Frankie and Johnny (song)

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"Frankie and Johnny" (also known as "Frankie and Albert") is a traditional American popular song. It tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds her man Johnny "making love to" another woman and shoots him dead. Frankie is then arrested; in some versions of the song she is also executed.

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[edit] History

The song's lyrics apparently refer to a murder which took place in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 19, 1899. 22-year-old dancer Frankie Baker stabbed (or shot) her 17-year-old lover Allen "Al" Britt, who was having a relationship with a woman named Alice Pryor. Britt died of his wounds two days later.[1] On trial, Baker claimed that Britt had attacked her with a knife and that she acted in self-defense; she was acquitted and died in a Portland mental institution in 1950.[2]

Some researchers claim that the song was in circulation before the Baker murder, and that it dates from roughly the time of the Civil War. It may have originally referred to Frances Silver, who was executed in 1832 for the murder of her husband Charles Silver in Burke County, North Carolina.

Hughie Cannon, the composer of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey", obtained a copyright on the melody to "Frankie and Johnny" in 1904 under the title "He Done Me Wrong", but the song seems to predate this.

[edit] Lyrics

Since "Frankie and Johnny" is a traditional song there is no single definitive version of the lyrics. The refrain common to most versions is: "He was her man, but he was doing her wrong." The name of the song's "other woman" varies, Alice or Nellie Bly being the most usual ones. The gunshot that kills Johnny is almost always depicted by the onomatopoeia "rooty toot toot." Many versions open with the quatrain: "Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts/Lordy, how they could love/They vowed to love one another/Underneath the stars above." A common conclusion is: "This story has no moral/This story has no end/This story only goes to show/That there ain't no good in men."

[edit] Recordings

At least 256 different recordings of "Frankie and Johnny" have been made since the early 20th century. Singers including Lead Belly, Mississippi John Hurt, Charlie Poole, Sam Cooke, Taj Mahal, Jack Johnson, Lonnie Donegan, and Bob Dylan have performed it in a variety of musical idioms. As a jazz standard it has also been recorded by numerous jazz bands and instrumentalists including Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong, Bunny Berigan, Benny Goodman, and Count Basie.

[edit] Films

The basic story of Frankie and Johnny has been the inspiration for several feature films, including Her Man (1930, starring Helen Twelvetrees), Frankie and Johnnie (1936, starring Helen Morgan), and Frankie and Johnny (1966, starring Elvis Presley). Terrence McNally wrote a 1987 play, Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, which was adapted for the screen in a 1991 film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.

The song was also the basis of a 1951 UPA animated cartoon, Rooty Toot Toot, directed by John Hubley. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.

The climax of the 2006 Robert Altman film A Prairie Home Companion is a rendition of "Frankie and Johnny" by Lindsay Lohan with quasi-improvisatory lyrics written by Garrison Keillor.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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