The Saint Louis Blues

 Music and Lyrics: W. C. Handy, 1914

What distinguishes a tune and makes it famous? Record sales?

Airplay?

Sheet music sales?

Number of recordings made?

Continued appearance on stage and in film?

Number of requests by dancers?

Its place in history?

It's not at all clear what the criteria are, but however you measure it, St. Louis Blues is the most famous blues number ever written, and ranks among the most enduring classics in the American songbook. It resulted in at least 15 hit records and for nearly half a century was the second most recorded song in history (second only to "Silent Night"). Its influence was not confined to the United States; this was the song that introduced the blues to the world.

W.C. Handy was down on his luck when he struck gold with this one. Having been cheated out of the royalties on "Memphis Blues," which should have made him rich, he was now 40 years old and wracked with disappointment. "There was the picture I had of myself, broke, unshaven, wanting even a decent meal, and standing before the lighted saloon in St. Louis without a shirt under my frayed coat.” Encountering a destitute woman with pain seemingly greater than his, he heard her muttering the phrase that would inspire his song: “My man’s got a heart like a rock cast in de sea." Inspired by this line (which appears in the chorus of "St. Louis Blues"), the opening phrase of the song came to him: "I hate to see de evenin’ sun go down." Thus Handy came to write his masterpiece. 

Handy was an accomplished musician, had thoroughly assimilated the language of the blues, and was a shrewd businessman. He knew that pure blues, at that particular time, were too unfamiliar to be accepted by a wide audience. But the tango was all the rage. "I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues." It worked.  According to Handy, "dancers were electrified." But success was not assured. Handy failed to find a large publisher willing to accept his work so he published it himself with his small and struggling firm, the Pace and Handy Music Company. With their limited resources and influence, the battle was uphill, but the song began to catch on and within a few years the momentum was unstoppable. 

Notable recordings of "St. Louis Blues" are too numerous to list, but among the most highly acclaimed are those of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1921), W. C. Handy (1923), Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong (1925), Fats Waller (1926), and Louis Armstrong (1929).