Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
{{short description|Song by Stick McGhee}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee
| cover =
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| type = single
| artist = Stick McGhee
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| genre = Blues
| length =
| label = Atlantic
| writer = Stick McGhee
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{{Infobox song
| name = Drinking Wine Spo-dee O'dee
| cover =
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Jerry Lee Lewis
| album = The Session...Recorded in London with Great Artists
| A-side = "Drinking Wine Spo-dee O'dee"
"Rock and Roll Medley"
| released = 1973
| recorded =
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| genre = Rock 'n' roll, blues
| length =
| label = Mercury
| writer = Stick McGhee
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| misc = {{Extra chronology
| artist = Jerry Lee Lewis
| type = single
| prev_title = Meat Man" / "Just a Little Bit
| prev_year = 1973
| title = Drinking Wine Spo-dee O'dee" / "Rock and Roll Medley
| year = 1973
| next_title = Sometimes a Memory Ain't Enough" / "I Think I Need to Pray
| next_year = 1973
}}
}}
"Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" is a jump blues song written by Stick McGhee and J. Mayo Williams in 1949 and originally recorded by "Stick” McGhee & His Buddies. It became an early hit for Atlantic Records, reaching #2 on the US R&B charts.R&B Box, 30 Years of Rhythm * Blues; Volume 1, Jumpin’ the Blues, 1943-1950, Rhino Records, Los Angeles, CA, 1994{{cite web|author=Gilliland, John. |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1633226/m1/#track/2 |title=Pop Chronicles 1940s Program #23 - All Tracks UNT Digital Library |publisher=Digital.library.unt.edu |date=197X |access-date=2021-03-01}}
Background
Picardie and Wade in their book Atlantic and the Godfathers of Rock and Roll explain how the Atlantic version came to be. Stick McGhee had recorded the song in January 1947 in New Orleans for Harlem Records, a label which went out of business in 1948.{{cite web | url=https://secondhandsongs.com/work/40946/all | title=Song: Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee written by Sticks McGhee, J. Mayo Williams | SecondHandSongs | website=SecondHandSongs }} A distributor from New Orleans called Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records to find out if the firm could supply 5,000 copies of the song. Ertegun could not but offered to make an exact copy of the record. He first had to find someone to sing it and remembered Brownie McGhee whom Ertegun had met in his "endless trips to Harlem. I called him up and he said he could do it, but as it happened, his brother Stick was staying with him, so he might as well remake his own record." The song was recorded that same night and went on to sell 400,000 copies.Picardie, Justine and Dorothy Wade, Atlantic and the Godfathers of Rock and Roll, Fourth Estate, London, 1993 pp. 20-21
1949 recordings
- The song charted on the US R&B charts by three different artists in 1949, Stick McGhee’s version (“Stick” McGhee & His BuddiesR&B Box, 30 Years of Rhythm * Blues; Volume 1, Jumpin’ the Blues, 1943-1950, Rhino Records, Los Angeles, CA, 1994 reached #2, Wynonie Harris’sHarris, Wynonie, The Very Best of Wynonie Harris: Good Rockin’ Tonight, Gusto Records, Nashville TN, 2006 hit #4 and Lionel Hampton went up to #13.Whitburn, Joel, The Billboard Book of TOP 40 R&B and Hip Hop Hits, Billboard Books, New York 2006, p. 385, p. 234, p. 231
Other recordings
- The song was covered by Jerry Lee Lewis, whose recording reached number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/jerry-lee-lewis/chart-history/hsi/|title=Drinking Wine Spo-dee O'dee Chart History|magazine=Billboard|access-date=2020-03-25}}
- Other cover versions were recorded by Big John Greer, Johnny Burnette, Mike Bloomfield's Electric Flag (as "Wine"), The Pirates without Johnny Kidd and Richard Thompson (as included on 1000 Years of Popular Music).
Charts
Jerry Lee Lewis version
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" |
| style="text-align:center;"|Chart (1973)
! style="text-align:center;"|Peak |
|---|
| align="left"| U.S. Cash Box Country Singles{{cite book|author=George Albert|title=The Cash Box Country Singles Charts, 1958-1982|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5BHAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Drinking+Wine%22|date=1 January 1984|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-1685-5}}
| 21 |
| {{single chart|Billboardcountrysongs|20|artist=Jerry Lee Lewis|rowheader=true}} |
| {{single chart|Billboardhot100|41|artist=Jerry Lee Lewis|rowheader=true}} |
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.songfacts.com/facts/stick-mcghee/drinkin-wine-spo-dee-o-dee "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" by Stick McGhee] on Songfacts
{{Jerry Lee Lewis}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Atlantic Records singles
Category:Jerry Lee Lewis songs
Category:Mercury Records singles