The Opry Observer: "Eight to the Bar"

Clickity Clack, Clickity Clack down the railroad line they went! As dawn broke over 20th century America, a new style of piano-based blues was to become very popular well into the late 1930s and early 1940s. What had evolved was extended from the piano, to three pianos at once, to the guitar, the big band, and country and western music, and even gospel. It was “Boogie-woogie” an early art form mainly associated with dancing. Early lyrics of one of the very earliest of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie", consist entirely of instructions to dancers: “Now, when I tell you to hold it, I don't want you to move a thing.” “And when I tell you to get it, I want you to Boogie Woogie!”

The precise origin of boogie-woogie piano is uncertain; it was no doubt influenced by early rough music played in honky tonks in the Southern United States. W.C. Handy and Jelly Roll Morton both mentioned hearing pianists playing this style before 1910. According to Clarence Williams, the style was started by Texas pianist George W. Thomas. Thomas published one of the earliest pieces of sheet music with the boogie-woogie bassline, "New Orleans Hop Scop Blues" in 1916, although Williams recalled hearing him play the number before 1911. The term "boogie" itself was in use very early, as in Wilbur Sweatman's "Boogie Rag" recorded in April, 1917.

"Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" by Pinetop Smith recorded in 1928

The first boogie woogie hit was "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" by Pinetop Smith (1928 in music) recorded in 1928 and first released in 1929. Pinetop's record was the first boogie-woogie recording to be a commercial hit, and helped establish boogie-woogie as the name of the style. It was closely followed by another example of pure boogie-woogie, "Honky Tonk Train Blues" by Meade Lux Lewis, recorded by Paramount Records; 1927 in music, first released in March of 1930.

Meade Lux Lewis

Boogie-woogie gained further public attention in 1938 and 1939, thanks to the “From Spirituals to Swing” concerts in Carnegie Hall promoted by record producer John Hammond. The concerts featured Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson performing Turner's tribute to Johnson, "Roll 'Em Pete", as well as Meade Lux Lewis performing "Honky Tonk Train Blues" and Albert Ammons playing "Swanee River Boogie'.

"Roll 'Em Pete" is now considered to be an early rock and roll song. After the Carnegie Hall concerts, it was only natural for swing bands to incorporate the boogie woogie beat into some of their music. One of the first to do this was the Will Bradley orchestra, starting in 1939, which got them a string of boogie hits such as the original versions of "Beat Me Daddy (Eight To The Bar)" and "Down The Road A-Piece," both 1940, and "Scrub Me Mamma With A Boogie Beat," in 1941.

The Andrews Sisters sang some boogies, and Tommy Dorsey's band had a hit with an updated version of Pine Top's Boogie Woogie in 1938, which was the swing era's second best seller, only second to Glenn Miller's "In the Mood". After the floodgates were open, it was expected that every big band should have one or two boogie numbers in their repertoire, as the dancers were learning to jitterbug and do the Lindy Hop, which required the boogie woogie beat.

Tommy Dorsey – Woogie Boogie

In 1939 country artists began playing boogie woogie when Johnny Barfield recorded "Boogie Woogie". But it was "Cow Cow Boogie" that was written for, but not used in, the 1942 movie "Ride 'em Cowboy" where Boogie Woogie crossed over the line. This song by Benny Carter, Gene DePaul, and Don Raye successfully combined Boogie Woogie and Western, or Cowboy music. The lyrics leave no doubt that it was a Western boogie woogie. It sold over a million records in its original release, and has now been recorded many times.

Brooks and Dunn - "Boot Scooting Boogie"

The boogie beat continued in country music through the end of the 20th century. The Charlie Daniels Band (whose earlier tune "The South's Gonna Do It Again" uses boogie-woogie influences) released "Boogie Woogie Fiddle Country Blues" in 1988, and three years later in 1991 Brooks & Dunn had a huge hit with "Boot Scootin' Boogie". More representative examples can be found in some of the songs of Western swing pioneer Bob Wills, and subsequent tradition-minded country artists such as Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard, and even George Strait.

The popularity of the Carnegie Hall concerts meant work for many of the fellow boogie players and also led to the adaptation of boogie-woogie sounds to many other forms of music. Tommy Dorsey's band had a hit with "T.D.'s Boogie Woogie" as arranged by Sy Oliver and soon there were boogie-woogie songs, recorded and printed, of many different stripes. Most famously, in the big-band genre, the ubiquitous "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," which was revamped recently by Christina Aguilera as her 2006 hit, "Candyman."

See Article: http://thepalomar.blogspot.com/2009/12/candyman.html

The boogie-woogie fad lasted from the late 1930s into the early fifties,and made a major contribution to the development of jump blues and ultimately to rock and roll, epitomized by Jerry Lee Lewis. Boogie woogie is still to be heard in clubs and on records throughout Europe and North America.

One of my all-time favorites that parallels and is considered part of this genre which exudes confidence in the music is another great song that exemplifies this type of music Americana!