May 29, 2007

Standing on the Corner

On July 16, 1930, Jimmie Rodgers—the father of country music, also known as America's Blue Yodeler—met and did a session with 29-year-old New Orleans trumpeter Louis Armstrong, in Hollywood. It was then that the two recorded "Blue Yodel #9" (a.k.a. "Standing on the Corner"), a blues/country song by Jimmie Rodgers himself. Fourty years later, on October 28, 1970, Louis Armstrong was a guest on the Johnny Cash Show, on the ABC network, and Man in Black asked him to recreate that recording session. Satchmo cracked everybody up at the start of the song: “Let's give it to 'em in black and white …”