Crazy Blues

Abstract

From 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on August 10, 1920, Perry Bradford was in “a pleasant dream that came from heaven.”² After walking “out two pairs of shoes,” “bow [ing] and scrap [ing] … with a perpetuallasting watermelon grin,”³ what to many was a preposterous fantasy had become a reality. Bradford’s peers did not believe that he could convince anyone in a racist music industry to record a black woman singing blues. Yet, he did. He convinced Fred Hager, the recording manager of Okeh Records, to “take a chance” on a “Negro girl.” Okeh reluctantly took that chance on a cold February 1920 morning when it recorded Mamie Smith singing “This Thing Called Love.” The success of this song paved the way for Bradford’s dreamlike August day. With “tears of gladness” in his eyes, he spent eight hours that day listening to Smith record “Crazy Blues.”⁴ This was the first time that blues was officially recorded. Within a month of its November release, Crazy Blues sold over 75,000 copies. Within a year, hundreds of thousands of copies were sold nationally. Pullman Car Porters unofficially boosted the sales of Smith’s record as they bought and then resold it in rural areas across the country. “You couldn’t walk down the street in a colored neighborhood and not hear that record. It was everywhere,” said Alberta Hunter.⁵

Now I’ve got the crazy blues

Since my baby went away.¹