| "Frankie and Johnny" | |
| Written by | Traditional (Credited to Hughie Cannon) |
|---|---|
| Published | 1904 |
| Language | English |
| Form | Ballad, Murder ballad |
| Original artist | Mississippi John Hurt (1928) |
| Recorded by | Charlie Patton (1929) |
"Frankie and Johnny" (sometimes spelled "Frankie and Johnnie"; also known as "Frankie and Albert" or just "Frankie") is a traditional American popular song. It tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds that her man Johnny was "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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It has been suggested that the song was inspired, or its details influenced, by one or more actual murders. One of these took place in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 15, 1899, when Frankie Baker, a 22-year-old dancer, 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, Oregon mental institution in 1952.[2]
The song has also been linked to Frances Silver, convicted in 1832 of murdering her husband Charles Silver in Burke County, North Carolina. Unlike Frankie Baker, Silver was executed.[3]
In 1899, popular St Louis balladeer Bill Dooley composed "Frankie Killed Allen" shortly after the Baker murder case.[4]
The first published version of the music to "Frankie and Johnny" appeared in 1904, credited to and copyrighted by Hughie Cannon, the composer of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey"; the piece, a variant version of whose melody is sung today, was titled "He Done Me Wrong" and subtitled "Death of Bill Bailey".[5]
Another variant of the melody, with words and music credited to Frank and Bert Leighton, appeared in 1908 under the title "Bill You Done Me Wrong"; this song was republished in 1912 as "Frankie and Johnny", this time with the words that appear in modern folk variations:
Also:
The 1912 "Frankie and Johnny" by the Leighton Brothers and Ren Shields also identifies "Nellie Bly" as the new girl to whom Johnny has given his heart. What has come to be the traditional version of the melody was also published in 1912, as the chorus to the song "You're My Baby", with music is attributed to Nat. D. Ayer.[6]
The familiar "Frankie and Johnny were lovers" lyrics first appeared (as "Frankie and Albert") in On the Trail of Negro Folksongs by Dorothy Scarborough, published in 1925; a similar version with the "Frankie and Johnny" names appeared in 1927 in Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag.[7]
Several students of folk music have asserted that the song long predates the earliest published versions; according to Leonard Feather in his Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz[8] it was sung at the Siege of Vicksburg (1863) during the American Civil War[9] and Sandburg said it was widespread before 1888, while John Jacob Niles reported that it emerged before 1830.[10] The fact, however, that the familiar version does not appear in print before 1925 is "strange indeed for such an allegedly old and well-known song," according to music historian James J. Fuld, who suggests that it "is not so ancient as some of the folk-song writers would have one believe."[11]
Since "Frankie and Johnny" is a traditional song there is no single definitive version of the lyrics. Several versions were collected by Robert Winslow Gordon. 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 often 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." Another common opening is:"Frankie was a good girl/everybody knows/she paid a hundred dollars/for Al's one suit of clothes." 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."
At least 256 different recordings of "Frankie and Johnny" have been made since the early 20th century. Singers include Jimmie Rodgers (The Singing Brakeman), Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Frank Crumit, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, Mississippi John Hurt, Mississippi Joe Callicott, Charlie Patton, Taj Mahal, Charlie Poole, Sam Cooke, Lena Horne, Lonnie Donegan, Bob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Fats Waller, Van Morrison, Brook Benton, Lindsay Lohan, Jack Johnson, Daniel, Fred & Julie and Stevie Wonder.
As a jazz standard it has also been recorded by numerous bands and instrumentalists including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Bunny Berigan, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman. Champion Jack Dupree set his version in New Orleans, retitling it "Rampart and Dumaine".
The story of Frankie and Johnny has been the inspiration for several 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's 1987 play, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, which was adapted for a 1991 film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.
In 1930 director and actor John Huston wrote and produced a puppet play entitled Frankie and Johnnie based on the Frankie Baker case. One of Huston's main sources was his interview with Baker and Britt’s neighbor Richard Clay.[12][13]
Actress and playwright Mae West inserted her ballad in her successful Broadway play Diamond Lil. West sang the ballad again in her 1933 Paramount film She Done Him Wrong, which takes its title from the refrain, substituting genders.[14] The song was used in the 1932 film "Red-Headed Woman" in a scene where actress Jean Harlow's character is drinking and lamenting having been jilted by her married lover. It is also sung by a river boat crew in Bed of Roses, a film released the following year.
Actress Mia Farrow in the role of Jacqueline De Bellefort sang/hummed a drunken rendition of the song[15] in the key scene of the 1978 version of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile just before she attempts to shoot her former lover, Simon Doyle, played by Simon MacCorkindale.
The climax of Robert Altman's 2006 film A Prairie Home Companion is Lindsay Lohan's rendition of the song with quasi-improvisatory lyrics by Garrison Keillor.
The tune is often used in Merrie Melodies cartoons by Warner Bros. as the theme or motif for a meretricious or zaftig woman. The song was 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.
In 2011, the song was used in the TV mini series "Bag Of Bones", based upon the Stephen King novel of the same name.
Daniel Clowes drew a comics adaptation of a somewhat explicit version of the song's lyrics. It is included in the collection Twentieth Century Eightball.
E. E. Cummings used a version of "Frankie and Johnny" (spelling the latter name "Johnie") as the centerpiece for his 1927 play Him.
The radio series Suspense did a dramatization of the lyrics on May 5, 1952 with singer Dinah Shore as Frankie. The script was subsequently produced on February 3, 1957 with singer Margaret Whiting.
Chicago's Redmoon Theater Company presented an adaptation of the Frankie and Johnny story at Steppenwolf Theater in 1997.[16] The soundtrack was composed by Michael Zerang and performed by Fred Armisen, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Jeremy Ruthrauff.[17]
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