The Boogie Woogie Revival

Boogie Woogie would experience a revival in 1938-39, culminating in Columbia Records, John Hammond produced popular records “From Spirituals to Swing” concerts which were recorded on two occasions in Carnegie Hall. This propelled a renewed Boogie Woogie craze that would last well into the 1940s.

“From Spirituals to Swing” recordings featured Jimmy Yancey, Albert Ammons and the song “Swanee River Boogie”, Meade Lux Lewis and his hit song “Freight Train Blues” and of course Pete Johnson’s and Big Joe Turner’s “Roll ‘Em Pete” made the concerts and accompanying records very successful. The night clubs in New York City, especially on 52nd Street, gave way to the Boogie Woogie craze in the 40s.

This had a big influential effect on Swing Jazz, as many big bands started incorporating Boogie Woogie tunes into their sets. The Will Bradley Orchestra had a string of hits with the original version of “Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar” hitting #2, and also another #2 hit with “Scrub Me Mama, With A Boogie Beat” and the #10 “Down the Road A Piece”, all with Ray McKinley singing and all in 1940 spilling into 1941.

Glenn Miller had a hit in 1940 with the #7 hit “Boog It”. The Andrews Sisters had several Boogie Woogie hits like the late 1940 #2 hit “Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar” and the famous pre-World War II hit “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” in 1941. The Boogie Woogie craze was fueled by the fact that the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug dances were very compatible with the boogie “beat”.

Lionel Hampton, one of the three “Fathers” of Jump Blues and R&B (as well as Count Basie and Louis Jordan) had a string of boogie hits, including the 1944, #23 hit “Hamp’s Boogie Woogie” and the 1946, #9 hit “Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop”, which became very popular. Louis Jordan, had a string of boogie hits starting with the #6 “Caldonia Boogie” in 1945, the #7 hit “Choo Choo Ch’ Boogie” just to name a few. Count Basie also had several boogie hits such as the b-side, #10 hit “Mad Boogie” in 1946.

At the same time, many C&W (Country & Western) artists had hits in the boogie styled derivative genres called Country Boogie, Hillbilly Boogie or Western Boogie. Remember boogie started in Texas. These were precursors to Rockabilly. Johnny Barfield had a hit record with a “Boogie Woogie” in 1939. Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack had a million plus seller with the Benny Carter/Gene DePaul/Don Raye penned #9 hit “Cow Cow Boogie” in 1942.

The Delmore Brothers had a boogie hit with “Freight Train Boogie” which was also very influential to Rock & Roll and Rockabilly. Arthur Smith & His Cracker Jacks had several Country Boogie hits, such as the #25 crossover electric guitar hit “Guitar Boogie” in 1948 as well as the C&W hit “Banjo Boogie”. Tennessee Ernie Ford had a boogie hit with the #15 crossover hit “Shot Gun Boogie” in 1951.

And also, we can’t forget that Bill Haley started out his career as a C&W artist as “Bill Haley and The Saddlemen” before going Rock & Roll with “The Comets”. He recorded several Country Boogies like “Green Tree Boogie” in 1951, as well as the C&W (Rockabilly) version of Ike Turner’s “Rocket 88” (a couple of months after the original R&B release). Bill Haley & the Saddlemen then released “Sundown Boogie” in 1952 as well as a cover of Jimmy Preston’s “Rock This Joint” which was considered to be the first Rockabilly song.