- By Dan Veaner
- Entertainment
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I have long loved the song, 'Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby' but I didn't know anything about it until I looked it up a couple of weeks ago. It was probably the grammar that got my attention, but I love the smoky melodies and sub-melodies woven into it. I thought it was written to be sing by a woman, and thought it must have been written for Dinah Washington or possibly the Glenn Miller Band. Diana Krall does a lovely, sultry version of it. But it turns out that a lot of male singers have covered it, including Cab Calloway, Charlie Pride, Bing Crosby, and B.B. King, not to mention Tom, the cat in the old Tom and Jerry cartoons (actually sung by Ira Woods). It turns out it was written by Louis Jordan and Billy Austin in 1944, when Jordan released it on the B-side of his 'G.I. Jive' single.
Jordan's recording is included on a wonderful, expanded version of the album, The Best of Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five. It includes many old hits that you'll recognize like 'Choo Choo Ch'Boogie', first recorded by Jordan and his band in 1946, and 'Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin', which Jordan wrote with Joe Green and recorded that same year. If you are looking for an album that will make you smile, this is the one.
I like almost all the genres of music, but I have a special fondness for the old '40s music that was lushly orchestrated and had a style to it that has never been duplicated in modern genres. Jordan, who is known as the 'Father of Rhythm & Blues' and the 'Grandfather of Rock and Roll' mixed Jazz and Blues, and it worked. His music and band were enormously popular from the late '30s to the early 1950s. All told he recorded 57 singles that made it to the R&B charts in the '40s, including 18 #1 hits. 'Is You Is...' made #3 on the top Pop charts, and #1 on the US folk/country charts. Not bad for a song that started as a B-side recording.
Jordan chose and wrote songs about things that everyone can relate to, like love and breakups, paying your bills and interesting people like 'Fat Sam From Birmingham'. For some reason he also had a fondness for farm themes, with songs like 'Barnyard Boogie' and 'Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens'. He manages an upbeat attitude, and virtually creates a conversation with the band with spot-on orchestration and back and forth between orchestration and vocals. Some of the songs even include chit chat between Jordan and the band.
Many of his songs, and reportedly his stage show as well, were infused with humor. For instance, while actor Erroll Flynn was immersed in a public paternity scandal, Jordan routinely dedicated 'Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby' to him.Despite the '40s style some of the songs are breathing renewed topical significance. With brightly colored hair a kind of style for some women today, 'Chartreuse' could have been written now.
'Chartreuse (chartreuse)
Chartreuse (chartreuse)
Though you think it's mighty cute
You went too far in that beauty booth
When you dyed your hair chartreuse'
Or how about the 'Inflation Blues'? I can relate to this one:
'Hey, Mr. President
All your congressmen to
You got me frustrated
And I dont know what to do
Im trying to make a living
I cant save a cent
It takes all of my money
Just to eat and pay my rent
I got the blues
Got those inflation blues''
I'm finding that the 'Best Of' album has the unexpected advantage that I exercise more vigorously when listening to it. And while working out I find myself panting out the words, 'Train number one is gone... Train number two is gone... Train number three is been gone... How long must I wait for you?' More singing burns off more calories.
Jordan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, a decade after he passed away at age 66. But his music still delights, and this album particularly captures a happy, clever, optimistic mood
Is Jordan is, or is he aint? Unquestionably he is.