Mamie Smith

Happy Birthday Mamie Smith 1883-1946....Although she was really a vaudeville singer, Smith was the first African-American vocalist to record the blues. Her song, "Crazy Blues" sold 10,000 copies the first week and a million within 6 months and started the great decade of Ladies of the Blues in the 1920's.

Smith got her start in show business as a dancing 10 year old with a white vaudeville act called The Four Dancing Mitchells. As a teenager she joined Salem Tut Whitney's Smart Set staying with the company until 1913 when she left to sing in Harlem clubs.

Smith's recording was really an accident. Sophie Tucker was supposed to record "Crazy Blues" but was sick at the time the recording was scheduled. Perry Bradford who wrote the song persuaded Okeh records to take a gamble on Smith. The recording was a huge success and according to  Angela Davis, "The recording of 'Crazy Blues' lead the way for the professionalization of black music, for the black entertainment industry, and indeed for the immense popularity of black music today." It connected to an audience the record companies, up to that point, had not served. There was enough of a black working class that was eager to buy records coming out of their own culture and with their wallets, convinced the recording industry of the value of "race music".

Smith began touring with her Jazz Hounds (which featured Coleman Hawkins, Bubber Miley and Johnny Dunn among others) as part of her "Mamie Smith's Struttin' Review", traveling throughout the U.S. and Europe. She was billed as "Queen of the Blues", a title that was later topped by Bessie Smith who called herself the "Empress of the Blues". In the 30's Smith also toured with Andy Kirk and Fats Pichon.

She made movies as well including Paradise in Harlem in 1939, Mystery in Swing and Sunday Sinners in 1940, Stolen Paradise and Murder on Lenox Avenue in 1941 and Because I Love You in 1943. She died in 1946 at the age of 63.

Because of it's historical significance, Smith's recording of "Crazy Blues" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994 and was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in 2005.