trivia help
Hello all, I'm trying to answer a trivia question someone threw at me... Which Louis Jordan tunes made the country charts during the 1940's? Apparently, there were three. Back in the Saddle Again, Babs
Re: trivia help
In a message dated 4/28/99 11:47:40 AM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Which Louis Jordan tunes made the country charts during the 1940's? Apparently, there were three. yep, at least in the top 40. "ration blues," #1 for three weeks; "deacon jones," the b-side (#7); and is you is or is you ain't (ma' baby), #1 for 5 weeks. all charted in 1944. source: billboard. bill f-w
Re: trivia help
Which Louis Jordan tunes made the country charts during the 1940's? Apparently, there were three. yep, at least in the top 40. "ration blues," #1 for three weeks; "deacon jones," the b-side (#7); and is you is or is you ain't (ma' baby), #1 for 5 weeks. all charted in 1944. source: billboard. bill f-w Welll...to be precise, these three songs made Billboard's "Most Played Juke Box Folk Records" chart, in the year it was inaugarated, 1944. and to quote from Joel Whitburn's "Top country singles 1944 -1988" - "In 1944, after the unprecedented success of Al Dexter's 'Pistol Packin' mama' the year before, Billboard began taking the music seriously enough to start its first tabulation of best-selling 'folk' music. The magazine wasn't too certain about what, exactly, constituted 'folk' music and frequently included black hot string combos such as the Four Clefs in that category." Other RnB performers on the chart that first year included Nat King Cole and Lucky Millinder, but by the following year's charts, RnB had pretty much disappeared. The name of the chart was changed to Country Western in 1949. None of which proves or disproves the popularity of black music with white audiences at the time. Allen Baekeland *** Boot Heel Drag can be heard on CJSW 90.9 FM , Calgary,AB Tuesdays at 6:30 PM MST and on realaudio at www.cjsw.com.
Re: trivia help
At 12:55 PM 4/28/99 EDT, Bill wrote: yep, at least in the top 40. "ration blues," #1 for three weeks; "deacon jones," the b-side (#7); and is you is or is you ain't (ma' baby), #1 for 5 weeks. all charted in 1944. Which was the first year of Billboard's country chart and the same year that nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald charted high on the country charts. After this year, though, I haven't found any such apparent rb/jazz genre crossing, not a one. Does anyone know if this was due to some initial charting procedural error that was later rectified, or were Nat and Ella and Louis actually being played back to back with Rex Griffin, Ernest Tubb and Red Foley on "country" stations, a programming choice that ended the very next year? I also think this would have been before the widespread notion of one-format-based radio stations, which makes it all even more confusing... --david cantwell
