It's Tight Like That

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"It's Tight Like That"
Single by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom
B-side "Grievin' Me Blues"
ReleasedDecember 1928 (1928-12)
RecordedOctober 24, 1928
Genre Hokum, dirty blues
Length2:50
Label Vocalion
Songwriter(s) Tampa Red, Georgia Tom

"It's Tight Like That" is a hokum or dirty blues song, recorded by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom on October 24, 1928. Vocalion Records issued it on the then standard 10-inch 78 rpm shellac record in December 1928. It became successful and eventually sold over seven million copies. [1]

Contents

Background

Hudson Whittaker and Thomas A. Dorsey met by playing in the backing band accompanying Ma Rainey on her numerous tours. [2] [3] In 1924, Rainey was accompanied by the pianist and bandleader Dorsey and the band he assembled, the Wildcats Jazz Band. [4] They began their tour with an appearance in Chicago in April 1924 and continued, on and off, until 1928. [5] Dorsey left the group in 1926, because of depression from which he suffered for around two years. [6] Having recovered by 1928, he formed a partnership with the blues singer-guitarist Tampa Red. [1] Dorsey adopted the name "Georgia Tom" and together they wrote "It's Tight Like That". [1] The song was composed overnight due to the demand made by J. Mayo Williams of the Vocalion Records when Tampa Red approached Williams hoping to make a recording: "come back two o’clock the next day with somethin’" that is "[your] own to sing." [7]

A Chicago street slang superlative was recounted by Georgia Tom, who helped parlay it into the song. [8] "There used to be a phrase they used around town, you know, folks started saying, "Ah, it's tight like that! Tight like that!" [9] Red supplied the words, and Dorsey wrote the music, modeled after Papa Charlie Jackson’s "Shake That Thing". [10]

The title is a sly wordplay with the double meaning of being "tight" with someone, coupled with a more salacious physical familiarity. [11] Georgia Tom later had time to regret the use of the double entendre. [12]

Recording

Give me a song, I stick to the note and play it like it is, you won't pay much attention to it. In fact it won't go anywhere. You got to always have something: a little trick, a little embellishment or something. I don't go and take it just straight; I got to put something in it to get over.

– Thomas A. Dorsey [13]

Being based in Chicago, they had access to the record label Vocalion Records. Vocalion recorded two versions of the song in Chicago, on September 19, and October 8, 1928, but these were unreleased. [14] It was the third recording undertaken on October 24 that year, which became the version that was issued in December. [14] Both Tampa Red and Georgia Tom provided the vocals in a call and response style. Tampa Red on bottleneck guitar and Georgia Tom playing the piano supplied the musical accompaniment. [14]

Music

"It's Tight Like That" is performed in the key of A minor [15] at a "surprisingly brisk" tempo of 190 beats per minute. [16]

Releases

The record was a million seller (an extraordinary achievement at that time), and went on to become a big blues hit, covered by a wide variety of blues, jazz, and country artists over the years. [1] Eventually the record sold more than seven million copies. [12] The B-side of the disc was recorded on October 16, 1928. It was "Grievin' Me Blues", accredited to Georgia Tom alone, even though his vocals and piano playing were accompanied by Tampa Red on guitar. That song was written by Georgia Tom.

The song is included on Tampa Red Vol.1 (May 1928 to 4 December 1953) (1999, Document Records). [17] A version credited to "Papa Too Sweet and Harry Jones" recorded on December 11, 1928, opens the Columbia Records compilation Tampa Red: The Guitar Wizard (1994). [18]

Later developments

Billed as either "Tampa Red and Georgia Tom" or "The Famous Hokum Boys",[ citation needed ] the duo found great success together, eventually collaborating on 60 songs between 1928 and 1932, and coining the term "hokum" to describe their guitar/piano combination with simple, racy lyrics. [19] Several sequels of "It's Tight Like That" were waxed by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom (who, as Thomas A. Dorsey, was later to be hailed as 'the father of black gospel music'). [8]

Tampa Red's partnership with Georgia Tom ended in 1932, but Red remained much in demand as a session musician, working with John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, Memphis Minnie, Big Maceo, and many others. [2] Dorsey became the music director at the Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago, a role he undertook for fifty years. [20]

Recognition

The song crossed over into the mainline jazz and country music: [21]

In 2014, the Blues Hall of Fame inducted "It's Tight Like That" as a 'Classic of Blues Recording – Single or Album Track'. [8] In an induction statement, the song is described as " a playful vocal duet to rework a hot street slang phrase, [it is] a prime example of the good-time music known as hokum". [8]

Discography

Records related to It's Tight Like That [22]
TitleArtistLabel/catalog #Year
It’s Tight Like ThatTampa Red’s Hokum Jug BandVocalion 12281928
It’s Tight Like That No. 2Georgia Tom and Tampa RedVocalion 12441929
It’s Tight Like That No. 3Georgia Tom and Tampa RedVocalion 14181929
(Honey) It’s Tight Like ThatHarry Jones and Papa Too SweetOKeh 65811929
It’s Tight Like ThatTampa RedVocalion 12581929
It’s Tight Like ThatMcKinney’s Cotton PickersVictor V38013-A1928
It’s Tight Like ThatWalter Barnes and his Royal CreoliansBrunswick 42441928
It’s Tight Like ThatJimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra, with Junie CobbVocalion 12381928
It’s Tight Like ThatClara SmithColumbia 14398D1929
It’s Tight Like ThatLuis Russell and his Burning EightOKeh 8656 Paramount R2186, Parlophone R12861929
It’s Tight Like ThatZach Whyte’s Chocolate Beau BrummelsChampion 15715, Supertone 93681929
It’s Tight Like ThatHilda Alexander and Mamie McClureBrunswick 70691929
It’s Tight Like ThatSouthern Blues Singers, accompanied by Cow Cow DavenportGennett 68261929
It’s Tight Like ThatOtis MoteOKeh 453891929

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Staig 1993, Obit.
  2. 1 2 Russell 1997, pp. 173–174.
  3. ↑ Harris 1992, pp. 67–90.
  4. ↑ Lieb 1983, p. 28.
  5. ↑ Lieb 1983, p. 35.
  6. ↑ Lieb 1983, p. 37.
  7. ↑ Schwartz 2018, pp. 369–370.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "'It's Tight Like That' by Tampa Red & Georgia Tom (Vocalion 1928)". Blues Foundation . November 10, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  9. ↑ O'Neal & van Singel 2013.
  10. ↑ Schwartz 2018, p. 370.
  11. ↑ Oliver & Wright 1990, p. 281.
  12. 1 2 "Thomas A. Dorsey, Father of Gospel Music, Dies at 93". The Washington Post . January 25, 1993. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  13. ↑ Harris 1992, p. 99.
  14. 1 2 3 Humphrey 1994, p. 6.
  15. ↑ "Tampa Red : It's Tight Like That". Tunebat.com. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  16. ↑ Schwartz 2018, p. 372.
  17. ↑ "Tampa Red Vol. 1 (1928-1929)". Document Records . Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  18. ↑ Humphrey 1994, p. 3.
  19. ↑ Harris 1992, pp. 117–150.
  20. ↑ Harris 1992, pp. 180–208.
  21. ↑ Birnbaum 2013, pp. 133–134.
  22. ↑ Schwartz 2018, pp. 383–388.

Sources

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