Frankie and Albert
Encyclopedia
"Frankie and Johnny" (sometimes spelled "Frankie and Johnnie"; also known as "Frankie and Albert" or just "Frankie") is a traditional American popular song
. It tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds that her man Johnny was "making love to" another woman and shoots him dead. Frankie is then arrested; in some versions of the song she is also executed.
, on October 15, 1899, when Frankie Baker, a 22-year-old dancer, stabbed (or shot) her 17-year-old lover Allen "Al" Britt, who was having a relationship with a woman named Alice Pryor. Britt died of his wounds two days later. On trial, Baker claimed that Britt had attacked her with a knife and that she acted in self-defense
; she was acquitted and died in a Portland, Oregon
mental institution in 1952.
The song has also been linked to Frances Silver, convicted in 1832 of murdering her husband Charles Silver in Burke County, North Carolina
. Unlike Frankie Baker, Silver was executed.
In 1899, popular St Louis balladeer Bill Dooley composed "Frankie Killed Allen" shortly after the Baker murder case.
The first published version of the music to "Frankie and Johnny" appeared in 1904, credited to and copyright
ed by Hughie Cannon
, the composer
of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey
"; the piece, a variant version of whose melody
is sung today, was titled "He Done Me Wrong" and subtitled "Death of Bill Bailey".
Another variant of the melody, with words and music credited to Frank and Bert Leighton, appeared in 1908 under the title "Bill You Done Me Wrong"; this song was republished in 1912 as "Frankie and Johnny", this time with the words that appear in modern folk variations:
Also:
The 1912 "Frankie and Johnny" by the Leighton Brothers and Ren Shields
also identifies "Nellie Bly" as the new girl to whom Johnny has given his heart. What has come to be the traditional version of the melody was also published in 1912, as the chorus to the song "You're My Baby", with music is attributed to Nat. D. Ayer.
The familiar "Frankie and Johnny were lovers" lyrics first appeared (as "Frankie and Albert") in On the Trail of Negro Folksongs by Dorothy Scarborough, published in 1925; a similar version with the "Frankie and Johnny" names appeared in 1927 in Carl Sandburg
's The American Songbag.
Several students of folk music
have asserted that the song long predates the earliest published versions; according to Leonard Feather
in his Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz it was sung at the Siege of Vicksburg (1863) during the American Civil War
and Sandburg said it was widespread before 1888, while John Jacob Niles
reported that it emerged before 1830. The fact, however, that the familiar version does not appear in print before 1925 is "strange indeed for such an allegedly old and well-known song," according to music historian James J. Fuld, who suggests that it "is not so ancient as some of the folk-song writers would have one believe."
. The refrain
common to most versions is: "He was her man, but he was doing her wrong." The name of the song's "other woman" varies, Alice or Nellie Bly
being the most usual ones. The gunshot that kills Johnny is often depicted by the onomatopoeia "rooty toot toot." Many versions open with the quatrain
: "Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts/Lordy, how they could love/They vowed to love one another/Underneath the stars above." Another common opening is:"Frankie was a good girl/everybody knows/she paid a hundred dollars/for Al's one suit of clothes." A common conclusion is: "This story has no moral/This story has no end/This story only goes to show/That there ain't no good in men."
(The Singing Brakeman), Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy
, Frank Crumit
, Johnny Cash
, Pete Seeger
, Mississippi John Hurt
, Mississippi Joe Callicott
, Charlie Patton
, Taj Mahal
, Charlie Poole
, Sam Cooke
, Lena Horne
, Lonnie Donegan
, Bob Dylan
, Jerry Lee Lewis
, Elvis Presley
, Gene Vincent
, Fats Waller
, Van Morrison
, Brook Benton
, Lindsay Lohan
, Jack Johnson
, Daniel, Fred & Julie
and Stevie Wonder
.
As a jazz standard
it has also been recorded by numerous bands and instrumentalists including Louis Armstrong
, Count Basie
, Bunny Berigan
, Dave Brubeck
, Duke Ellington
, and Benny Goodman
. Champion Jack Dupree
set his version in New Orleans, retitling it "Rampart and Dumaine".
, starring Helen Twelvetrees
), Frankie and Johnnie (1936
, starring Helen Morgan
), and Frankie and Johnny
(1966
, starring Elvis Presley
). Terrence McNally
's 1987 play, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
, which was adapted for a 1991 film starring Al Pacino
and Michelle Pfeiffer
.
In 1930 director and actor John Huston
wrote and produced a puppet play entitled Frankie and Johnnie based on the Frankie Baker case. One of Huston's main sources was his interview with Baker and Britt’s neighbor Richard Clay.
Actress and playwright Mae West
inserted her ballad in her successful Broadway play Diamond Lil. West sang the ballad again in her 1933 Paramount
film She Done Him Wrong
, which takes its title from the refrain, substituting genders. The song was used in the 1932 film "Red-Headed Woman
" in a scene where actress Jean Harlow
's character is drinking and lamenting having been jilted by her married lover. It is also sung by a river boat crew in Bed of Roses
, a film released the following year.
Actress Mia Farrow
in the role of Jacqueline De Bellefort sang/hummed a drunken rendition of the song in the key scene of the 1978 version of Agatha Christie
's Death on the Nile
just before she attempts to shoot her former lover, Simon Doyle, played by Simon MacCorkindale
.
The climax of Robert Altman
's 2006
film A Prairie Home Companion
is Lindsay Lohan
's rendition of the song with quasi-improvisatory lyrics by Garrison Keillor
.
The tune is often used in Merrie Melodies
cartoons by Warner Bros.
as the theme or motif for a meretricious or zaftig woman. The song was the basis of a 1951
UPA
animated cartoon
, Rooty Toot Toot
, directed by John Hubley
. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
drew a comics
adaptation of a somewhat explicit version of the song's lyrics. It is included in the collection Twentieth Century Eightball
.
E. E. Cummings
used a version of "Frankie and Johnny" (spelling the latter name "Johnie") as the centerpiece for his 1927 play Him.
The radio series Suspense
did a dramatization of the lyrics on May 5, 1952 with singer Dinah Shore
as Frankie. The script was subsequently produced on February 3, 1957 with singer Margaret Whiting
.
Chicago's Redmoon Theater
Company presented an adaptation of the Frankie and Johnny story at Steppenwolf Theater
in 1997. The soundtrack was composed by Michael Zerang and performed by Fred Armisen
, Fred Lonberg-Holm
and Jeremy Ruthrauff.
American popular music
American popular music had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, disco, house, techno,...
. It tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds that her man Johnny was "making love to" another woman and shoots him dead. Frankie is then arrested; in some versions of the song she is also executed.
History
It has been suggested that the song was inspired, or its details influenced, by one or more actual murders. One of these took place in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, on October 15, 1899, when Frankie Baker, a 22-year-old dancer, stabbed (or shot) her 17-year-old lover Allen "Al" Britt, who was having a relationship with a woman named Alice Pryor. Britt died of his wounds two days later. On trial, Baker claimed that Britt had attacked her with a knife and that she acted in self-defense
Self-defense
Self-defense, self-defence or private defense is a countermeasure that involves defending oneself, one's property or the well-being of another from physical harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in times of danger is available in many...
; she was acquitted and died in a Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
mental institution in 1952.
The song has also been linked to Frances Silver, convicted in 1832 of murdering her husband Charles Silver in Burke County, North Carolina
Burke County, North Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 89,148 people, 34,528 households, and 24,342 families residing in the county. The population density was 176 people per square mile . There were 37,427 housing units at an average density of 74 per square mile...
. Unlike Frankie Baker, Silver was executed.
In 1899, popular St Louis balladeer Bill Dooley composed "Frankie Killed Allen" shortly after the Baker murder case.
The first published version of the music to "Frankie and Johnny" appeared in 1904, credited to and copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
ed by Hughie Cannon
Hughie Cannon
Hughie Cannon was a composer and lyricist who was born in Detroit 1877 and died in 1912 in Toledo.-His Works and Bio:His best known composition was the popular song Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey. He wrote the song at the age of sixteen and this ragtime song was published in 1902...
, the composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey
Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey
" Bill Bailey", originally titled "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" is a popular song published in 1902. It is commonly referred to as simply "Bill Bailey"....
"; the piece, a variant version of whose melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
is sung today, was titled "He Done Me Wrong" and subtitled "Death of Bill Bailey".
Another variant of the melody, with words and music credited to Frank and Bert Leighton, appeared in 1908 under the title "Bill You Done Me Wrong"; this song was republished in 1912 as "Frankie and Johnny", this time with the words that appear in modern folk variations:
- Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts
- They had a quarrel one day,
- Johnny he vowed that he would leave her
- Said he was going away,
- He's never coming home, etc.
Also:
- Frankie took aim with her forty-four,
- Five times with a rooty-toot-toot.
The 1912 "Frankie and Johnny" by the Leighton Brothers and Ren Shields
Ren Shields
Ren Shields was an American folk musician born in 1868 in Chicago, Illinois. He died on 25 October 1913 in Massapequa, New York. He co-wrote the song "In the Good Old Summer Time"....
also identifies "Nellie Bly" as the new girl to whom Johnny has given his heart. What has come to be the traditional version of the melody was also published in 1912, as the chorus to the song "You're My Baby", with music is attributed to Nat. D. Ayer.
The familiar "Frankie and Johnny were lovers" lyrics first appeared (as "Frankie and Albert") in On the Trail of Negro Folksongs by Dorothy Scarborough, published in 1925; a similar version with the "Frankie and Johnny" names appeared in 1927 in Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
's The American Songbag.
Several students of folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
have asserted that the song long predates the earliest published versions; according to Leonard Feather
Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.-Biography:...
in his Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz it was sung at the Siege of Vicksburg (1863) during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and Sandburg said it was widespread before 1888, while John Jacob Niles
John Jacob Niles
John Jacob Niles was an American composer, singer, and collector of traditional ballads. Called the "Dean of American Balladeers", Niles was an important influence on the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, with Joan Baez, Burl Ives, and Peter, Paul and Mary, among others,...
reported that it emerged before 1830. The fact, however, that the familiar version does not appear in print before 1925 is "strange indeed for such an allegedly old and well-known song," according to music historian James J. Fuld, who suggests that it "is not so ancient as some of the folk-song writers would have one believe."
Lyrics
Since "Frankie and Johnny" is a traditional song there is no single definitive version of the lyrics. Several versions were collected by Robert Winslow GordonRobert Winslow Gordon
Robert Winslow Gordon was born September 2, 1888 in Bangor, Maine. Educated at Harvard, he joined the English faculty at the University of California at Berkley in 1918. He was the founding head of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress in 1928, later the Archive of Folk...
. The refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
common to most versions is: "He was her man, but he was doing her wrong." The name of the song's "other woman" varies, Alice or Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly was the pen name of American pioneer female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She remains notable for two feats: a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from...
being the most usual ones. The gunshot that kills Johnny is often depicted by the onomatopoeia "rooty toot toot." Many versions open with the quatrain
Quatrain
A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...
: "Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts/Lordy, how they could love/They vowed to love one another/Underneath the stars above." Another common opening is:"Frankie was a good girl/everybody knows/she paid a hundred dollars/for Al's one suit of clothes." A common conclusion is: "This story has no moral/This story has no end/This story only goes to show/That there ain't no good in men."
Recordings
At least 256 different recordings of "Frankie and Johnny" have been made since the early 20th century. Singers include Jimmie RodgersJimmie Rodgers (country singer)
James Charles Rodgers , known as Jimmie Rodgers, was an American country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
(The Singing Brakeman), Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences...
, Frank Crumit
Frank Crumit
Frank Crumit was an American singer, composer. radio entertainer and vaudeville star. He shared his radio programs with his wife, Julia Sanderson, and the two were sometimes called "the ideal couple of the air."...
, Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
, Mississippi Joe Callicott
Mississippi Joe Callicott
Mississippi' Joe Callicott , was a United States Delta blues singer and guitarist....
, Charlie Patton
Charlie Patton
Charlie Patton , better known as Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", and is credited with creating an enduring body of American music and personally inspiring just about every Delta blues man...
, Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
, Charlie Poole
Charlie Poole
Charlie Poole was an American old time banjo player and country musician and the leader of the North Carolina Ramblers, an American old-time string band that recorded many popular songs between 1925 to 1930.-Biography:...
, Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
, Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Lonnie Donegan
Lonnie Donegan
Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly...
, Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, Brook Benton
Brook Benton
Brook Benton was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.He made a comeback in 1970...
, Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...
, Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson (musician)
Jack Johnson was born May 18, 1975 is an American folk rock singer-songwriter, surfer and musician known for his work in the soft rock and acoustic genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. He has since released four more albums, a...
, Daniel, Fred & Julie
Daniel, Fred & Julie
Daniel, Fred & Julie is an album by Canadian indie rock musicians Daniel Romano, Frederick Squire and Julie Doiron, released December 1, 2009 on You've Changed Records....
and Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
.
As a jazz standard
Jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...
it has also been recorded by numerous bands and instrumentalists including Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Bunny Berigan
Bunny Berigan
Rowland Bernard "Bunny" Berigan was an American jazz trumpeter who rose to fame during the swing era, but whose virtuosity and influence were shortened by a losing battle with alcoholism that ended in his early death at age 33. He composed the jazz instrumentals "Chicken and Waffles" and "Blues"...
, Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, and Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
. Champion Jack Dupree
Champion Jack Dupree
William Thomas Dupree, best known as Champion Jack Dupree, was an American blues pianist. His birth date is disputed, given as July 4, July 10, and July 23, in the years 1908, 1909, or 1910. He died on January 21, 1992.-Biography:...
set his version in New Orleans, retitling it "Rampart and Dumaine".
Films
The story of Frankie and Johnny has been the inspiration for several films, including Her Man (19301930 in film
-Events:* November 1: The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne in his first starring role is released in both 35mm, and a very early form of 70mm film and was the first large scale big-budget film of the sound era costing over $2 million. The film was praised for its aesthetic quality and realism...
, starring Helen Twelvetrees
Helen Twelvetrees
Helen Twelvetrees was an American stage and screen performer, considered a top female star in the early days of sound films.- Early life and career :...
), Frankie and Johnnie (1936
1936 in film
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...
, starring Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s...
), and Frankie and Johnny
Frankie and Johnny (1966 film)
Frankie and Johnny is a 1966 musical film starring Elvis Presley as a riverboat gambler. The role of "Frankie" was played by Donna Douglas from The Beverly Hillbillies TV series. The film reached #40 on the Variety weekly national box office list for 1966. The budget of the film was estimated at...
(1966
1966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...
, starring Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
). Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally is an American playwright who has received four Tony Awards, an Emmy, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a member of the Council of the...
's 1987 play, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune is a two-character play by Terrence McNally.It focuses on two lonely, middle-aged people whose first date ends with them tumbling into bed. Johnny is certain he has found his soul mate in Frankie. She, on the other hand, is far more cautious and disinclined...
, which was adapted for a 1991 film starring Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
and Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
.
In 1930 director and actor John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
wrote and produced a puppet play entitled Frankie and Johnnie based on the Frankie Baker case. One of Huston's main sources was his interview with Baker and Britt’s neighbor Richard Clay.
Actress and playwright Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
inserted her ballad in her successful Broadway play Diamond Lil. West sang the ballad again in her 1933 Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
film She Done Him Wrong
She Done Him Wrong
She Done Him Wrong is a Pre-Code 1933 Paramount Pictures comedy romance film starring Mae West and Cary Grant. Others in the cast include Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, Sr., Louise Beavers and Rochelle Hudson....
, which takes its title from the refrain, substituting genders. The song was used in the 1932 film "Red-Headed Woman
Red-Headed Woman
Red-Headed Woman is a 1932 Pre-Code comedy film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, based on a novel by Katherine Brush, and with a screenplay by Anita Loos. It was directed by Jack Conway, and stars Jean Harlow as a woman who uses sex to advance her social position...
" in a scene where actress Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
's character is drinking and lamenting having been jilted by her married lover. It is also sung by a river boat crew in Bed of Roses
Bed of Roses (1933 film)
Bed of Roses is a Pre-Code comedy film featuring Constance Bennett and Pert Kelton as a pair of rollickingly wanton prostitutes who occasionally get hapless male pursuers drunk before robbing them, at least until the girls are caught and thrown back into jail...
, a film released the following year.
Actress Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
in the role of Jacqueline De Bellefort sang/hummed a drunken rendition of the song in the key scene of the 1978 version of Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 1, 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00.The book...
just before she attempts to shoot her former lover, Simon Doyle, played by Simon MacCorkindale
Simon MacCorkindale
Simon Charles Pendered MacCorkindale was a British actor, film director, writer and producer. MacCorkindale spent much of his childhood moving around due to his father's commission with the Royal Air Force. Poor eyesight prevented him from following a similar career in the RAF, so he instead...
.
The climax of Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
's 2006
2006 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...
film A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion (film)
A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 ensemble comedy elegy directed by Robert Altman, and was his final film, released just five months before his death...
is Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...
's rendition of the song with quasi-improvisatory lyrics by Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
.
The tune is often used in Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
cartoons by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
as the theme or motif for a meretricious or zaftig woman. The song was the basis of a 1951
1951 in film
The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
UPA
United Productions of America
United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio of the 1940s through present day, beginning with industrial films and World War II training films. In the late 1940s, UPA produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures, most notably the Mr. Magoo series. In...
animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
, Rooty Toot Toot
Rooty Toot Toot
Rooty Toot Toot is a 1951 United Productions of America animated short film, directed by John Hubley. In 1994 it was voted #41 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field...
, directed by John Hubley
John Hubley
John Hubley was an American animation director, art director, producer and writer of traditional animation films known for both his formal experimentation and for his emotional realism which stemmed from his tendency to cast his own children as voice actors in his films.- Biography :Hubley was...
. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
Other media
Daniel ClowesDaniel Clowes
Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....
drew a comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
adaptation of a somewhat explicit version of the song's lyrics. It is included in the collection Twentieth Century Eightball
Twentieth Century Eightball
Twentieth Century Eightball is a book collection of comics by Daniel Clowes published by Fantagraphics Books in 2002. It consists of numerous short pieces originally published in Clowes's Eightball , and other venues...
.
E. E. Cummings
E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...
used a version of "Frankie and Johnny" (spelling the latter name "Johnie") as the centerpiece for his 1927 play Him.
The radio series Suspense
Suspense (radio program)
-Production background:One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era...
did a dramatization of the lyrics on May 5, 1952 with singer Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...
as Frankie. The script was subsequently produced on February 3, 1957 with singer Margaret Whiting
Margaret Whiting
Margaret Whiting was a singer of American popular music and country music who first made her reputation during the 1940s and 1950s.-Youth:...
.
Chicago's Redmoon Theater
Redmoon Theater
Redmoon Theater is a Chicago based not-for-profit theatrical company under the direction of Jim Lasko and Frank Maugeri that specializes in site-specific productions, emphasizing visual spectacle, pageantry, elaborate sets, live music, puppetry, and physical theater. Productions are often out of...
Company presented an adaptation of the Frankie and Johnny story at Steppenwolf Theater
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Tony Award-winning Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry in the basement of a church in Highland Park, Illinois. It has since relocated to Chicago's Halsted Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Its name comes from...
in 1997. The soundtrack was composed by Michael Zerang and performed by Fred Armisen
Fred Armisen
Fred Armisen is an American actor, comedian and musician best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and portraying off-color foreigners in various comedy films such as EuroTrip, Anchorman and Cop Out...
, Fred Lonberg-Holm
Fred Lonberg-Holm
Fred Lonberg-Holm is an American cellist based in Chicago. He relocated from New York City to Chicago in 1995.Lonberg-Holm is most identified with playing free improvisation and free jazz. He is also a composer of concert works...
and Jeremy Ruthrauff.
See also
- Stagger LeeStagger Lee (song)"Stagger Lee", also known as "Stagolee", "Stackerlee", "Stack O'Lee", "Stack-a-Lee" and several other variants, is a popular folk song based on the murder of William "Billy" Lyons by Stagger Lee Shelton...
- Duncan and BradyDuncan and Brady"Duncan and Brady", also known as "Been on the Job Too Long", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", or simply "Brady", is a traditional murder ballad about the shooting of a policeman, Brady, by a bartender, Duncan. The song's lyrics stemmed from actual events, involving the shooting of James Brady in...
- List of pre-1920 jazz standards
External links
- "Frankie and Albert
[ Laws I3"], Traditional Ballad Index. - "Frankie and Johnny, or You'll Miss Me in the Days to Come", "Perfesser" Bill Edwards.
- A version of "Frankie and Johnny" sung by B. F. Anderson.
- The movie A Prairie Home Companion featured a rendition sung by Lindsay Lohan, lyrics by Garrison Keillor
- At "F", history and lyrics of 10 versions of the song (Lead Belly, Charlie Poole, Jimmie Rodgers, Jack Dupree, etc.)
- Jerry Lawson's official website with a link to purchase the album Jerry Lawson Talk of the Town