The House of Blue Lights (song)

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"The House of Blue Lights"
Single by Freddie Slack with Ella Mae Morse
B-side "Hey Mr. Postman"
ReleasedMay 1946 (1946-05)
Genre Boogie woogie
Length2:51
Label Capitol
Songwriter(s) Don Raye, Freddie Slack

"The House of Blue Lights" is a boogie woogie-style popular song written by Don Raye and Freddie Slack. Published in 1946, it was first recorded by Slack with singer Ella Mae Morse and Raye.

The song's intro includes a "hipster"-style spoken exchange:

A single review in Billboard magazine included similar hipster parlance:

For back-room boogie with a mellow eight-to-the-bar kick, la[ sic ] Moore teams her tobacco pipes to the Black rhythm wing, giving big-time treatment to a small-time tune. Riding a solid rail, chirp chants it out with a contagious lilt. Dialog patter between Miss Moore and the tune's cleffer, Don Raye, is clever but takes up too much surface. "Postman" is typical B-side stuff. [1]

The single reached number eight on the Hot 100 singles chart. [2]

Other recordings

"The House of Blue Lights" has been recorded by a variety of musical artists.

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References

  1. "New Records". Billboard . Vol. 58, no. 19. May 11, 1946. p. 33. ISSN   0006-2510.
  2. 1 2 Dawson, Jim; Propes, Steve (1992). What Was The First Rock'n'Roll Record?. p. 14-17. ISBN   0-571-12939-0.
  3. Larkin, Colin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 1690. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
  4. Whitburn, Joel (2013). Hot Country Songs 1944–2012. Record Research, Inc. p. 28. ISBN   978-0-89820-203-8.
  5. Rodman, Melissa C. (March 7, 2016). "Harvard Krokodiloes Celebrate 70th Anniversary". The Harvard Crimson . Retrieved January 5, 2024.