Jukebox Hits: 1940 - 1951

Acrobat Music & Media has a series related to individual artists and some year-by-year multi-artist compilations called Jukebox Hits, my initial experience with which was the Lucky Millinder 1942-1951 volume. That led to the purchase of those dealing with The Clovers (1949-1955), Erskine Hawkins (1940-1950), Ivory Joe Hunter (1945-1950), T-Bone Walker (1943-1952), Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (1942-1947), Andy Kirk & His Clouds Of Joy (1936-1949), Joe Liggins & His "Honeydrippers" (1945-1951), The Johnny Otis Orchestra (1946-1954), Jimmie Lunceford (1935-1947) and Lionel Hampton (1943-1950)

I have also found these in the series: Roy Milton, Amos Milburn, Wynonie Harris, Cab Calloway, The Dominoes, Ella Fitzgerald, Ruth Brown, Count Basie, Muddy Waters, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Nat "King" Cole, and multi-artist year compilations for 1942 to 1944, 1947, 1953 and 1955. I'm sure there are probably others.

The only annoying part of the series is the 20 tracks for some artists and upwards of 26 for others, and this one covering the hits of Buddy Johnson & His Orchestra featuring the vocals of sister Ella cuts off at 21, thereby omitting the six he had from 1953 to 1957 with Mercury, after having registered eight with the Decca label. They also only provide one of the B-sides of those Decca hits and, unlike most others in the series, the discography of the contents provides no label details at all. However, the sound quality is decent, and you get no less than 10 pages of background notes written in August 2003 by Dave Penny.

Buddy, who was born Woodrow Wilson Johnson on January 10, 1915 in Darlington, South Carolina, is rightly described in those liner notes as "one of the most under-rated of the swing band leaders of the 1940s ... (who) led a talented and loyal aggregation throughout the entire decade, paying and recording, almost exclusively, the original material that seemed to pour effortlessly from Buddy's pen."

Strangely, his hits at Decca did not include the song he is perhaps most associated with, Since I Fell For You, recorded in 1945 with Ella doing the vocal. In 1947 it would become a # 3 R&B for Annie Laurie with Paul Gayten, in 1963 Lenny Welch would take it to # 3 Adult Contemporary as well as # 4 Billboard Pop Hot 100 and R&B, in 1972 Laura Lee would have a # 24 R&B/# 76 Hot 100 with it, while in 1976, Charlie Rich's version went to # 10 Country/# 11 Adult Contemporary/# 71 Hot 100. Then, in 1977, a recording by Hodges, James & Smith included it as part of a medley, taking it to # 24 R&B/# 96 Hot 100, followed in 1979 by the Country # 20 for Con Hunley and, in 1987, a # 10 Adult Contemporary for Al Jarreau. So, all in all, a pretty good and enduring song and worthy of the term "standard."

But, as another reviewer says, Buddy was much more than just that one notable tune. In early 1943 this accomplished pianist/bandleader/composer and sometimes vocalist scored his first hit single when Let's Beat Out Some Love, with Buddy himself on vocal, reached # 2 on the Harlem Hit Parade, the forerunner of the R&B charts. The flip on Decca 8647, I Done Found Out, is omitted. A couple of months later Warren Evans took over the vocals on Baby Don't You Cry, which peaked at # 3 R&B that April b/w Stand Back And Smile on Decca 8632 (not here).

Almost a year would then go by before his third hit, When My Man Comes Home with Ella's vocal, and with that he had his first # 1 R&B hit and also his first Pop crossover, reaching # 23 b/w I'll Always Be With You on Decca 8655 (omitted). He and Ella then came close to another # 1 when That's The Stuff You Gotta Watch climbed to # 2 R&B and a quite respectable # 14 on the more lucrative Pop charts in July 1945. The B-side on Decca 8871, One Of Them Good Ones, is missing here.

Both sides of his next hit are here, however, with They All Say (I'm The Biggest Fool), featuring the vocal styling of Arthur Prysock, making it to # 5 R&B in July 1946 - a year since his last hit. Although there's nothing in the liner notes to say who does the vocal on the flip of Decca 11000, Fine Brown Frame, it seems to be Buddy. It did not chart. In the late summer of 1948 the band then had their only instrumental hit, Far Cry, which topped out at # 28 Pop in September on Decca 48076 b/w Li'l Dog (missing here). The next vocal hit came early in 1949 when Ella warbled I Don't Care Who Knows, a # 11 R&B in February on Decca 48088 b/w You Had Better Change Your Ways (not here), followed later that summer by Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball? With vocals by Buddy and the band, this peaked at # 13 R&B and # 17 Pop in August on Decca 24675 b/w Down Yonder (also omitted).

The final hit presented here was Buddy's version of Because, a 1948 Pop hit for Perry Como, and again in 1951 for Mario Lanza. With Arthur Prysock doing the vocal on both Parts 1 and 2 (both sides of the record), it peaked at # 8 R&B in March 1950 on Decca 9-24842.

A nice collection of his Decca hit recordings. Buddy died on February 9, 1977 from a brain tumor at just 62 years of age. His son Bud was a member of the vocal group The Chanters, who had a Hot 100/R&B hit in 1961 with No, No, No.

Buddy Johnson, along with his sister Ella, made some of the greatest popular music of the 40's. He is much more than "Since I Fell for You."