Stormy Monday Blues

{{Short description|Jazz song first recorded by Earl Hines with Billy Ekstine in 1942}}

{{About|jazz song recorded by Earl Hines with Billy Ekstine||Stormy Monday (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox song

| name = Stormy Monday Blues

| cover = Stormy Monday Blues single cover.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Earl Hines

| B-side = Second Balcony Jump

| released = {{Start date|1942}}

| recorded = March 19, 1942

| studio =

| genre = Jazz

| length = {{Duration|m=3|s=11}}

| label = Bluebird

| writer = Earl Hines, Billy Eckstine, Bob Crowder

| producer =

}}

"Stormy Monday Blues" is a jazz song first recorded in 1942 by Earl Hines and His Orchestra with Billy Eckstine on vocals. The song was a hit, reaching number one in Billboard magazine's "Harlem Hit Parade",

{{cite book

| last = Whitburn

| first = Joel

| authorlink = Joel Whitburn

| title = Top R&B Singles 1942–1988

| year = 1988

| location = Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin

| publisher = Record Research

| isbn = 978-0-89820-068-3

| page = [https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstop00whit/page/191 191]

| url-access = registration

| url = https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstop00whit/page/191

}} and was Hines' only appearance in the charts.

Background

"Stormy Monday Blues" is performed in the style of a slow blues that "starts with Hines' piano and a walking bass for the introduction".

{{cite magazine

| author = Billboard

| date = August 8, 1942

| title = Earl Hines{{snd}}record review

| magazine = Billboard

| volume = 24

| issue = 32

| issn = 0006-2510

| page = 68

}} Billy Eckstine then enters with the vocal:

{{poemquote|It's gone and started rainin', I'm as lonesome as a man can be

It's gone and started rainin', I'm as lonesome as a man can be

'Cause every time it rains, I realize what you mean to me}}

The lyrics "stormy" or "Monday" do not appear in the song. A trumpet solo by Maurice "Shorty" McConnell

{{cite book

| last = Yanow

| first = Scott

| title = Trumpet Kings: The Players Who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet

| year = 2001

| publisher = Backbeat Books

| isbn = 978-0-87930-640-3

| page = 250

}} with big band backing is featured in the second half of the song. Eckstine later recorded "Stormy Monday Blues" in 1959 with Count Basie for their Basie/Eckstine Incorporated album.

{{cite web

| url = {{AllMusic|class=album|id=r160996/review|pure_url=yes}}

| title = Basie and Eckstine, Inc.{{snd}}album review

| last = Nastos

| first = Michael G.

| website = AllMusic

| access-date = September 14, 2010

}}

The song has sometimes been confused with T-Bone Walker's 1947 song "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)", which is frequently shortened to "Stormy Monday" or "Stormy Monday Blues".

{{cite encyclopedia

| last = Herzhaft

| first = Gerard

| encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of the Blues

| section = Stormy Monday Blues

| year = 1992

| location = Fayetteville, Arkansas

| publisher = University of Arkansas Press

| isbn = 978-1-55728-252-1

| page = [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofbl00herzh/page/472 472]

| url-access = registration

| url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofbl00herzh/page/472

}}

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1942 songs

Category:Jazz songs

{{1940s-jazz-composition-stub}}