Stormy Monday Blues

For the T-Bone Walker song "Stormy Monday", see Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad).
"Stormy Monday Blues"
Single by Earl Hines
B-side "Second Balcony Jump"
Released 1942
Format 10" 78 rpm record
Recorded March 19, 1942
Genre Jazz
Length 3:11
Label Bluebird (Cat. no. 11567)
Writer(s) Earl Hines, Billy Eckstine, Bob Crowder

"Stormy Monday Blues" is a jazz song first recorded in 1942 by Earl Hines and His Orchestra with Billy Eckstine on vocals. The song was a hit, reaching number one in Billboard magazine's "Harlem Hit Parade",[1] making it Hines' only appearance in the charts.

"Stormy Monday Blues" is performed in the style of a slow blues that "starts with Hines' piano and a walking bass for the introduction".[2] Billy Eckstine then enters with the vocal:

It's gone and started rainin', I'm as lonesome as a man can be
It's gone and started rainin', I'm as lonesome as a man can be
'Cause every time it rains, I realize what you mean to me

Of note, the lyrics "stormy" or "Monday" do not appear in the song. A trumpet solo by Maurice "Shorty" McConnell[3] with big band backing is featured in the second half of the song.[2]

The song has sometimes been confused with T-Bone Walker's 1947 song "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)", which is frequently shortened to "Stormy Monday" or "Stormy Monday Blues".[4] When Eckstine later recorded "Stormy Monday Blues" in 1959 with Count Basie for their Basie/Eckstine Incorporated album, the song was credited to T-Bone Walker, even though Eckstine is a cowriter of the original.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1988). Top R&B Singles 1942–1988. Record Research, Inc. p. 191. ISBN 0-89820-068-7.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Earl Hines – record review". Billboard 24 (32): 68. August 8, 1942.
  3. ↑ Yanow, Scott (2001). Trumpet Kings: The Players Who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet. Backbeat Books. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-87930-640-3.
  4. ↑ Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press. p. 472. ISBN 1-55728-252-8.
  5. ↑ Nastos, Michael G. "Basie and Eckstine, Inc. – album review". allmusic. Retrieved September 14, 2010.