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"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 ] which was released that year by Okeh Records (4169-A).
Mamie Smith (née Robinson; May 26, 1891 [1] – August or September 16, 1946) was an American singer. As a vaudeville singer, she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues.
Bradford persuaded the white executive of Okeh Records, Fred Hager, to record Mamie Smith, a black artist who did not fit the mold of popular white music. [7] In 1920, Smith created her "Crazy Blues"/"It's Right Here for You" recording, which sold 75,000 copies to a majority-black audience in the first month.
While in New York City, Bradford convinced Frederick W. Hager, of Okeh Records, to record Mamie Smith and became her musical director. [3] [6] Smith starred in Bradford's show Made in Harlem (1918). Bradford was also responsible for Smith being the first African-American blues singer to appear on record (singing his "Crazy Blues") in 1920. [4] [7]
Here's how Mamie Smith paved the way for Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Beyoncé and more of your favorite Black female recording artists. 'She's the first Black superstar': The forgotten ...
Other classic blues singers who recorded extensively until the end of the 1920s were Ida Cox, Clara Smith, Sara Martin and Victoria Spivey and her cousin Sippie Wallace. Spivey, inspired by a Mamie Smith performance to become a blues singer, achieved overnight success in 1926, when Okeh released her first recording, her original "Black Snake ...
Vaudevillean Mamie Smith records "Crazy Blues" for Okeh Records, the first blues song commercially recorded by an African-American singer, [1] [2] [3] the first blues song recorded at all by an African-American woman, [4] and the first vocal blues recording of any kind, [5] a few months after making the first documented recording by an African-American female singer, [6] "You Can't Keep a Good ...
During the 1960s blues revival, about 30 years later, Mamie Smith became the first black women vocalist to record a blues song. [15] While "Crazy Blues" is cited as the first blues recording and also represents the emergence of black women singers into popular music culture. Both black and white consumers purchased the record, and record ...