When My Sugar Walks Down the Street
Encyclopedia
When My Sugar Walks Down the Street is a 1920s jazz standard, written by Gene Austin
, Jimmy McHugh
and Irving Mills
in 1924.
The Victor Talking Machine, bought by RCA
and renamed RCA Victor at the end of 1928, made the first major recording of the song in January 1925. In his autobiography, Nathaniel Shilkret
, who was a Victor A&R executive at the time and soon to replace Edward T. King
as Victor's Director of Light Music, described the events leading to the recording:
It was Austin who demonstrated the song when Mills Music presented it to Victor for recording. Shilkret liked Austin's voice and paired Aileen Stanley
, a top Victor artist, with Austin, unknown at the time, as vocalists, to be accompanied by Shilkret directing the Victor orchestra (see EDVR for details of the recording). The recording was extremely popular and launched Austin's career.
According to H. Allen Smith, Austin complained that Shilkret recommended that it be sung primarily by Aileen Stanley, with Austin singing little more than "tweet-tweet-tweet" (see). The original recording is commercially available on CD, and in the actual recording, stars Stanley and Shilkret, with his orchestra, are featured for 60 seconds and 70 seconds, respectively, and the unknown Austin for 30 seconds, hardly an unreasonable split.
"When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" was recorded by Duke Ellington
, Nat King Cole
, The Ink Spots
, Hot Lips Page, Johnny Mathis
, The Four Freshmen
, Bix Beiderbecke
, Red Nichols
' Five Pennies, Ella Fitzgerald
, Sy Oliver
, and the Wolverines Orchestra.
Gene Austin
Gene Austin was an American singer and songwriter, one of the first "crooners". His 1920s compositions "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" and "The Lonesome Road" became pop and jazz standards.-Career:...
, Jimmy McHugh
Jimmy McHugh
James Francis McHugh was a U.S. composer. One of the most prolific songwriters from the 1920s to the 1950s, he composed over 270 songs...
and Irving Mills
Irving Mills
Irving Mills was a jazz music publisher, also known by the name of "Joe Primrose."Mills was born to Jewish parents in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He founded Mills Music with his brother Jack in 1919...
in 1924.
The Victor Talking Machine, bought by RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
and renamed RCA Victor at the end of 1928, made the first major recording of the song in January 1925. In his autobiography, Nathaniel Shilkret
Nathaniel Shilkret
Nathaniel Shilkret was an American composer, conductor, clarinetist, pianist, business executive, and music director born in New York City, New York to an Austrian immigrant family.-Early career:...
, who was a Victor A&R executive at the time and soon to replace Edward T. King
Edward T. King
Edward T. "Eddie" King was an early twentieth century percussionist, conductor, Artist and Repertoire man, and manager for Zon-o-phone, the Victor Talking Machine Company, and Columbia Records.-Zon-o-phone:...
as Victor's Director of Light Music, described the events leading to the recording:
It was Austin who demonstrated the song when Mills Music presented it to Victor for recording. Shilkret liked Austin's voice and paired Aileen Stanley
Aileen Stanley
Aileen Stanley, born Maude Elsie Aileen Muggeridge , was a popular American singer.-Early life:...
, a top Victor artist, with Austin, unknown at the time, as vocalists, to be accompanied by Shilkret directing the Victor orchestra (see EDVR for details of the recording). The recording was extremely popular and launched Austin's career.
According to H. Allen Smith, Austin complained that Shilkret recommended that it be sung primarily by Aileen Stanley, with Austin singing little more than "tweet-tweet-tweet" (see). The original recording is commercially available on CD, and in the actual recording, stars Stanley and Shilkret, with his orchestra, are featured for 60 seconds and 70 seconds, respectively, and the unknown Austin for 30 seconds, hardly an unreasonable split.
"When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" was recorded by Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots were a popular vocal group in the 1930s and 1940s that helped define the musical genre that led to rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and the subgenre doo-wop...
, Hot Lips Page, Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
, The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen is a multiple Grammy-nominated American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmony jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires , The Pied Pipers , and The Mel-Tones , founded in the barbershop tradition...
, Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...
, Red Nichols
Red Nichols
Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols was an American jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader.Over his long career, Nichols recorded in a wide variety of musical styles, and critic Steve Leggett describes him as "an expert cornet player, a solid improviser, and apparently a workaholic, since he is...
' Five Pennies, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Sy Oliver
Sy Oliver
Melvin "Sy" Oliver was a jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader...
, and the Wolverines Orchestra.
External links
- Duet recording from 1925
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KKPlnjLrHsWhen My Sugar Walks Down the Street on Victor 19610, featuring Waring's PennsylvaniansWaring's PennsylvaniansWaring's Pennsylvanians was a jazz - Dixieland band which was most popular in the 1920s and 1930s but continued to exist and play until Fred Waring's death in 1984....
]