View source for Saint Louis Blues (song)

{{Short description|1914 Song by W. C. Handy}}
{{Distinguish|St. Louis Blues (ice hockey)}}
{{Infobox song
| name = The Saint Louis Blues
| cover = St. Louis Blues cover.jpg
| caption  = Sheet music cover
| published = {{start date|1914|9|11}}<ref name=copy>{{cite book |last=Library of Congress. Copyright Office. |title=Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1914 Musical Compositions Last Half of 1914 New Series Vol 9 Part 2 |url=http://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig92libr |publisher=U.S. Govt. Print. Off. |others=U.S. Copyright Office |date=1914}}</ref>
| type       = single
| artist     = [[Bessie Smith]] with [[Louis Armstrong]], cornet
| B-side     = Cold in Hand Blues
| released   = {{start date|1925|4|10}}
| recorded   = January 14, 1925<ref name="Russell">{{Cite book |first=Tony|last=Russell |date=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=Carlton Books |location=Dubai|page=12 |isbn=1-85868-255-X}}</ref>
| genre      = [[Jazz]]
| length     = 2:46
| label      = [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]
| writer     = [[W. C. Handy]]
}}

"'''The Saint Louis Blues'''" (or "'''St. Louis Blues'''") is a popular American song composed by [[W. C. Handy]] in the [[jazz]] style and published in September 1914. It was one of the first blues songs to succeed as a [[pop music|pop song]] and remains a fundamental part of [[jazz]] musicians' repertoire. [[Benny Goodman]], [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Cab Calloway]], [[Bing Crosby]], [[Bessie Smith]], [[Billy "Uke" Carpenter]], [[Eartha Kitt]],  [[Count Basie]], [[Glenn Miller]], [[Guy Lombardo]], [[Peanuts Hucko]], [[Art Tatum]], [[Paul Robeson]], and the [[Boston Pops Orchestra]] (under the directions of both [[Arthur Fiedler]] and [[Keith Lockhart]]) are among the artists who have recorded it. The song has been called "the jazzman's ''[[Hamlet]]''".<ref name="Stanfield2005">{{cite book |last=Stanfield |first=Peter |title=Body and Soul: Jazz and Blues in American Film, 1927–63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yFk-Hqc4rnwC&pg=PA83 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2005 |access-date=April 12, 2005 |pages=83– |isbn=978-0-252-02994-3}}</ref> Composer [[William Grant Still]] arranged a version of the song in 1916 while working with Handy.<ref name="UC-2000a">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Catherine Parson |url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft1h4nb0g0&chunk.id=d0e11020&toc.id=d0e10910&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress&anchor.id=JD_Page_310#X |title=William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |date=2000 |location=Berkeley, California |page=310}}</ref>

The 1925 version sung by Bessie Smith, with Louis Armstrong on cornet, was inducted into the [[List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (Q–Z)|Grammy Hall of Fame]] in 1993. The 1929 version by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra (with [[Red Allen]]) was inducted in 2008. The 1922 version by W.C. Handy and his Memphis Blues Band was selected by the [[Library of Congress]] for preservation in the [[National Recording Registry]] in 2023.<ref>{{cite web |title=2023 National Recording Registry selections |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/registry-by-induction-years/2023/ |website=Library of Congress |access-date=April 12, 2023}}</ref>

==History==
{{Listen
| filename = OriginalDixielandJazzBandwithAlBernard StLouisBlues.ogg
| title = Saint Louis Blues (1921)
| description = The [[Original Dixieland Jass Band]]'s 1921 recording of "Saint Louis Blues"
| filename2 = Stlouisblues-9bars.ogg
| title2 = Saint Louis Blues (2013)
| description2 = Tenor saxophone playing nine bars
| type = music
}}
Handy said he had been inspired by a chance meeting with a woman on the streets of [[St. Louis]], Missouri, distraught over her husband's absence, who lamented, "Ma man's got a heart like a rock cast in de sea", a key line of the song.<ref name="Handy 1941 119">{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=119}}</ref> Handy's autobiography recounts his hearing the tune in St. Louis in 1892: "It had numerous one-line verses and they would sing it all night."<ref>{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=147}}</ref>
{{efn|The original published sheet music is available online from the United States [[Library of Congress]] in a searchable database of African-American music from [[Brown University]].<ref name="memory.loc.gov">{{cite web |title=American Memory from the Library of Congress – List All Collections |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/aasm:@field(TITLE+@od1(St++Louis+blues+) |website=Memory.loc.gov |access-date=December 30, 2015}}</ref><ref>Handy, W. C. (William Christopher), [https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:18423/ "The 'St. Louis blues'"] (1918). African American Sheet Music. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Retrieved May 28, 2018.</ref>}}

==Analysis==
The form is unusual in that the verses are the now-familiar [[Jazz standard|standard]] [[twelve-bar blues]] in [[common time]] with three lines of lyrics, the first two lines repeated, but it also has a 16-bar [[Bridge (music)|bridge]] written in the [[Habanera (music)|habanera]] rhythm, which [[Jelly Roll Morton]] called the "[[Spanish tinge]]" and characterized by Handy as [[tango (music)|tango]].<ref name="Handy1941">{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|pp=99–100}}</ref>

{{block indent|<score sound="1">
    {
      \new PianoStaff <<
        \new Staff <<
            \relative c'' {
                \clef treble \key g \major \time 2/2
                \partial4. d8 d d
                <g, bes d>8 <g~ bes~ d~>4. <g bes d>2
                r8 <g c> c cis <g d'> <g bes>4.
                <d~ fis~ a~>1
                <d~ fis~ a~>2 <d fis a>8 <fis a c> <fis a c> <fis a c>
                }
            >>
        \new Staff <<
            \relative c {
                \clef bass \key g \major \time 2/2
                \partial4. r8 r4
                g4. g'8 <bes d>4 g
                <c, es g c>1
                d,4. fis'8 <a c>4 fis
                <d, d'>4. fis'8 <a c>4 fis
                }
            >>
    >> }
</score>}}

While blues often became simple and repetitive in form, "Saint Louis Blues" has multiple complementary and contrasting [[Strain (music)|strains]], similar to classic [[ragtime]] compositions.<ref name="Handy 1941 119"/> Handy said his objective in writing the song was "to combine ragtime [[syncopation]] with a real melody in the spiritual tradition."<ref>{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=120}}</ref> [[T-Bone Walker]] commented about the song, "You can't dress up the blues{{nbsp}}... I'm not saying that 'Saint Louis Blues' isn't fine music you understand. But it just isn't blues".<ref>{{cite book |last=Oakley |first=Giles |title=The Devil's Music |url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/42 |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Da Capo Press]] |date=1997 |page=[https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/42 42–43] |isbn=978-0-306-80743-5}}</ref>

==Performances==
Handy wrote about the first time "Saint Louis Blues" was played in 1914:<ref>{{Harvnb|Handy|1941|p=305}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|The one-step and other dances had been done to the tempo of "Memphis Blues"{{nbsp}}... When "St Louis Blues" was written the tango was in vogue. I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels.<ref name="Handy1941" />}}

Singer and actress [[Ethel Waters]] was the first woman to sing "Saint Louis Blues" in public.<ref name=britannica>{{cite web |last=Britannica |first=Encyclopedia |title=Ethel Waters: American Singer and Actress |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ethel-Waters |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=May 31, 2017 |access-date=May 28, 2018}}</ref> She said she learned it from [[Charles Anderson (vocalist)|Charles Anderson]] and featured it herself during a 1917 engagement in Baltimore.<ref name=britannica/><ref name="Freeland">{{cite web |last=Freeland |first=David |title=Behind the Song: "St. Louis Blues" |url=http://americansongwriter.com/2009/07/behind-the-song-st-louis-blues |website=American Songwriter |date=July 1, 2009 |access-date=October 28, 2016}}{{subscription required}}</ref>  The film ''[[St. Louis Blues (1929 film)|St. Louis Blues]]'', from 1929, featured [[Bessie Smith]] singing the song.<ref name="Smith">{{cite book |last=Albertson |first=Chris |title=Bessie |url=https://archive.org/details/bessierevisedexp00albe |url-access=limited |publisher=Yale University Press |edition=revised |year=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bessierevisedexp00albe/page/n213 193]–194|isbn=9780300107562 }}</ref>

Singer and actress [[Theresa Harris]] sings "St. Louis Blues" in ''[[Baby Face (film)|Baby Face]]'' and ''[[Banjo on My Knee (film)|Banjo on My Knee]]'' both films starring [[Barbara Stanwyck]]. 

In 1998, "St. Louis Blues" was included on the album ''Gershwin's World'' by [[Herbie Hancock]] which featured [[Stevie Wonder]] on vocals. In 1999 at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, this recording won two Grammys. Stevie Wonder won the [[Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance|Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance]]. In the Composing and Arranging category, Herbie Hancock, Robert Sadin and Stevie Wonder, arrangers (Herbie Hancock) won the [[Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals|Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s)]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=41st Annual GRAMMY Awards |url=https://www.grammy.com/awards/41st-annual-grammy-awards |access-date=2023-11-14 |website=Grammy.com}}</ref>

In an NPR article dated August 10, 2011 titled "Evolution Of A Song: 'St. Louis Blues'" by Simon Rentner, the Gershwin - W.C. Handy connection is explained. "Composer George Gershwin borrowed W.C. Handy's themes for his own music, including for "Rhapsody in Blue," Gershwin's landmark work. Although the two musicians didn't know each other, Gershwin gave Handy a signed copy of his famous score with a note thanking Handy and acknowledging that his "early 'blues' songs are the forefathers of this work." [[Herbie Hancock]] and [[Stevie Wonder]] pay homage to Gershwin's admiration of Handy here" on Hancock's album, ''Gershwin's World''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2011/08/10/139377374/evolution-of-a-song-st-louis-blues|title=Evolution Of A Song: 'St. Louis Blues'|website=Npr.org|access-date=May 1, 2024}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of pre-1920 jazz standards]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
*{{cite book |last=Handy |first=W.C. |author-link=W. C. Handy |editor1-last=Bontemps |editor1-first=Arna Wendell |editor1-link=Arna Bontemps |title=Father of the Blues: An Autobiography |url=https://archive.org/details/fatherofbluesaut00wcha_0 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York City |year=1941}}.

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* {{Wikisource-inline|St. Louis Blues}}
* [https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:18423/ Sheet Music at Brown University digital repository]
* {{YouTube|VjrmmOQBXOg|Video (3:12) "St. Louis Blues" (comp. Handy; arr.Still)}}

{{Bessie Smith}}
{{Cab Calloway}}
{{William Grant Still|state=collapsed}}
{{St. Louis Blues}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1914 songs]]
[[Category:1925 singles]]
[[Category:Music of St. Louis|Saint Louis Blues]]
[[Category:Original Dixieland Jass Band songs]]
[[Category:Nat King Cole songs]]
[[Category:Louis Armstrong songs]]
[[Category:Cab Calloway songs]]
[[Category:LaVern Baker songs]]
[[Category:1910s jazz standards]]
[[Category:Songs with music by W. C. Handy]]
[[Category:Benny Goodman songs]]
[[Category:Jazz songs]]
[[Category:Bessie Smith songs]]
[[Category:Billie Holiday songs]]
[[Category:Lena Horne songs]]
[[Category:Mildred Bailey songs]]
[[Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients]]
[[Category:Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals]]
[[Category:Jazz compositions in G major]]
[[Category:Songs about St. Louis]]
[[Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings]]