Tipitina

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"Tipitina"
Tipitina - Professor Longhair.jpg
Single by Professor Longhair
B-side "In The Night"
Released1953 (1953)
Recorded1953
Genre New Orleans blues
Length2:15
Label Atlantic
Songwriter(s)

"Tipitina" is a song written and originally recorded by New Orleans pianist and singer Professor Longhair. His original version was recorded and released in 1953 by Atlantic Records. Although the nature of his contributions are unknown, recording engineer Cosimo Matassa is listed as the song's co-writer along with Roy Byrd, Professor Longhair's legal name. [1]

Contents

The song has been widely covered and is considered a New Orleans music standard. The New Orleans music venue, Tipitina's, was named for the song, [2] and Tipitina's Foundation bears the Tipitina name.

Background

Pianist Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd, known as Professor Longhair, was a prominent New Orleans musician. He played syncopated music that combined blues, ragtime, zydeco, rhumba, mambo and calypso. His singing was characterized as hoarse. His peripatetic recording career began in 1949 with "Mardi Gras In New Orleans" and "She's Got No Hair" with a group credited as "Longhair and his Shuffling Hungarians." A year later at Mercury Records and Roy Byrd & his Blues Jumpers rerecorded "She's Got No Hair" as "Bald Head", which broke through as his only national R&B hit. In 1953, at Atlantic Records, he recorded "Tipitina", [3] which is now regarded as his "signature song". [4]

Details

The melody is derived from Champion Jack Dupree's 1941 recording of "Junker Blues", [5] a song Dupree had learned from fellow New Orleans pianist Willie Hall. Rolling Stone described "Tipitina" as a "rhumba-style track" that has become a quintessential New Orleans standard. [6] According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted Longhair in 1992, "The hum-along nonsense syllables and stutter stepping left-hand rhythm of 'Tiptina' is both a symbol and staple of New Orleans music." [3]

Allen Toussaint described learning the song as a "rite of passage". [7]

Despite the song's popularity, the subject of "Tipitina" is unknown. Among the speculated subjects are a place and a person. [7] According to an interview and a recording by Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) played at the WWOZ Piano Night concert in 2020, Tipitina was a type of - or name of - a bird. Rebennack said he had never heard of that before or since.[ citation needed ] Hugh Laurie, who released his version of the song in 2011, commented about its mystery: "I thought it was better not knowing. It adds to its mystique and its power to make me laugh and cry all in one go." [7] [8]

The song became a hit in New Orleans after its initial release, but was not as successful in the rest of the United States. [7] [4] The 1953 Professor Longhair version and the 1972 Dr. John version are both considered "Classic non Hot 100 songs". [9] [10]

Critical response

In 2011, the song was included in the National Recording Registry because of its cultural significance. [11] Byrd received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for this song. [12] The song was listed among the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock in 1994 by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. [3] The song was also listed in the 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them (2006) by Toby Creswell as well as the Rock Song Index: The 7500 Most Important Songs for the Rock and Roll Era (2005) by Bruce Pollock. [4] [13]

The National Recording Registry announcement for this song said the song is "a signature distillation of the musical ideas and personality that inspired and influenced such New Orleans pianists as Fats Domino, Huey "Piano" Smith, James Booker, Dr. John and Allen Toussaint". [11] According to Creswell, "Tipitina" "marshalled New Orleans rhythm into a sparkling package". [4]

Selected recorded versions

The song has been widely covered, as well as rerecorded multiple times by Professor Longhair himself. [6]

• Professor Longhair: on New Orleans Piano (1972) – previously unreleased alternate take recorded in 1953. [14]
• Dr. John: on Dr. John's Gumbo (1972)
• Professor Longhair: on Rock 'n' Roll Gumbo (1974). [15] Following five vinyl reissues of the original LP from 1974 to 1980, this album was substantially remixed and remastered in 1985 for a reissue on LP, CD and cassette by George Winston's Dancing Cat Records. [16] The 1985 remix of "Tipitina" is the version heard in the 1987 film The Big Easy and on its accompanying soundtrack album. [17]
• Professor Longhair: on House Party New Orleans Style: The Lost Sessions 1971-1972 (1987) – previously unreleased 1972 version. [18]
• James Booker: on Live from Belle Vue (2015). [19]
• Hugh Laurie: on his debut album, Let Them Talk (2011). [7]

Professor Longhair single version

The original Professor Longhair version was recorded in New Orleans in November 1953 under the name Professor Longhair & His Blues Scholars. [20] [21] According to John Crosby's Professor Longhair : a bio-discography, performers included Roy Byrd (vocals, piano), Lee Allen (tenor saxophone), Frank Fields (bass), Earl Palmer (drums), and Alvin "Red" Tyler (baritone saxophone). [21] However, the Atlantic Records Discography credits Edgar Blanchard as the bassist. [22] It was released as a single in 1953. [6] This version is included on several albums including the CD reissue of the 1972 album New Orleans Piano, which contains the single take released in 1953 as well as the alternate take first released on the 1972 vinyl LP. [20] Other albums that include this version are Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Piano Blues (2003) [23] and Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens (2004). [24]

Notes

  1. ↑ "BMI Repertoire: Tipitina (BMI Work #1519693)". BMI Repertoire . Retrieved November 7, 2019.
  2. ↑ Berry, Jason (April 28, 2022). "New Orleans Legend Tipitina's Is Back—With Vintage Records". The Daily Beast. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 "Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: Tipitina". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. May 16, 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Creswell, Toby (2006). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them. Da Capo Press. pp. 548–49. ISBN   1-56025-915-9.
  5. ↑ Planer, Lindsay (2014). "Professor Longhair: Tipitina". Allmusic . Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "Tipitina". Rolling Stone . 2014. Archived from the original on May 18, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Professor Longhair: Tipitina: Inside the National Recording Registry". Studio 360. Public Radio International. January 20, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  8. ↑ See also Hugh Laurie - Tipitina (The Story Behind the Song)
  9. ↑ Whitburn, p. 764.
  10. ↑ Whitburn, p. 286.
  11. 1 2 "The National Recording Registry 2010". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on March 11, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  12. ↑ Massa, Dominic (December 3, 2013). "Louis Armstrong song inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame". WWL-TV. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
  13. ↑ Pollock, Bruce (2005). Rock Song Index: The 7500 Most Important Songs for the Rock and Roll Era (second ed.). Routledge. ISBN   0-415-97073-3.
  14. ↑ Discogs Professor Longhair - New Orleans Piano
  15. ↑ Discogs Professor Longhair - Rock N Roll Gumbo
  16. ↑ Discogs Professor Longhair - Rock N Roll Gumbo - Reissue
  17. ↑ Discogs The Big Easy Soundtrack
  18. ↑ Discogs Professor Longhair - House Party New Orleans Style
  19. ↑ "Live from Belle Vue". Amazon. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  20. 1 2 Dahl, Bill (2014). "Professor Longhair: New Orleans Piano". Allmusic . Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  21. 1 2 Crosby, John (1983). Professor Longhair : a bio-discography : New Orleans r & b. John Crosby.
  22. ↑ Ruppli, Michel (1979). Rust, Brian (ed.). Atlantic Records: A Discography. Vol. 1. Greenwood Press. p. 42. ISBN   0-313-21171-X.
  23. ↑ "Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: Piano Blues". Amazon. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans [Box set]". Amazon. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  25. ↑ "The Man in the Morgue". TV.com . Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  26. ↑ Walker, Dave (November 25, 2012). "'Treme' explained: 'Tipitina'". The Times-Picayune . NOLA.com . Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  27. ↑ "IAJE What's Going On". Jazz Education Journal. 37 (5). Manhattan, Kansas: International Association of Jazz Educators: 87. April 2005. ISSN   1540-2886. ProQuest   1370090.
  28. ↑ Make It Funky! (DVD). Culver City, California: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 2005. ISBN   9781404991583. OCLC   61207781. 11952.

References

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