Willie Mabon
Encyclopedia
Willie Mabon was an American
R&B
singer, songwriter
and pianist
.
, Memphis
, Tennessee
, he had become known as a singer and pianist by the time he moved to Chicago
in 1942. He formed a group, the Blues Rockers, and in 1949 began recording
for the Aristocrat
label
, and then Chess
. His style contrasted with many Chess artistes – it was cool and jazzy, emphasising piano and saxophone rather than guitar and harmonica.
His biggest success came in 1952 when his debut solo release, "I Don't Know
", topped the Billboard
R&B chart
for eight weeks. He picked it up from the older boogie-woogie
pianist, Cripple Clarence Lofton
.
It was one of the most popular releases of its era, becoming Chess's biggest hit
in the period before Chuck Berry
's and Bo Diddley
's success. It also became one of the first R&B hit record
s to be covered
by a leading white
artist
, Tennessee Ernie Ford
. Mabon's original was played on Alan Freed
's early radio
shows and also sold well to white audiences, crossing over markets at the start of the rock and roll
era.
Mabon returned to the top R&B slot in 1953 with "I'm Mad", and had another hit with the Mel London
penned "Poison Ivy" in 1954. However, his career failed to maintain its momentum, and record releases in the late 1950s on a variety of record label
s were largely unsuccessful. After a lull he repeated the process more modestly in the early 1960s with "Got To Have Some" and "I'm The Fixer".
After moving to Paris in 1972, Mabon toured and recorded in Europe
, including a 1977 album on Ornament Records
. He also performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival
. In April 1985, after a long illness, Mabon died in Paris.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
singer, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
.
Career
Born Willie James Mabon, and brought up in HollywoodHollywood, Memphis
-Geography:Hollywood "Holly-Hood" North Memphis is one of the largest hoods in the urban area.Its range expands from the point of North Hollywood Street to Chelsea Avenue in the northside of Memphis. It is typically bound by North McLean Boulevard to the west and Warford Street to the east...
, Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, he had become known as a singer and pianist by the time he moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 1942. He formed a group, the Blues Rockers, and in 1949 began recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
for the Aristocrat
Aristocrat Records
Aristocrat Records, sometimes referred to The Aristocrat of Records, was founded in April 1947 by Charles and Evelyn Aron, together with their partners Fred and Mildred Brount and Art Spiegel. By September Leonard Chess had invested in the young record company. Over time, Leonard bought the others...
label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, and then Chess
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
. His style contrasted with many Chess artistes – it was cool and jazzy, emphasising piano and saxophone rather than guitar and harmonica.
His biggest success came in 1952 when his debut solo release, "I Don't Know
I Don't Know (Willie Mabon song)
"I Don't Know" is a 1952 song by Willie Mabon and His Combo on Chess Records. The single was Mabon's first chart hit, reaching number one on the U.S. R&B chart in December 1952....
", topped the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
R&B chart
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
for eight weeks. He picked it up from the older boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie has the following meanings:*Boogie-woogie, a piano-based music style*Boogie-woogie , a swing dance or a dance that imitates the rock-n-roll dance of the 1950s*"Boogie Woogie" , a song by EuroGroove and Dannii Minogue...
pianist, Cripple Clarence Lofton
Cripple Clarence Lofton
Cripple Clarence Lofton , born Albert Clemens in Kingsport, Tennessee, was a noted boogie-woogie pianist and singer....
.
It was one of the most popular releases of its era, becoming Chess's biggest hit
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
in the period before Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
's and Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
's success. It also became one of the first R&B hit record
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
s to be covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
by a leading white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
artist
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, Tennessee Ernie Ford
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ernest Jennings Ford , better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres...
. Mabon's original was played on Alan Freed
Alan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed , also known as Moondog, was an American disc-jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll...
's early radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
shows and also sold well to white audiences, crossing over markets at the start of the rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
era.
Mabon returned to the top R&B slot in 1953 with "I'm Mad", and had another hit with the Mel London
Mel London
Mel London was a songwriter, record producer, and record label owner. He was active in the Chicago blues and R&B scenes in the 1950s and 1960s...
penned "Poison Ivy" in 1954. However, his career failed to maintain its momentum, and record releases in the late 1950s on a variety of record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s were largely unsuccessful. After a lull he repeated the process more modestly in the early 1960s with "Got To Have Some" and "I'm The Fixer".
After moving to Paris in 1972, Mabon toured and recorded in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, including a 1977 album on Ornament Records
Ornament Records
Ornament Records is a German record label set up in the early 1970s by Siegfried A. "Ziggy" Christmann. It initially specialised in issuing live recordings of blues artists who were touring Germany...
. He also performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
. In April 1985, after a long illness, Mabon died in Paris.
Legacy
- "I Don't KnowI Don't Know (Willie Mabon song)"I Don't Know" is a 1952 song by Willie Mabon and His Combo on Chess Records. The single was Mabon's first chart hit, reaching number one on the U.S. R&B chart in December 1952....
" was coveredCover versionIn popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
by The Blues BrothersThe Blues BrothersThe Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
in 1978. - His song "Just Got Some" was covered by Rod StewartRod StewartRoderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
. - His song "I'm Mad" is featured in the Marv NewlandMarv NewlandMarv Newland is a filmmaker who specializes in animation.Newland began a career making animated motion pictures in Los Angeles with the creation of the short Bambi Meets Godzilla...
1980 animated short filmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Sing Beast Sing. - "Seventh SonThe Seventh Son (song)"The Seventh Son", also recorded as "Seventh Son", is a song written by Willie Dixon. It was released as a single by Willie Mabon on Chess Records in 1955...
", first recorded by Mabon in 1955, has since been covered by a number of artists including Johnny RiversJohnny RiversJohnny Rivers is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. His styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll songs and some original material...
, Georgie FameGeorgie FameGeorgie Fame is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.-Early life:Fame took piano lessons from the...
, John MellencampJohn MellencampJohn Mellencamp, previously known by the stage names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock that eschews synthesizers and other artificial sounds...
, Billy "Crash" Craddock, Mose AllisonMose AllisonMose John Allison, Jr. is an American jazz blues pianist and singer.-Biography:...
, Sting, Climax Blues BandClimax Blues BandClimax Blues Band was formed in Stafford, England in 1968. The original members were guitarists Peter Haycock and Derek Holt; keyboardist Arthur Wood; bassist Richard Jones; drummer George Newsome; and vocalist and harmonica player, Colin Cooper.In 1970, the group shortened its name to the Climax...
, and Long John BaldryLong John BaldryJohn William "Long John" Baldry was an English and Canadian blues singer and a voice actor. He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where Let the Heartaches Begin reached No...
. - His coolly humorous, slightly effeminate style greatly impressed the EnglishEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
R&B singer and keyboardKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
player, Georgie FameGeorgie FameGeorgie Fame is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.-Early life:Fame took piano lessons from the...
.