventually evolved into rap.

Jordan's original songs joyously celebrated the ups and downs of African-American urban life and were infused with cheeky good humor and a driving musical energy that had a massive influence on the development of rock and roll. His music was popular with both blacks and whites, but lyrically, most of his songs were emphatically and uncompromisingly "black" in their content and delivery.

Loaded with wry social commentary and coded references, they are also a treasury of 1930s/40s black hipster slang, and through his records Jordan was probably one of the main popularizers of the slang term "chick" (woman). Sexual themes often featured strongly and some sides—notably the saucy double entendre of "Show Me How To Milk The Cow"—were so risqué that it seems remarkable that they were issued at all.

"King of the Jukebox"

The prime of Louis Jordan's recording career, 1942–1950, was a period of segregation on the radio. Despite this he was able to score the crossover No. 1 single "G.I. Jive"/"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in 1944, thanks in large part to his performance with his orchestra of the song in the Universal 1944, all-star wartime musical Follow the Boys. Two years later, MGM had its cartoon cat Tom sing "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?" in the 1946 Tom and Jerry cartoon short "Solid Serenade". He appeared in the 1946 Monogram Pictures movie Swing Parade of 1946 and starred in the 1947 all-black, full-length Astor Pictures film Reet, Petite and Gone.

During this period Jordan again placed more than a dozen songs on the national charts. However, Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five dominated the 1940s R&B charts, or as they were known at the time, the "race" charts. In this period Jordan scored a staggering eighteen No. 1 singles and fifty-four Top Ten placings. To this day Louis Jordan still ranks as the top black recording artist of all time in terms of the total number of weeks at #1—his records scored an incredible total of 113 weeks in the No. 1 position (the runner-up being Stevie Wonder with 70 weeks). From July 1946 through May 1947, Jordan scored five consecutive No. 1 songs, holding the top slot for 44 consecutive weeks.

Jordan's popularity was boosted not only by his hit Decca sides, but also by his prolific recordings for Armed Forces Radio and the V-Disc transcription program, which helped to make him as popular with whites as with blacks. He also starred in a series of short musical films, as well as making numerous "soundies" for his hit songs. The ancestor of the modern music video, "soundies" were short film clips designed for use in audio-visual jukeboxes. These were in addition to guesting in Follow the Boys.

Decline of popularity

In 1951, Jordan put together a short-lived big band that included musicians such as Pee Wee Moore and others, at a time when big bands were on their way out; this is considered the beginning of his commercial decline, even though he reverted to the Tympany Five format within a year. By the mid-1950s, Jordan's records were not selling as well as they used to and he ended up leaving Decca Records.

The first label to sign Jordan was Aladdin Records, with whom Jordan recorded 21 songs in early 1954; nine singles were released from these sessions, with three of the songs remaining unreleased. In 1955, Jordan recorded with RCA "independent" subsidiary "X" Records, who changed their name to Vik Records while Jordan was with them. Three singles were released under the "X" imprint and one under the Vik imprint; four of the tracks went unreleased. It was in these sessions that Jordan intensified his sound to compete with rock 'n roll.

In 1956, Mercury Records signed Jordan, releasing two LP's and a handful of singles. Jordan's first LP with Mercury, Somebody Up There Digs Me (1956), showcased updated rock n' roll versions of previous hits such as "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Caldonia", "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie", "Salt Pork, West Virginia", and "Beware!"; its follow-up, Man, We're Wailin' (1957), featured a more laid back "late night" sound. Although Mercury intended for this to be a comeback for Jordan, the comeback did not turn out to be a success, and the label let Jordan go in 1958.[10] Jordan would record sporadically in the 1960s with Warwick (1960), Black Lion (1962), Tangerine (1962–1965), Pzazz (1968), and again in the early 1970s with Black and Blue (1973), Blues Spectrum (1973), and JSP (1974).

In 1962 he appeared on the album Louis Jordan Sings by British trumpeter and bandleader Chris Barber. Speaking in 2012, Barber recalled seeing Jordan in the early 1960s at The Apollo in New York, with the intention of bringing him to record in the UK for the first time. Barber said:

".. playing with him was just frightening. It's a bit like an amateur guitar player from a back street who has just bought a Spanish guitar, working with Segovia. He didn't make you feel small, but he was just so perfect in what he did. ... I still remember watching him singing, but he would accompany himself on the alto, and you were convinced he was playing the alto while he was singing... the breath hadn't gone from his last word before he was playing he alto and it seemed to be simultaneous... He got a very raw deal from history... In the Chick Webb band there were two regular singers - Ella and Louis Jordan. And yet really history has consigned him to just being a comedy vocal thing with a bit of rock and roll, and the first alto... but he was such a consumately good singer that it's sad that he wasn't known more for it."

Jordan died in Los Angeles, California, from a heart attack on February 4, 1975.[14] He is buried at Mt. Olive Cemetery in his wife Martha's hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.

During an interview late in life, Jordan made the controversial remark that rock and roll music was simply rhythm and blues music played by white performers.

Although Jordan wrote (or co-wrote) a large proportion of the songs he performed, he did not benefit financially from many of them. Many of his self-penned biggest hits, including "Caldonia", were credited to Jordan's then wife Fleecie Moore as a means of avoiding an existing publishing arrangement. The marriage was acrimonious and short-lived—on two occasions, Moore stabbed Jordan after domestic disputes, almost killing him the second time—and after their divorce Fleecie retained ownership of the songs. However, Jordan may have taken credit for some songs written by others—he is credited as the co-writer of "Saturday Night Fish Fry", but Tympany Five pianist Bill Doggett later claimed that in fact he had written the song

Films

As well as singing in many films, and appearing in Meet Miss Bobby Sox (1944) and Follow the Boys (1944), Jordan starred in several race films: Beware (1946), and Reet, Petite, and Gone and Look Out Sister (both 1947, when the race films ended).

His prolific use of film as a promotional vehicle broke new ground, garnering admiration from the trade press, including Billboard, which gushed, "The movies have helped the one-nighters, which have also been helped by recordings, which have also helped the movies, which in turn have become more profitable. It’s a delicious circle, and other bands are now exploring the possibilities..."

Private life

Jordan is believed to have been married five times. His first wife was named Julia or Julie, but by 1932 he was married to Texas singer and dancer Ida Fields. He and Fields divorced, and in 1942 he married childhood sweetheart Fleecie Moore. After their divorce, he married dancer Vicky Hayes in 1951, and separated from her in 1960. Finally, he married singer and dancer Martha Weaver in 1966.

Singles

1930s

Year Title Details Peak chart positions

[note 4]

1939 "Honey in the Bee Ball"

Composer: Louis Jordan

Recorded: December 30, 1938

Label: Decca 7556

1939 "Barnacle Bill the Sailor"

Composer: Frank Luther, Carson Robison

Recorded: December 30, 1938

Label: Decca 7556

1939 "Flat Face"

Composer: Courtney Williams

Recorded: March 29, 1939

Label: Decca 7590

1939 "Doug the Jitterbug"

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: March 29, 1939

Label: Decca 7590

1939 "Keep a-Knockin’"

Composer: Jordan, Perry Bradford, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: March 29, 1939

Label: Decca 7609

1939 "At the Swing Cat’s Ball"

Composer:

Recorded: March 29, 1939

Label: Decca 7609

1939 "Sam Jones Done Snagged His Britches"

Composer: Perry Bradford, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: March 29, 1939

Label: Decca 7623

1939 "Swinging in a Cocoanut Tree"

Composer: J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: March 29, 1939

Label: Decca 7623

1939 "Honeysuckle Rose"[note 5]

Composer: Fats Waller, Andy Razaf

Recorded: November 14, 1939

Label: Decca 7675

1939 "But I’ll Be Back"

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: November 14, 1939

Label: Decca 7675

1939 "‘Fore Day Blues"

Composer: Perry Bradford, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: November 14, 1939

Label: Decca 7693

1939 "You Ain’t Nowhere"

Composer: Jordan, Don Redman

Recorded: November 14, 1939

Label: Decca 7693

1939 "You’re My Meat"

Composer: Skeets Tolbert

Recorded: November 14, 1939

Label: Decca 7719

1939 "Jake, What a Snake"

Composer: J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: November 14, 1939

Label: Decca 7719

Blank in chart positions indicates release that did not chart.

1940s

Year Title Details Peak chart positions[note 6]

R&B Pop C&W

1940 "Hard Lovin’ Blues"[note 7]

Composer: Yack Taylor

Recorded: January 25, 1940

Label: Decca 7705

1940 "You Run Your Mouth and I’ll Run My Business"[note 8]

Composer: Lil Armstrong

Recorded: January 25, 1940

Label: Decca 7705

1940 "I'm Alabama Bound"

Composer: Mike Jackson, Robert Hoffman

Recorded: January 25, 1940

Label: Decca 7723

1940 "June Teenth Jamboree"

Composer: Sammy Price

Recorded: January 25, 1940

Label: Decca 7723

1940 "You Got to Go When the Wagon Comes"[note 9]

Composer: Randy Culbreth, Jasper Thomas

Recorded: March 13, 1940

Label: Decca 7729

1940 "After School Swing Session (Swinging with Symphony Sid)"

Composer: Jordan, Buddy Feyne

Recorded: March 13, 1940

Label: Decca 7729

1940 "Lovie Joe"[note 10]

Composer: Jordan, Will Marion Cook

Recorded: March 13, 1940

Label: Decca 7745

1940 "Somebody Done Hoodooed the Hoodoo Man"

Composer: Wesley Wilson

Recorded: March 13, 1940

Label: Decca 7745

1940 "Bounce the Ball (Do Da Little Um Day)"

Composer: Mike Jackson

Recorded: March 13, 1940

Label: Decca 3253

1940 "Don’t Come Crying on My Shoulder"

Composer: Arthur Altman, Manny Kurtz, Murray Mencher

Recorded: April 29, 1940

Label: Decca 3253

1940 "Never Let Your Left Hand Know What Your Right Hand’s Doin’"

Composer: Ted Delaney, Georgia South

Recorded: April 29, 1940

Label: Decca 7777

1940 "Penthouse in the Basement"

Composer: Walter Bishop, Sr.

Recorded: March 13, 1940

Label: Decca 7777

1940 "Oh Boy, I’m in the Groove

Composer: Ella Fitzgerald

Recorded: April 29, 1940

Label: Decca 3360

1940 "Waitin’ for the Robert E. Lee"

Composer: L. Wolfe Gilbert, Lewis F. Muir

Recorded: April 29, 1940

Label: Decca 3360

1940 "Do You Call that a Buddy? (Dirty Cat)"

Composer: Wesley Wilson

Recorded: September 30, 1940

Label: Decca 8500

1940 "Pompton Turnpike"

Composer: Will Osborne, Dick Rogers

Recorded: September 30, 1940

Label: Decca 8500

1940 "I Know You (I Know What You Wanna Do)"

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: September 30, 1940

Label: Decca 8501

1940 "A Chicken Ain't Nothin' but a Bird"

Composer: Emmett "Babe" Wallace

Recorded: September 30, 1940

Label: Decca 8501

1941 "T-Bone Blues"[note 11]

Composer: T-Bone Walker, Les Hite

Recorded: January 24, 1941

Label: Decca 8525

1941 "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie"[note 12]

Composer: Pinetop Smith

Recorded: January, 24 1941

Label: Decca 8525

1941 "The Two Little Squirrels (Nuts to You)"

Composer: Mack David, Eddie Lane, Vee Lawnhurst

Recorded: January 24, 1941

Label: Decca 8537

1941 "Pan-Pan"

Composer: Jerry Daniels

Recorded: January 24, 1941

Label: Decca 8537

1941 "Saxa-Woogie"[note 13]

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: April 2, 1941

Label: Decca 8560

1941 "Brotherly Love (Wrong Ideas)"

Composer: Jordan, Leonard Feather, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: April 2, 1941

Label: Decca 8560

1941 "Boogie Woogie Came to Town"

Composer: Jordan, Walter Bishop, Sr., J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: April 2, 1941

Label: Decca 8581

1941 "Saint Vitus Dance"

Composer: Mike Jackson

Recorded: April 2, 1941

Label: Decca 8581

1942 "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town"[note 14]

Composer: Andy Razaf, Casey Bill Weldon

Recorded: November 22, 1941

Label: Decca 8593

1942 "Knock Me a Kiss"[note 15]

Composer: Mike Jackson

Recorded: November 15, 1941

Label: Decca 8593

1942 "How 'Bout That?"

Composer:

Recorded: November 15, 1941

Label: Decca 8605

1942 "The Green Grass Grows All Around"

Composer: Arthur Johnson, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: November 22, 1941

Label: Decca 8605

1942 "Mama Mama Blues (Rusty Dusty Blues)"[note 16]

Composer: J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: November 15, 1941

Label: Decca 8627

1942 "Small Town Boy"

Composer: Jordan, Dallas Bartley

Recorded: November 22, 1941

Label: Decca 8627

1942 "I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town"[note 17]

Composer: Jordan, Clarence Williams

Recorded: July 21, 1942

Label: Decca 8638

3

1942 "It's a Low Down Dirty Shame"[note 18]

Composer: (Big Bill Broonzy rec 3/38)

Recorded: July 21, 1942

Label: Decca 8638

1942 "What's the Use of Getting Sober (When You're Gonna Get Drunk Again)"[note 19]

Composer: Bubsy Meyers

Recorded: July 21, 1942

Label: Decca 8645

1

1943 "The Chicks I Pick Are Slender and Tender and Tall"[note 20]

Composer: Mike Jackson

Recorded: July 21, 1942

Label: Decca 8645

10

1943 "Five Guys Named Moe"[note 21]

Composer: Jerry Bresler, Larry Wynn

Recorded: July 21, 1942

Label: Decca 8653

3

1943 "That'll Just 'Bout Knock Me Out"

Composer: Jordan, Casey Bill Weldon

Recorded: July 21, 1942

Label: Decca 8653

8

1943 "Ration Blues"[note 22]

Composer: Jordan, Collenane Clark, Antonio Cosey

Recorded: October 4, 1943

Label: Decca 8654

1 11 1

1944 "Deacon Jones"

Composer: Hy Heath, Johnny Lange, Richard Long

Recorded: October 4, 1943

Label: Decca 8654

7

1944 "G.I. Jive"

Composer: Johnny Mercer

Recorded: March 15, 1944

Label: Decca 8659

1 1

1944 "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby"[note 23]

Composer: Jordan, Billy Austin

Recorded: October 4, 1943

Label: Decca 8659

3 2 1

1945 "Mop! Mop!"

Composer: Claude Demetrius, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: March 15, 1944

Label: Decca 8668

1

1945 "You Can't Get That No More"

Composer: Jordan, Sam Theard

Recorded: March 15, 1944

Label: Decca 8668

2 11

1945 "Caldonia"[note 24][note 25]

Composer: F. Moore

Recorded: April 19, 1945

Label: Decca 8670

1 6

1945 "Somebody Done Changed the Lock on My Door"[note 26]

Composer: Casey Bill Weldon

Recorded: April 19, 1945

Label: Decca 8670

3

1946 "Buzz Me"

Composer: F. Moore, Danny Baxter aka Dave Dexter, Jr.

Recorded: January 19, 1946

Label: Decca 18734

1 9

1946 "Don't Worry 'Bout That Mule"

Composer: F. Moore, C. Stewart, W. Davis, D. Groaner

Recorded: July 18, 1945

Label: Decca 18734

1

1946 "Salt Pork, West Virginia"

Composer: F. Moore, Bill Tennyson

Recorded: July 16, 1945

Label: Decca 18762

2

1946 "Reconversion Blues"

Composer: F. Moore, Steve Graham

Recorded: October 15, 1945

Label: Decca 18762

2

1946 "Beware (Brother, Beware)"[note 27]

Composer: F. Moore, Morry Lasco, Dick Adams

Recorded: January 23, 1946

Label: Decca 18818

2 20

1946 "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'"[note 28]

Composer: Joe Greene

Recorded: January 23, 1946

Label: Decca 18818B

3

1945 "My Baby Said Yes (Yip, Yip de Hootie)"[note 29]

Composer: Leo Robin

Recorded: July 1944

Label: Decca 23417

14

1945 "Your Socks Don't Match"

Composer: Leon Carr, Leo Corday

Recorded: July 1944

Label: Decca 23417

1946 "Stone Cold Dead in the Market (He Had It Coming)"[note 30]

Composer: Wilmoth Houdini

Recorded: October 9, 1945

Label: Decca 23546

1 7

1946 "Petootie Pie"[note 31]

Composer: Lorenzo Pack, Frank Paparelli, Raymond Leveen

Recorded: October 9, 1945

Label: Decca 23546

3

1946 "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie"

Composer: Vaughn Horton aka George Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler

Recorded: January 23, 1946

Label: Decca 23610

1 7

1946 "That Chick's Too Young to Fry"

Composer: Tommy Edwards, Jimmy Hillard

Recorded: January 23, 1946

Label: Decca 23610

3

1946 "Ain't That Just Like a Woman (They'll Do It Every Time)"

Composer: F. Moore, Claude Demetrius

Recorded: January 23, 1946

Label: Decca 23669

1 17

1946 "If It's Love You Want, Baby That's Me"

Composer: Sid Robin aka Sidney Rabinowitz

Recorded: June 26, 1946

Label: Decca 23669

1946 "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens"

Composer: Joan Whitney, Alex Kramer

Recorded: june 26, 1946

Label: Decca 23741

1 6

1946 "Let the Good Times Roll"

Composer: F. Moore, Sam Theard

Recorded: June 26, 1946

Label: Decca 23741

2

1947 "Texas and Pacific"

Composer: Jack Wolf Fine, Joseph E. Hirsch

Recorded: October 10, 1946

Label: Decca 23810

1 20

1947 "I Like 'Em Fat Like That"

Composer: Jordan, Claude Demetrius, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: March 1, 1944

Label: Decca 23810

5

1947 "Open the Door, Richard!"

Composer: Jack McVea, Dan Howell, Dusty Fletcher, John Mason

Recorded: January 23, 1947

Label: Decca 23841

2 6

1947 "It's So Easy"

Composer: Allen Roberts, Doris Fisher

Recorded: January 23, 1947

Label: Decca 23841

1947 "Jack, You're Dead"

Composer: Dick Miles, Walter Bishop, Sr.

Recorded: October 10, 1946

Label: Decca 23901

1 21

1947 "I Know What You're Puttin' Down"

Composer: Jordan, Bud Allen

Recorded: October 10, 1946

Label: Decca 23901

3

1947 "Boogie Woogie Blue Plate"

Composer: Joe Bushkin, Johnny DeVries

Recorded:

Label: Decca 24104

1 21

1947 "Sure Had a Wonderful Time"

Composer: F. Moore, Claude Demetrius

Recorded: October 10, 1946

Label: Decca 24104

1947 "Look Out"

Composer: Jordan, Leo Robin

Recorded: June 4, 1947

Label: Decca 24155

5

1947 "Early in the Mornin'"

Composer: Jordan, Dallas Bartley, Leo Hickman

Recorded: April 23, 1947

Label: Decca 23155

3

1948 "Barnyard Boogie"

Composer: Jordan, Wilhelmina Gray

Recorded: April 23, 1947

Label: Decca 24300

2

1948 "How Long Must I Wait for You"

Composer: Lucky Millinder, Jerry Black

Recorded: July 16, 1945

Label: Decca 24300

9

1948 "Reet, Petite and Gone"

Composer: Jordan, Lora Lee

Recorded: October 10, 1946

Label: Decca 24381

4

1948 "Inflation Blues"

Composer: Jordan, Allegretto Alexander, Tommy Southern

Recorded: December 1, 1947

Label: Decca 24381

1948 "Run Joe"

Composer: Jordan, Walter Merrick, Joe Willoughby

Recorded: April 23, 1947

Label: Decca 24448

1 23

1948 "All for the Love of Lil"

Composer: Jerry Bresler, Larry Wynn

Recorded: October 10, 1946

Label: Decca 24448

13

1948 "Don't Burn the Candle at Both Ends"

Composer: Jordan, Benny Carter, Irving Gordon

Recorded: December 19, 1947

Label: Decca 24483

4

1948 "We Can't Agree"

Composer: Jordan, Wilhelmina Gray

Recorded: November 24, 1947

Label: Decca 24483

14

1948 "Daddy-O"[note 32]

Composer: Don Raye, Gene De Paul

Recorded: December 18, 1947

Label: Decca 24502

7

1948 "You're Right on Track"[note 33]

Composer: Irving Gordon, Benny Carter

Recorded: December 18, 1947

Label: Decca 24502

1948 "Pettin' and Pokin'"

Composer: Jordan, Leo Robin

Recorded: December 1, 1947

Label: Decca 24527

5

1948 "Why'd You Do It, Baby?"

Composer:

Recorded: December 18, 1947

Label: Decca 24527

1949 "Roamin' Blues"

Composer: Jordan, Jeff Dane, Ben Lorre

Recorded: November 24, 1947

Label: Decca 24571

10

1949 "Have You Got the Gumption?"

Composer: Bill Austin, Pinetop Smith

Recorded: November 24, 1947

Label: Decca 24571

1949 "You Broke Your Promise"

Composer: Irving Taylor, George Wyle

Recorded: February 1949

Label: Decca 24587

3

1949 "Safe, Sane and Single"

Composer: Jordan, Hy Heath, Johnny Lange

Recorded: February 7, 1949

Label: Decca 24587

1949 "Cole Slaw (Sorghum Switch)"

Composer: Jesse Stone

Recorded: April 12, 1949

Label: Decca 24633

7

1949 "Every Man to His Own Profession"

Composer: Jordan, William J. Tennyson, Jr.

Recorded: April 23, 1949

Label: Decca 24633

10

1949 "You Run Your Mouth, I’ll Run My Business"[note 34]

Composer: Lil Armstrong

Recorded: January 1940

Label: Decca 24643

1949 "A Chicken Ain’t Nothin’ but a Bird"[note 35]

Composer: Emmett "Babe" Wallace

Recorded: September 30, 1940

Label: Decca 24643

1949 "Baby, It's Cold Outside"[note 36]

Composer: Frank Loesser

Recorded: April 8, 1949

Label: Decca 24644

6 9

1949 "Don't Cry, Cry Baby"[note 37]

Composer: Clarence Maher, Bennie Martini, Sail Tepper

Recorded: April 28, 1949

Label: Decca 24644

1949 "Beans and Corn Bread"

Composer: F. Moore, Fred B. Clark

Recorded: April 12, 1949

Label: Decca 24673

1

1949 "Chicky-Mo, Craney-Cro"

Composer: Jordan, Wesley Wilson

Recorded: November 24, 1947

Label: Decca

1949 "Saturday Night Fish Fry (Pts. 1 & 2)"

Composer: Jordan, Ellis Walsh, Al Carters

Recorded: August 9, 1949

Label: Decca 24725

1 21

Blank in chart positions indicates release that did not chart.

V-Discs

Year Title Details Peak chart positions

[note 38]

1943 "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby"

Composer: Jordan, Billy Austin

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 158

1943 "Knock Me a Kiss"

Composer: Mike Jackson

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 158

1942 "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town"

Composer: Andy Razaf, Casey Bill Weldon

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 175

1943 "I've Found a New Baby"

Composer: Jack Palmer, Spencer Williams

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 175

1943 "Five Guys Named Moe"

Composer: Jerry Bresler, Larry Wynn

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 196

1943 "Jumpin' at the Jubilee"

Composer: Jordan

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 196

1943 "You Can't Get That No More"

Composer: Jordan, Sam Theard

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 237

1943 "The End of My Worries"

Composer: Jordan

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 237

1944 "How High Am I"

Composer: Jordan, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 376

1944 "Hey Now Let's Live"

Composer: Jordan, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 376

1944 "Deacon Jones"

Composer: Hy Heath, Johnny Lange, Richard Long

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 478

1944 "I Like 'Em Fat Like That"

Composer: Jordan, Claude Demetrius, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 478

1944 "Bahama Joe"

Composer: F. Moore

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 513

1944 "Nobody but Me"

Composer: F. Moore

Recorded:

Label: V-Disc 513

1950s

Year Title Details Peak chart positions[note 39]

R&B Pop C&W

1950 "School Days"

Composer: Gus Edwards, Will D. Cobb

Recorded: April 28, 1949

Label: Decca 24815

5

1950 "I Know What I've Got"

Composer: Jordan, Sid Robin aka Sidney Rabinowitz

Recorded: February 1949

Label: Decca 24815

1950 "Push-Ka-Pee Shee Pie"

Composer: Jordan, Walter Merrick, Joe Willoughby

Recorded: April 12, 1949

Label: Decca 24877

1950 "Hungry Man"

Composer: Bobby Troup

Recorded: August 9, 1949

Label: Decca 24877

1950 "Baby's Gonna Go Bye Bye"

Composer: Dave Franklin, Van Alexander

Recorded: April 12, 1949

Label: Decca 24981

1950 "Heed My Warning"

Composer: Jordan, Howard Bowman

Recorded: April 12, 1949

Label: Decca 24981

1950 "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie"[note 40]

Composer: Pinetop Smith

Recorded: January, 24 1941

Label: Decca 25394

1950 "Saxa-Woogie"[note 41]

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: April 2, 1941

Label: Decca 25394

1950 "Honeysuckle Rose"[note 42]

Composer: Fats Waller, Andy Razaf

Recorded: November 14, 1939

Label: Decca 25473

1950 "T-Bone Blues"[note 43]

Composer: T-Bone Walker, Les Hite

Recorded: January 24, 1941

Label: Decca 25473

1950 "Onion"

Composer: Jordan, Bill Doggett

Recorded: April 12, 1949

Label: Decca 27058

1950 "Psycho-Loco"

Composer: Jordan, Bill Doggett

Recorded: April 12, 1949

Label: Decca 27058

1950 "Blue Light Boogie (Pts. 1 & 2)"

Composer: Jessie Mae Robinson

Recorded: June 25, 1950

Label: Decca 27114

1

1950 "I Want a Roof Over My Head"

Composer: Brooks, Harvey

Recorded: June 26, 1950

Label: Decca 27129

1950 "Show Me How (You Milk the Cow)"

Composer:

Recorded: June 26, 1950

Label: Decca 27129

1950 "I'll Never Be Free"[note 44]

Composer: Bennie Benjamin, George David Weiss

Recorded: August 1950

Label: Decca 27200

7

1950 "Ain’t Nobody’s Business but My Own"[note 45]

Composer: Porter Grainger, Everett Robbins

Recorded: August 1950

Label: Decca 27200

1950 "Tamburitza Boogie"

Composer: Steve Crlencia, George Vaughn aka George Vaughn Horton

Recorded: August 18, 1950

Label: Decca 27203

10

1950 "Trouble Then Satisfaction"

Composer: George Vaughn aka George Vaughn Horton, Matthew Strange

Recorded: August 21, 1950

Label: Decca 27203

1951 "Lemonade"

Composer: Jordan, Wihelmina Gray

Recorded: Aust 18, 1950

Label: Decca 27324

5

1951 "(You Dyed Your Hair) Chartreuse"

Composer: Billy Moore, Jr., J. Leslie McFarland

Recorded: August 18, 1950

Label: Decca 27324

1951 "Tear Drops from My Eyes"

Composer: Rudy Toombs

Recorded: December 21, 1950

Label: Decca 27428

4

1951 "It's a Great, Great Pleasure"

Composer: Jordan, William J. Tennyson, Jr.

Recorded: August 18, 1950

Label: Decca 27428

1951 "Weak Minded Blues"

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: March 15, 1951

Label: Decca 27547

5

1951 "Is My Pop in There?"

Composer: Brooke Taylor, Wayne Vaughn

Recorded: March 1951

Label: Decca 27547

1951 "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby"

Composer: Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh

Recorded: March 1, 1951

Label: Decca 27620

1951 "You Will Always Have a Friend"

Composer: Jordan, Joe Willoughby

Recorded: August 1950

Label: Decca 27620

1951 "If You're So Smart How Come You Ain't Rich"

Composer: F. Norman, B. Friedman, Walter Bishop, Sr.

Recorded: June 5, 1951

Label: Decca 27648

1951 "How Blue Can You Get?"

Composer: Jane Feather

Recorded: June 1951

Label: Decca 27648

1951 "Please Don't Leave Me"

Composer:

Recorded: June 13, 1951

Label: Decca 27694

1951 "Three-Handed Woman"

Composer: Ben Raleigh, Hilda Taylor

Recorded: June 13, 1951

Label: Decca 27694

1951 "Trust in Me"

Composer:

Recorded: June 5, 1951

Label: Decca 27784

1951 "Cock-a-Doodle Doo"

Composer: Vaughn Horton aka George Vaughn Horton

Recorded: July 30, 1951

Label: Decca 27784

1951 "May Every Day Be Christmas"

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: June 1951

Label: Decca 27806

1951 "Bone Dry"

Composer: Walt Barrows, Bernard Zee, Libby Zee

Recorded: June 13, 1951

Label: Decca 27806

1952 "Lay Something on the Bar (Besides Your Elbows)"

Composer: Billy Austin, Sheldon Smith

Recorded: November 28, 1951

Label: Decca 27898

1952 "No Sale"

Composer:

Recorded: June 26, 1946

Label: Decca 27898

1951 "Louisville Lodge Meeting"

Composer: Ervin Drake, Jimmy Shirl

Recorded: June 5, 1951

Label: Decca 27969

1951 "Work Baby Work"

Composer: Jack Adrian

Recorded: November 28, 1951

Label: Decca 27969

1952 "Slow Down"

Composer: Jordan, Russell Royster

Recorded: November 1951

Label: Decca 28088

1952 "Never Trust a Woman"

Composer: Jordan, Bill Doggett

Recorded: November 1951

Label: Decca 28088

1952 "Junco Partner"

Composer: Bob Shad, Robert Ellen

Recorded: April 1952

Label: Decca 28211

1952 "Azure-Te"

Composer: Wild Bill Davis, Don Wolf

Recorded: April 1952

Label: Decca 28211

1952 "Oil Well, Texas"

Composer: Jordan, Elton Hill, Bill Tennyson

Recorded: April 1952

Label: Decca 28225

1952 "Jordan for President"

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: May 1952

Label: Decca 28225

1952 "Friendship"

Composer: Jordan, Claude Demetrius

Recorded: January 20, 1947

Label: Decca 28444

1952 "You're Too Much Fat"

Composer: Jordan, Ben Lorre, Jeff Dane

Recorded: December 1, 1947

Label: Decca 28444

1953 "You Didn't Want Me Baby"

Composer: F. Moore

Recorded: December 1952

Label: Decca 28543

1953 "A Man's Best Friend"

Composer: Ray McKinley

Recorded: December 1952

Label: Decca 28543

1953 "It's Better to Wait for Love"

Composer: Walter Bishop, Sr.

Recorded: February 1952

Label: Decca 28664

1953 "Just Like a Butterfly"

Composer: Mort Dixon, Harry Woods

Recorded: February 1952

Label: Decca 28664

1953 "Hog Wash"

Composer: Jordan, Bill Tennyson

Recorded: May 1953

Label: Decca 28756

1953 "House Party"

Composer: Jordan, Rose Marie McCoy, Julian Dash, George Kelly

Recorded: May 1953

Label: Decca 28543

1953 "Time Marches On"[note 46]

Composer: Jordan, Joe Willoughby

Recorded: April 1952

Label: Decca 28820

1953 "There Must Be a Way"

Composer: David Saxon, Sammy Gallop

Recorded: July 1952

Label: Decca 28820

1953 "I Want You to Be My Baby"

Composer: Jon Hendricks

Recorded: June 28, 1953

Label: Decca 28883

1953 "You Know It Too"

Composer: Jordan, Earlie Walsh

Recorded: June 28, 1953

Label: Decca 28883

1953 "The Soona Baby"

Composer: Jordan, Bill Doggett, Arthur Johnston

Recorded: December 3, 1952

Label: Decca 28982

1953 "Fat Sam from Birmingham"

Composer: Bob Astor, J. Mayo Williams

Recorded: June 1951

Label: Decca 28983

1954 "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"

Composer: Jimmy Cox

Recorded: January 4, 1954

Label: Decca 29018

1954 "Lollypop"

Composer:

Recorded: January 4, 1954

Label: Decca 29018

1954 "Only Yesterday"

Composer:

Recorded: February 1953

Label: Decca 29166

1954 "I Didn't Know What Time It Was"

Composer: Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers

Recorded: February 1953

Label: Decca 29166

1954 "If It's True"

Composer: Gus Bentley, Don Redman

Recorded: January 2, 1954

Label: Decca 29263

1954 "Wake Up Jacob"

Composer: Gene DePaul, Don Raye

Recorded: January 1, 1954

Label: Decca 29263

1954 "Locked Up"

Composer: George Kelly, Wayne Watts, Sidney Wyche

Recorded: January 4, 1954

Label: Decca 29424

1954 "Perdido"

Composer: Juan Tizol

Recorded: January 1, 1954

Label: Decca 29424

1954 "I Want You To Be My Baby"[note 47]

Composer: Jon Hendricks

Recorded: June 28, 1953

Label: Decca 29655

1954 "Come And Get It"

Composer: Alfred Cobbs

Recorded: November 1951

Label: Decca 29655

1954 "I Gotta Move"

Composer: Mamie Thomas, Leroy Kirkland

Recorded: January 1954

Label: Decca 29860

1954 "Everything That's Made of Wood (Was Once a Tree)"

Composer: Jordan, Walter Bishop, Sr.

Recorded: May 1953

Label: Decca 29860

1954 "Time Marches On"[note 48]

Composer: Jordan, Joe Willoughby

Recorded: April 1952

Label: Decca 30223

1954 "Run Joe"[note 49]

Composer: Jordan, Dr. Walt Merrick, Joe Willoughby

Recorded: April 23, 1947

Label: Decca 30223

1954 “Whiskey Do Your Stuff”

Composer: Shitfe Henri aka Shifty Henry

Recorded: January 1954

Label: Aladdin 3223

1954 “Dad Gum Ya Hide, Boy”

Composer: Browley Guy, Jr.

Recorded: January 1954

Label: Aladdin 3223

1954 “I’ll Die Happy”

Composer: Jon Hendricks, Connie Moore

Recorded: February 195

Label: Aladdin 3227

1954 “Ooo-Wee”

Composer: Howard Biggs, Thomas

Recorded: January 1954

Label: Aladdin 3227

1954 “A Dollar Down”

Composer: Jesse Stone

Recorded: February 1954

Label: Aladdin 3243

1954 “Hurry Home”

Composer: Buddy Bernier, Bob Emmerich, Joseph Meyer

Recorded:April 1954

Label: Aladdin 3243

1954 “I Seen Watcha Done”

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: January 1954

Label: Aladdin 3246

1954 “Messy Bessy”

Composer: Jon Hendricks

Recorded: February 1954

Label: Aladdin 3246

1954 “Louie's Blues”

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: February 1954

Label: Aladdin 3249

1954 “If I Had Any Sense, I’d Go Back Home”

Composer: Rosemarie McCoy

Recorded: April 1954

Label: Aladdin 3249

1954 “Yeah, Yeah Baby!”

Composer: Rudy Toombs

Recorded: February 1954

Label: Aladdin 3264

1954 “Put Some Money in the Pot, Boy (‘Cause the Juice is Running Low)”

Composer: Adelia Davis

Recorded: February 1954

Label: Aladdin 3264

1954 “Fat Back and Corn Liquor”

Composer: Rudy Toombs

Recorded: February 1954

Label: Aladdin 3270

1954 “The Dripper”

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: January 1954

Label: Aladdin 3270

1954 “Gal, You Need a Whippin’”

Composer: Jordan, Antonio Cosey

Recorded: January 1954

Label: Aladdin 3279

1954 “Time is a Passin’”

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: January 1954

Label: Aladdin 3279

1954 “Gotta Go”

Composer: Jordan

Recorded: February 1954

Label: Aladdin 3295

1954 “It’s Hard to be Good Without You”

Composer: Jordan, Eddie Lane

Recorded: January 1954

Label: Aladdin 3295

1955 “Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)”

Composer: Richard Adler, Jerry Ross

Recorded: March 18, 1955

Label: X 0116

1955 “It’s Been Said”

Composer: Nellie Lutcher

Recorded: March 18, 1955

Label: X 0116

1955 “Bananas”

Composer: Bennie Benjamin, George David Weiss

Recorded: March 18, 1955

Label: X 0148

1955 “Baby Let’s Do It Up”

Composer: Winfield Scott

Recorded: March 18, 1955

Label: X 0148

1955 “Chicken Back”

Composer: Ernie Hays, Timmie Rogers, Joe Taylor

Recorded: October 18, 1955

Label: X 0182

1955 “Where Can I Go?”

Composer: Jordan, Clyde Jones

Recorded: October 18, 1955

Label: X 0182

1955 “Rock 'n Roll Call”

Composer: Jack Hammer aka Earl Burroughs, Rudy Toombs

Recorded: October 18, 1955

Label: Vik 0192

1955 “Baby, You’re Just Too Much”

Composer: Aaron Schroeder

Recorded: October 18, 1955

Label: Vik 0192

1956 “Big Bess”

Composer: Teddy McCrae, Mamie Thomas

Recorded: October 23, 1956

Label: Mercury 70993

1956 “Cat Scratchin’”

Composer: R. Refond

Recorded: October 23, 1956

Label: Mercury 70993

1956 "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens (remake)

Composer: Joan Whitney, Alex Kramer

Recorded: 1956

Label: Mercury 71023

1956 "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" (remake)

Composer:Vaughn Horton aka George Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler

Recorded: 1956

Label: Mercury 71023

1957 “Rock Doc”

Composer: Allman, Lloyd Shaffer

Recorded: January 25, 1957

Label: Mercury 71052

1957 “Morning Light”

Composer: Don Benoliel, Jerry Ragovoy

Recorded: January 25, 1957

Label: Mercury 71052

1957 “Fire”

Composer: Jordan, Brook Benton

Recorded: January 25, 1957

Label: Mercury 71106

1957 “Ella Mae”

Composer: Mayme Watts

Recorded: 1957

Label: Mercury 71106

1957 "I Found My Piece of Mind"

Composer: Pee Wee Crayton

Recorded: 1957

Label: Mercury 71206

1957 "I Never Had a Chance"

Composer: Irving Berlin

Recorded: 1957

Label: Mercury 71206

1958 “Sweet Hunk of Junk”

Composer:

Recorded: June 9, 1958

Label:Mercury 71319

1958 “Wish I Could Make Some Money”

Composer:

Recorded: June 9, 1958

Label: Mercury 71319

Blank in chart positions indicates release that did not chart.

1960s

Year Title Details Peak chart positions[note 50]

R&B Pop C&W

1960 "Bills"

Composer: Leslie Ann Butler, Terry Dossie

Recorded:

Label: Warwick M–583

1960 "Fifty Cents"

Composer:

Recorded:

Label: Warwick M–583

1962 "You're My Mule"

Composer: Jordan, William Jones, Lawernce Washington

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 924

1962 "Texarkana Twist"

Composer: D. DeLuca, F. Jordan

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 924

1962 "Workin' Man"

Composer:

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 926

1962 "The Meeting"

Composer:

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 926

1963 "Hardhead"

Composer: Eddie Curtis

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 930

1963 "Never Know When a Cheating Woman Changes Her Mind"

Composer: Floyd Dixon

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 930

1963 "Don't Send Me Flowers When I'm in the Graveyard"

Composer: Floyd Dixon

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 933

1963 "Point of No Return"

Composer: Carole King, Gerry Goffin

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 933

1964 "What I Say"[note 51]

Composer: Ray Charles

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 937

1964 "Old Age"

Composer: Jordan, Mabel Davis, Ray Charles

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 937

1964 "Time Is Running Out"

Composer:

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 942

1964 "Troubadour"

Composer:

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 942

1964 "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens" (remake)

Composer: Joan Whitney, Alex Kramer

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 947

1964 "Saturday Nite Fish Fry" (remake)

Composer: Jordan, Ellis Walsh, Al Carters

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 947

1965 "Comin' Down"

Composer: Bobby Darin, Howlett Smith

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 958

1965 "65 Bars"

Composer: Don Padgett, Howlett Smith

Recorded:

Label: Tangerine 958

1963 "Just to Look at You"

Composer: Irwin Schuster, Jeff Berry

Recorded:

Label: Josie 903

1963 "You Made a Fool Out of Me"

Composer: Jordan, Salle Bell

Recorded:

Label: Josie 903

1968 "Sakitumi"

Composer:

Recorded:

Label: Pzazz 015

1968 "Santa Claus, Santa Claus"

Composer: Teddy Edwards

Recorded:

Label: Pzazz 015

Blank in chart positions indicates release that did not chart.

Albums

Studio albums

Somebody Up There Digs Me (1956)

Man, We're Wailin' (1957)

Live albums

Live Jive
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