Stormy Monday Blues

This article is about jazz song recorded by Earl Hines with Billy Ekstine. For other uses, see Stormy Monday (disambiguation).

"Stormy Monday Blues"
Single by Earl Hines
B-side	"Second Balcony Jump"
Released	1942 (1942)
Recorded	March 19, 1942
Genre	Jazz
Length	3:11
Label	Bluebird
Songwriter(s)	Earl Hines, Billy Eckstine, Bob Crowder

"Stormy Monday Blues" is a jazz song first recorded in 1942 by Earl Hines and His Orchestra with Billy Eckstine on vocals. The song was a hit, reaching number one in Billboard magazine's "Harlem Hit Parade", ^[1] and was Hines' only appearance in the charts.

Background

"Stormy Monday Blues" is performed in the style of a slow blues that "starts with Hines' piano and a walking bass for the introduction". ^[2] Billy Eckstine then enters with the vocal:

It's gone and started rainin', I'm as lonesome as a man can be
It's gone and started rainin', I'm as lonesome as a man can be
'Cause every time it rains, I realize what you mean to me

The lyrics "stormy" or "Monday" do not appear in the song. A trumpet solo by Maurice "Shorty" McConnell ^[3] with big band backing is featured in the second half of the song. ^[2] Eckstine later recorded "Stormy Monday Blues" in 1959 with Count Basie for their Basie/Eckstine Incorporated album. ^[4]

The song has sometimes been confused with T-Bone Walker's 1947 song "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)", which is frequently shortened to "Stormy Monday" or "Stormy Monday Blues". ^[5]

See also

• List of number-one R&B singles of 1942 (U.S.)

References

1. Whitburn, Joel (1988). Top R&B Singles 1942–1988 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research. p.  191. ISBN   978-0-89820-068-3.
2. Billboard (August 8, 1942). "Earl Hines –record review". Billboard . Vol. 24, no. 32. p. 68. ISSN   0006-2510.
3. Yanow, Scott (2001). Trumpet Kings: The Players Who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet. Backbeat Books. p. 250. ISBN   978-0-87930-640-3.
4. Nastos, Michael G. "Basie and Eckstine, Inc. –album review". AllMusic . Retrieved September 14, 2010.
5. Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). "Stormy Monday Blues". Encyclopedia of the Blues . Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press. p.  472. ISBN   978-1-55728-252-1.