Crazy Blues
| "Crazy Blues" | |
|---|---|
 Sheet music cover, 1920 | |
| Single by Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds | |
| B-side | "It's Right Here For You (If You Don't Get It-'Taint No Fault O' Mine)" |
| Released | 1920 |
| Recorded | August 10, 1920 |
| Genre | Blues |
| Length | 3:26 |
| Label | Okeh |
| Songwriter | Perry Bradford |
"Crazy Blues" is a song, renamed from the originally titled "Harlem Blues" song of 1918, written by Perry Bradford.[1] Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds recorded it on August 10, 1920,[2] and it was released later that year by Okeh Records (4169-A).[1][3] The stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith appeared in photographs associated with the recording session, although Bradford claimed to have played piano on the recording (albeit buried in the mix). The record includes blues choruses embedded within non blues verses, as Bradford originally wrote the piece for theater.[1] Within a month of release, it had sold 75,000 copies at one dollar a piece, a hit for the time.[4][5]
Lyrics and Theme
[edit]The lyrics of "Crazy Blues" articulate the narrator's emotional distress after being mistreated by her partner. They detail being unable to sleep or eat and feeling blue due to abandonment. As the song progresses, the narrator expresses unchanging love despite mistreatment, and the song concludes with references to death and violence.[6]
The themes reflected in Crazy Blues resonated with the African American audiences who were purchasing the record. One claim being that the song spoke to the depth and intricacies of the inner lives of the consumers.[7]
Influence
[edit]This recording is considered a landmark as the first significant hit recording in the blues genre ever issued, despite the fact that there were other recordings from the previous decade with blues in the title.[8] Another claim is that it was the first recording with a blues title by a black artist.[9] The record made Smith the first African American female popular singer to lead a commercial recording. The unanticipated success of "Crazy Blues" opened up a market for race records, and for the first time major record companies started producing records with an African American buyer in mind.[10] They did their own recordings of female blues singers, hoping for the same success that "Crazy Blues" produced.[5] The success of the record launched Mamie Smith's career, and made her a national star.[1]
"Crazy Blues" was entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994, and later entered into the National Recording Registry of the United States Library of Congress by the National Recording Preservation Board in 2005.[1]
The 1920 Mamie Smith version of the song was used in episode 10 of season 1 of Boardwalk Empire in 2010.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Komara, Ed (2005). ""Crazy Blues"—Mamie Smith (1920) - Added to the National Registry: 2005" (PDF). Library of Congress. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
- ^ Hajdu, David (August 8, 2020). "A Song That Changed Music Forever - 100 years ago, Mamie Smith recorded a seminal blues hit that gave voice to outrage at violence against Black Americans". The New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
- ^ Okeh Records catalogue 4169
- ^ Gioia, Ted (2008). Delta Blues. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-393-33750-1.
- ^ a b Davis, Angela Y. (2011). Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-679-77126-5.
- ^ Mamie Smith – Crazy Blues, retrieved November 9, 2025
- ^ "1920: Mamie Smith sings 'Crazy Blues' - Mississippi Today". August 10, 2024. Retrieved November 9, 2025.
- ^ Smith, Roger (February 19, 2020). "In 1920 Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues paved the way for Black Music". Red Hot Jazz Archive. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
- ^ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 12. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
- ^ Smith, Roger Kimmel. "In 1920 Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues paved the way for Black Music". Syncopatedtimes.com. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
- ^ "Boardwalk Empire: S 1 EP 10: Music". HBO. November 12, 2011. Archived from the original on July 30, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
External links
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