Stomp Off 1001 - Dickbaker.org

At the time [i.e., shortly after his arrival inL.A.], Morton became acquainted with asong by a sharp-dressing San Diego mancalled Kid North (real name Robert North),who could play only one tune on the piano,the bawdy “Tricks Ain’t Walkin’ No More.”Knowing that Morton was real musician whocould play anything, Kid Northrecommended the tune to Morton, who, inturn, refashioned part of it with Reb Spikesas a new song titled “SomedaySweetheart”—a considerable thematicswitch.“Someday Sweetheart” because an instanthit for Alberta Hunter, who recorded it on theBlack Swan label, and the tune accruedadditional fame from recordings by artists asfar-flung as Eddie Condon and Bill [sic]Crosby. Unfortunately, when the SpikesBrothers published it, they conspicuouslyleft Morton’s name off the sheet music andits copyright. Morton shrugged off thisloss—hr hadn’t really written the pieceanyway, so he said he hoped the Spikesboys would enjoy more hits like it. At most,the Spikes brothers’ ham-handed maneuvermade him laugh/But Morton raged when the SpikesBrothers two-timed him on another tune,“The Wolverines,” which was entirely hisown creation. An exuberant work thatMorton recalled creating nearly a decadeearlier in Detroit (though Johnny St. Cyrremembered hearing Morton and othersplay it in New Orleans in 1906), by 1923“The Wolverines” had become one of themost hotly requested tunes in Chicago. . . .But “The Wolverines” had not yet beenpublished, which was why two white farmboys new to Chicago’s music businessbecame interested in the piece. Itching toget into the publishing side of the business,the Melrose Brothers decided that theycouldn’t miss by printing a song that quicklywas becoming a hit across Chicago’s SouthSide.When Walter and Lester Melrose learnedthat the Sikes brothers had published “TheWolverines in Los Angeles, they mailed aprooposal to the Spikes Brotehrs MusicStore offering three thousand dollars to buythe copyright, which the Spikes boyshappily sold. Unfortunately for Morton, theSpikes brothers added lyrics to the tune andmade themselves co-songwriters. Now theSpikes brothers were listed as Morton’ssongwriting partners on “The Wolverines”and could collected half the songwriterroyalties on a tune they had no hand inwriting.Actually, the authors go on to say, Morton wasmore incensed that the Spikes brothers hadput their names in front of his in the creditsthan that they’d chiseled him out of half theroyalties.But there’s a HUGE hole in this narrative: FirstReich and Gaines say that “The Wolverines”had not been published, thus raising theinterest of the Melrose Brothers. Then theylead the very next paragraph by saying that“The Wolverines” had been published in LosAngeles by the Spikes brothers. Well, was itpublished or not? And the next big problemwith this story is that I can find no SpikesBrothers copyright for “The Wolverines.”Looked in 1921-23 books.So the evidence wouldn’t be just “anecdotal” ifwe could find a Spikes brothers’ copyright orpublished sheet as “The Wolverines.” Whereis it?Woman in the Shoe, The(Nacio Herb Brown–Arthur Freed)Ingham–Grosz Hot Cosmopolites 1323ASM, 1929, M-G-M; w. Freed/m. Brown.Wombat, The (Roger Bell)Steve Waddell’s Creole Bells 1301Victorian Jazz Archives confirms, rec. Bell &His Pagan Pipers, 7/7/63, Melbourne.Wonderful Life Blues (Ray Skjelbred–Butch Thompson)Butch Thompson /Berkeley Gang 1127Wonderful One (Paul Whiteman–Ferde Grofé–Dorothy Terriss*)Classic Jazz Quartet 1125ASM, 1923, Leo Feist; w. Terriss/m. Whiteman& Ferdie GroféWon’t You Get Off It, Please(Fats Waller)Back Bay Ramblers 1374CD had comma and ?Rec. Waller Buddies, 12/18/29, Victor V-38119,1AC-0135 (Argentina); Gramophone B-4971,B-6549. Couldn’t find Victor label, but VictorProject says no comma, no ?, which is whatLC SONIC shows for it. LC SONIC does showcomma for both the Gramophone labels, butno ?Unpub. 4/9/30 copyright reg. has comma, no ?(but they rarely do)Looks like we can justify the comma, even if itwasn’t on the original Victor label, but I fear welose the ?Words (Otis Spencer–Al Dubin–Al Tucker)Hall Brothers JB 1062Swedish–American Hot Jazz Collab. 1136Ted Shafer’s Jelly Roll JB 1278Duke Heitger’s Big Four 1367ASM, 1924, Jack Mills; w. Dubin-Tucker/m.Spencer.Working Man Blues [Working Man’sBlues] (Joe Oliver)New Yankee Rhythm Kings 1015Butch Thompson 1037Humphrey Lyttelton & His Band 1160Southern Stompers (France) 1215Down Home JB 1217John Gill’s Dixieland Serenaders 1304South Frisco JB 1307Neville Dickie 1309Yerba Buena Stompers 1369Miss Lulu White’s Red Hot Creole JB 1370Southern Stompers 1413Les Rois du Fox-Trot 1436(10/15/02: Beware that there’s also a WorkingMan Blues by Tom Delaney--I have sheetmusic.)OUCH, this is a sticky one. Yes, Oliver’scopyright (dated August 11, 1923) saysWorking Man’s Blues. And even Oliver’scopyright deposit says Man’s (I made a copyat LC MRR). But see the informative little webpage at www.vjm.biz/articles2.htm, by RussShor, at which we learn that he first recorded itfor Gennett on 10/5/23, evidently under thattitle, and it was slated for issue on Gennett5275, but the record was never distributed.Oliver then recorded it on OKeh 40034 onOctober 26, and that record was titled“Wiorking Man Blues.”Properly speaking, the OKeh record was theoriginal published version of the tune, the onethat introduced it to the world, and should takeprecedence in titling. Overall, my recordingsof it are 25-14 in favor of Man, including thevery authoritative Archeophone reissue of theearly Olivers, so I’m going to use that title butput a note indicating that Man’s is a validalternative.Interesting sidebar: In 1925 Melrosepublished a band arrangement of this tune,but titled it “Dixieland Blues”—no mention ofits real/original title at all.World Is Waiting for the Sunrise, The(Ernest Seitz–Eugene Lockhart)Jimmy Mazzy & Eli Newberger 1109Paris Washboard 1261Hmmm...first copyright is:World (The) is waiting for the sunrise; fromPierrot players, words and music byRaymond Roberts [of Canada] and EugeneLockhart [of U.S.] © Jan. 24, 1919; 1 c. Jan.25, 1919; 1 c. Feb. 4. 1919; E 445716;Chappell & co., ltd., London.ThenWorld (The) is waiting for the sunrise; wordsby Eugene Lockhart, music by Ernest Seitz