Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues si… Read Full Bio ↴Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer.
Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on other jazz vocalists.
The 1900 census indicates that Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892. However, the 1910 census recorded her birthday as April 15, 1894, a date that appears on all subsequent documents and was observed by the entire Smith family. Census data also contributes to controversy about the size of her family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, while later interviews with Smith's family and contemporaries did not include these individuals among her siblings.
Bessie Smith was the daughter of Laura (née Owens) and William Smith. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher (he was listed in the 1870 census as a "minister of the gospel", in Moulton, Lawrence, Alabama.) He died before his daughter could remember him. By the time she was nine, she had lost her mother and a brother as well. Her older sister Viola took charge of caring for her siblings.
To earn money for their impoverished household, Bessie Smith and her brother Andrew began busking on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo: she singing and dancing, he accompanying her on guitar. Their favorite location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of the city's African-American community.
In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home, joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child."
In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe. He arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give Smith an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also included the unknown singer, Ma Rainey. Smith eventually moved on to performing in various chorus lines, making the "81" Theater in Atlanta her home base. There were times when she worked in shows on the black-owned T.O.B.A (Theater Owners Booking Association) circuit. She would rise to become its biggest star after signing with Columbia Records.
By 1923, when she began her recording career, Smith had taken up residence in Philadelphia. There she met and fell in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her first record was released. During the marriage—a stormy one, with infidelity on both sides—Smith became the highest paid black entertainer of the day, heading her own shows, which sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers, and touring in her own railroad car. Gee was impressed by the money, but never adjusted to show business life, or to Smith's bisexuality. In 1929, when she learned of his affair with another singer, Gertrude Saunders, Bessie Smith ended the relationship, although neither of them sought a divorce.
Smith eventually found a common-law husband in an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton's uncle and the antithesis of her husband. She stayed with him until her death.
Career
All contemporary accounts indicate that while Rainey did not teach Smith to sing, she probably helped her develop a stage presence. Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theater. By 1920, Smith had established a reputation in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.
In 1920, sales figures of over 100,000 copies for "Crazy Blues," an Okeh Records recording by singer Mamie Smith (no relation) pointed to a new market. The recording industry had not directed its product to blacks, but the success of the record led to a search for female blues singers. Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923 and her first session for Columbia was February 15, 1923. For most of 1923, her records were issued on Columbia's regular A- series; when the label decided to establish a "race records" series, Smith's "Cemetery Blues" (September 26, 1923) was the first issued.
She scored a big hit with her first release, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues", which its composer Alberta Hunter had already turned into a hit on the Paramount label. Smith became a headliner on the black T.O.B.A. circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s. Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter months and doing tent tours the rest of the year (eventually traveling in her own railroad car), Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Columbia nicknamed her "Queen of the Blues," but a PR-minded press soon upgraded her title to "Empress".
Smith had a powerfully strong voice that recorded very well from her first record, made during the time when recordings were made acoustically. With the coming of electrical recording (her first electrical recording was "Cake Walking Babies (From Home)" recorded Tuesday, May 5, 1925), the sheer power of her voice was even more evident. She was also able to benefit from the new technology of radio broadcasting, even on stations that were in the segregated south. For example, after giving a concert for a white-only audience at a local theater in Memphis, Tennessee, in October 1923, she then performed a late night concert on station WMC, where her songs were very well received by the radio audience.
She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, and Charlie Green.
Broadway
Smith's career was cut short by a combination of the Great Depression, which nearly put the recording industry out of business, and the advent of "talkies", which spelled the end for vaudeville. She never stopped performing, however. While the days of elaborate vaudeville shows were over, Smith continued touring and occasionally singing in clubs. In 1929, she appeared in a Broadway flop called Pansy, a musical in which top critics said she was the only asset.
Film
In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler titled St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson and a string section—a musical environment radically different from any found on her recordings.
Swing era
In 1933, John Hammond, who also mentored Billie Holiday, asked Smith to record four sides for Okeh (which had been acquired by Columbia Records in 1925). He claimed to have found her in semi-obscurity, working as a hostess in a speakeasy on Philadelphia's Ridge Avenue. Bessie Smith worked at Art's Cafe on Ridge Avenue, but not as a hostess and not until the summer of 1936. In 1933, when she made the Okeh sides, Bessie was still touring. Hammond was known for his selective memory and gratuitous embellishments.
Bessie Smith was paid a non-royalty fee of $37.50 for each selection and these Okeh sides, which were her last recordings. Made on November 24, 1933, they serve as a hint of the transformation she made in her performances as she shifted her blues artistry into something that fit the "swing era". The relatively modern accompaniment is notable. The band included such swing era musicians as trombonist Jack Teagarden, trumpeter Frankie Newton, tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, pianist Buck Washington, guitarist Bobby Johnson, and bassist Billy Taylor. Benny Goodman, who happened to be recording with Ethel Waters in the adjoining studio, dropped by and is barely audible on one selection. Hammond was not entirely pleased with the results, preferring to have Smith revisit her old blues groove. "Take Me for a Buggy Ride" and "Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)", both written by Wesley Wilson, continue to be ranked among her most popular recordings. Billie Holiday, who credited Smith as her major influence along with Louis Armstrong, would go on to record her first record for Columbia three days later under the same band personnel.
Death
On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Her lover, Richard Morgan, was driving and, probably mesmerized by the long stretch of straight road, misjudged the speed of a slow-moving truck ahead of him. Tire marks at the scene suggested that Morgan tried to avoid the truck by driving around its left side, but he hit the rear of the truck side-on at high speed. The tailgate of the truck sheared off the wooden roof of Smith's old Packard. Smith, who was in the passenger seat, probably with her right arm or elbow out the window, took the full brunt of the impact. Morgan escaped without injuries.
The first people on the scene were a Memphis surgeon, Dr. Hugh Smith (no relation), and his fishing partner Henry Broughton. In the early 1970s, Dr. Smith gave a detailed account of his experience to Bessie's biographer Chris Albertson. This is the most reliable eyewitness testimony about the events surrounding Bessie Smith's death.
After stopping at the accident scene, Dr. Smith examined Bessie Smith, who was lying in the middle of the road with obviously severe injuries. He estimated she had lost about a half-pint of blood, and immediately noted a major traumatic injury to her right arm; it had been almost completely severed at the elbow. But Dr. Smith was emphatic that this arm injury alone did not cause her death. Although the light was poor, he observed only minor head injuries. He attributed her death to extensive and severe crush injuries to the entire right side of her body, consistent with a "sideswipe" collision.
Broughton and Dr. Smith moved the singer to the shoulder of the road. Dr. Smith dressed her arm injury with a clean handkerchief and asked Broughton to go to a house about 500 feet off the road to call an ambulance.
By the time Broughton returned approximately 25 minutes later, Bessie Smith was in shock. Time passed with no sign of the ambulance, so Dr. Smith suggested that they take her into Clarksdale in his car. He and Broughton had almost finished clearing the back seat when they heard the sound of a car approaching at high speed. Dr. Smith flashed his lights in warning, but the oncoming car failed to stop and plowed into the doctor's car at full speed. It sent his car careening into Bessie Smith's overturned Packard, completely wrecking it. The oncoming car ricocheted off Dr. Smith's car into the ditch on the right, barely missing Broughton and Bessie Smith.
The young couple in the new car did not have life-threatening injuries. Two ambulances arrived on the scene from Clarksdale; one from the black hospital, summoned by Mr. Broughton, the other from the white hospital, acting on a report from the truck driver, who had not seen the accident victims.
Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdale's G. T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital, where her right arm was amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness. After Smith's death, an often repeated but now discredited story emerged about the circumstances; namely, that she had died as a result of having been refused admission to a "whites only" hospital in Clarksdale. Jazz writer/producer John Hammond gave this account in an article in the November 1937 issue of Down Beat magazine. The circumstances of Smith's death and the rumor promoted by Hammond formed the basis for Edward Albee's 1959 one-act play The Death of Bessie Smith.
"The Bessie Smith ambulance would not have gone to a white hospital, you can forget that." Dr. Smith told Albertson. "Down in the Deep South cotton country, no ambulance driver, or white driver, would even have thought of putting a colored person off in a hospital for white folks."
Smith's death certificate
Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia a little over a week later on October 4, 1937. Her body was originally laid out at Upshur's funeral home. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia's black community, the body had to be moved to the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3. Contemporary newspapers reported that her funeral was attended by about seven thousand people. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill. Gee thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose.
The grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a tombstone—paid for by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith—was erected.
Dory Previn wrote a song of Janis Joplin and the tombstone called "Stone for Bessie Smith" on her album Mythical Kings and Iguanas.
The Afro-American Hospital, now the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, was the site of the dedication of the fourth historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.
Hit records
Year Single US Chart position
1923 "Downhearted Blues" 1
"Gulf Coast Blues" 5
"Aggravatin' Papa" 12
"Baby Won't You Please Come Home" 6
"T'ain't Nobody's Biz-Ness If I Do" 9
1925 "The St. Louis Blues" 3
"Careless Love Blues" 5
"I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle" 8
1926 "I Ain't Got Nobody" 8
"Lost Your Head Blues" 5
1927 "After You've Gone" 7
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" 17
1928 "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" 13
"Empty Bed Blues 20
1929 "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" 15
Selective awards and recognition
Grammy Hall of Fame
Recordings of Bessie Smith were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. This special Grammy Award was established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted
1923 "Downhearted Blues" Blues (Single) Columbia 2006
1925 "St. Louis Blues" Jazz (Single) Columbia 1993
1928 "Empty Bed Blues" Blues (Single) Columbia 1983
National Recording Registry
In 2002 Smith's recording of the single, "Downhearted Blues", was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. The board selects songs on an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
"Downhearted Blues" was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. It is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock 'n' roll.
Inductions
Year Inducted Category
2008 Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame Jazz at Lincoln Center, NYC
1989 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
1989 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame "Early influences"
1981 Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
1980 Blues Hall of Fame
U.S. Postage Stamp
Year Issued Stamp USA
1994 29 cents Commemorative stamp U.S. Postal Stamps
Digital remastering
Technical faults in the majority of her original gramophone recordings—especially variations in recording speed, which raised or lowered the apparent pitch of her voice, misrepresented the "light and shade" of her phrasing, interpretation and delivery. They altered the apparent key of her performances (sometimes raised or lowered by as much as a semitone). The fact that the "centre hole" in some of the master recordings had not been in the true middle of the master disc meant that there were wide variations in tone, pitch, key and phrasing, as commercially released records revolved around the spindle.
Given those historic limitations, the current digitally remastered versions of her work deliver significant, very positive differences in the sound quality of Smith's performances. Some critics believe that the American Columbia Records compact disc releases are somewhat inferior to subsequent transfers made by the late John R. T. Davies for Frog Records.
Popular culture
The 1948 short story "Blue Melody" by J. D. Salinger and the 1959 play The Death of Bessie Smith by Edward Albee are both based on Smith's life and death, but poetic license is taken by both authors; for instance, Albee's play distorts the circumstances of her medical treatment, or lack thereof, prior to her demise, attributing it to racist medical practitioners.
Playwright Angelo Parra wrote the 2001 musical play The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith, with Miche Braden in the title role
The musical now in production, Bessie's Back In Town by Barry Edelson, as accurately as possible represents major aspects of her life as well as her death while remaining true to her music.[26]
Jack Peñate's song "Learning Lines" off his first album refers to "Bessie Smith, sings the blues" in its chorus.
The video game series Bioshock (1 and 2) Bessie Smith is portrayed as a cameo of a character by the name of Grace Holloway. Bessie Smith's music can be heard during the loading screen and in the level Paupers Drop, and in the various hallways and rooms of the sunken city.
Canadian folk singer Valdy's song "Peter and Lou" refers to "Bessie Smith singin' the blues..." three times.
Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on other jazz vocalists.
The 1900 census indicates that Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892. However, the 1910 census recorded her birthday as April 15, 1894, a date that appears on all subsequent documents and was observed by the entire Smith family. Census data also contributes to controversy about the size of her family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, while later interviews with Smith's family and contemporaries did not include these individuals among her siblings.
Bessie Smith was the daughter of Laura (née Owens) and William Smith. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher (he was listed in the 1870 census as a "minister of the gospel", in Moulton, Lawrence, Alabama.) He died before his daughter could remember him. By the time she was nine, she had lost her mother and a brother as well. Her older sister Viola took charge of caring for her siblings.
To earn money for their impoverished household, Bessie Smith and her brother Andrew began busking on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo: she singing and dancing, he accompanying her on guitar. Their favorite location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of the city's African-American community.
In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home, joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child."
In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe. He arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give Smith an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also included the unknown singer, Ma Rainey. Smith eventually moved on to performing in various chorus lines, making the "81" Theater in Atlanta her home base. There were times when she worked in shows on the black-owned T.O.B.A (Theater Owners Booking Association) circuit. She would rise to become its biggest star after signing with Columbia Records.
By 1923, when she began her recording career, Smith had taken up residence in Philadelphia. There she met and fell in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her first record was released. During the marriage—a stormy one, with infidelity on both sides—Smith became the highest paid black entertainer of the day, heading her own shows, which sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers, and touring in her own railroad car. Gee was impressed by the money, but never adjusted to show business life, or to Smith's bisexuality. In 1929, when she learned of his affair with another singer, Gertrude Saunders, Bessie Smith ended the relationship, although neither of them sought a divorce.
Smith eventually found a common-law husband in an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton's uncle and the antithesis of her husband. She stayed with him until her death.
Career
All contemporary accounts indicate that while Rainey did not teach Smith to sing, she probably helped her develop a stage presence. Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theater. By 1920, Smith had established a reputation in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.
In 1920, sales figures of over 100,000 copies for "Crazy Blues," an Okeh Records recording by singer Mamie Smith (no relation) pointed to a new market. The recording industry had not directed its product to blacks, but the success of the record led to a search for female blues singers. Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923 and her first session for Columbia was February 15, 1923. For most of 1923, her records were issued on Columbia's regular A- series; when the label decided to establish a "race records" series, Smith's "Cemetery Blues" (September 26, 1923) was the first issued.
She scored a big hit with her first release, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues", which its composer Alberta Hunter had already turned into a hit on the Paramount label. Smith became a headliner on the black T.O.B.A. circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s. Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter months and doing tent tours the rest of the year (eventually traveling in her own railroad car), Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Columbia nicknamed her "Queen of the Blues," but a PR-minded press soon upgraded her title to "Empress".
Smith had a powerfully strong voice that recorded very well from her first record, made during the time when recordings were made acoustically. With the coming of electrical recording (her first electrical recording was "Cake Walking Babies (From Home)" recorded Tuesday, May 5, 1925), the sheer power of her voice was even more evident. She was also able to benefit from the new technology of radio broadcasting, even on stations that were in the segregated south. For example, after giving a concert for a white-only audience at a local theater in Memphis, Tennessee, in October 1923, she then performed a late night concert on station WMC, where her songs were very well received by the radio audience.
She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, and Charlie Green.
Broadway
Smith's career was cut short by a combination of the Great Depression, which nearly put the recording industry out of business, and the advent of "talkies", which spelled the end for vaudeville. She never stopped performing, however. While the days of elaborate vaudeville shows were over, Smith continued touring and occasionally singing in clubs. In 1929, she appeared in a Broadway flop called Pansy, a musical in which top critics said she was the only asset.
Film
In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler titled St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson and a string section—a musical environment radically different from any found on her recordings.
Swing era
In 1933, John Hammond, who also mentored Billie Holiday, asked Smith to record four sides for Okeh (which had been acquired by Columbia Records in 1925). He claimed to have found her in semi-obscurity, working as a hostess in a speakeasy on Philadelphia's Ridge Avenue. Bessie Smith worked at Art's Cafe on Ridge Avenue, but not as a hostess and not until the summer of 1936. In 1933, when she made the Okeh sides, Bessie was still touring. Hammond was known for his selective memory and gratuitous embellishments.
Bessie Smith was paid a non-royalty fee of $37.50 for each selection and these Okeh sides, which were her last recordings. Made on November 24, 1933, they serve as a hint of the transformation she made in her performances as she shifted her blues artistry into something that fit the "swing era". The relatively modern accompaniment is notable. The band included such swing era musicians as trombonist Jack Teagarden, trumpeter Frankie Newton, tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, pianist Buck Washington, guitarist Bobby Johnson, and bassist Billy Taylor. Benny Goodman, who happened to be recording with Ethel Waters in the adjoining studio, dropped by and is barely audible on one selection. Hammond was not entirely pleased with the results, preferring to have Smith revisit her old blues groove. "Take Me for a Buggy Ride" and "Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)", both written by Wesley Wilson, continue to be ranked among her most popular recordings. Billie Holiday, who credited Smith as her major influence along with Louis Armstrong, would go on to record her first record for Columbia three days later under the same band personnel.
Death
On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Her lover, Richard Morgan, was driving and, probably mesmerized by the long stretch of straight road, misjudged the speed of a slow-moving truck ahead of him. Tire marks at the scene suggested that Morgan tried to avoid the truck by driving around its left side, but he hit the rear of the truck side-on at high speed. The tailgate of the truck sheared off the wooden roof of Smith's old Packard. Smith, who was in the passenger seat, probably with her right arm or elbow out the window, took the full brunt of the impact. Morgan escaped without injuries.
The first people on the scene were a Memphis surgeon, Dr. Hugh Smith (no relation), and his fishing partner Henry Broughton. In the early 1970s, Dr. Smith gave a detailed account of his experience to Bessie's biographer Chris Albertson. This is the most reliable eyewitness testimony about the events surrounding Bessie Smith's death.
After stopping at the accident scene, Dr. Smith examined Bessie Smith, who was lying in the middle of the road with obviously severe injuries. He estimated she had lost about a half-pint of blood, and immediately noted a major traumatic injury to her right arm; it had been almost completely severed at the elbow. But Dr. Smith was emphatic that this arm injury alone did not cause her death. Although the light was poor, he observed only minor head injuries. He attributed her death to extensive and severe crush injuries to the entire right side of her body, consistent with a "sideswipe" collision.
Broughton and Dr. Smith moved the singer to the shoulder of the road. Dr. Smith dressed her arm injury with a clean handkerchief and asked Broughton to go to a house about 500 feet off the road to call an ambulance.
By the time Broughton returned approximately 25 minutes later, Bessie Smith was in shock. Time passed with no sign of the ambulance, so Dr. Smith suggested that they take her into Clarksdale in his car. He and Broughton had almost finished clearing the back seat when they heard the sound of a car approaching at high speed. Dr. Smith flashed his lights in warning, but the oncoming car failed to stop and plowed into the doctor's car at full speed. It sent his car careening into Bessie Smith's overturned Packard, completely wrecking it. The oncoming car ricocheted off Dr. Smith's car into the ditch on the right, barely missing Broughton and Bessie Smith.
The young couple in the new car did not have life-threatening injuries. Two ambulances arrived on the scene from Clarksdale; one from the black hospital, summoned by Mr. Broughton, the other from the white hospital, acting on a report from the truck driver, who had not seen the accident victims.
Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdale's G. T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital, where her right arm was amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness. After Smith's death, an often repeated but now discredited story emerged about the circumstances; namely, that she had died as a result of having been refused admission to a "whites only" hospital in Clarksdale. Jazz writer/producer John Hammond gave this account in an article in the November 1937 issue of Down Beat magazine. The circumstances of Smith's death and the rumor promoted by Hammond formed the basis for Edward Albee's 1959 one-act play The Death of Bessie Smith.
"The Bessie Smith ambulance would not have gone to a white hospital, you can forget that." Dr. Smith told Albertson. "Down in the Deep South cotton country, no ambulance driver, or white driver, would even have thought of putting a colored person off in a hospital for white folks."
Smith's death certificate
Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia a little over a week later on October 4, 1937. Her body was originally laid out at Upshur's funeral home. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia's black community, the body had to be moved to the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3. Contemporary newspapers reported that her funeral was attended by about seven thousand people. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill. Gee thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose.
The grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a tombstone—paid for by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith—was erected.
Dory Previn wrote a song of Janis Joplin and the tombstone called "Stone for Bessie Smith" on her album Mythical Kings and Iguanas.
The Afro-American Hospital, now the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, was the site of the dedication of the fourth historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.
Hit records
Year Single US Chart position
1923 "Downhearted Blues" 1
"Gulf Coast Blues" 5
"Aggravatin' Papa" 12
"Baby Won't You Please Come Home" 6
"T'ain't Nobody's Biz-Ness If I Do" 9
1925 "The St. Louis Blues" 3
"Careless Love Blues" 5
"I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle" 8
1926 "I Ain't Got Nobody" 8
"Lost Your Head Blues" 5
1927 "After You've Gone" 7
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" 17
1928 "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" 13
"Empty Bed Blues 20
1929 "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" 15
Selective awards and recognition
Grammy Hall of Fame
Recordings of Bessie Smith were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. This special Grammy Award was established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted
1923 "Downhearted Blues" Blues (Single) Columbia 2006
1925 "St. Louis Blues" Jazz (Single) Columbia 1993
1928 "Empty Bed Blues" Blues (Single) Columbia 1983
National Recording Registry
In 2002 Smith's recording of the single, "Downhearted Blues", was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. The board selects songs on an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
"Downhearted Blues" was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. It is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock 'n' roll.
Inductions
Year Inducted Category
2008 Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame Jazz at Lincoln Center, NYC
1989 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
1989 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame "Early influences"
1981 Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
1980 Blues Hall of Fame
U.S. Postage Stamp
Year Issued Stamp USA
1994 29 cents Commemorative stamp U.S. Postal Stamps
Digital remastering
Technical faults in the majority of her original gramophone recordings—especially variations in recording speed, which raised or lowered the apparent pitch of her voice, misrepresented the "light and shade" of her phrasing, interpretation and delivery. They altered the apparent key of her performances (sometimes raised or lowered by as much as a semitone). The fact that the "centre hole" in some of the master recordings had not been in the true middle of the master disc meant that there were wide variations in tone, pitch, key and phrasing, as commercially released records revolved around the spindle.
Given those historic limitations, the current digitally remastered versions of her work deliver significant, very positive differences in the sound quality of Smith's performances. Some critics believe that the American Columbia Records compact disc releases are somewhat inferior to subsequent transfers made by the late John R. T. Davies for Frog Records.
Popular culture
The 1948 short story "Blue Melody" by J. D. Salinger and the 1959 play The Death of Bessie Smith by Edward Albee are both based on Smith's life and death, but poetic license is taken by both authors; for instance, Albee's play distorts the circumstances of her medical treatment, or lack thereof, prior to her demise, attributing it to racist medical practitioners.
Playwright Angelo Parra wrote the 2001 musical play The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith, with Miche Braden in the title role
The musical now in production, Bessie's Back In Town by Barry Edelson, as accurately as possible represents major aspects of her life as well as her death while remaining true to her music.[26]
Jack Peñate's song "Learning Lines" off his first album refers to "Bessie Smith, sings the blues" in its chorus.
The video game series Bioshock (1 and 2) Bessie Smith is portrayed as a cameo of a character by the name of Grace Holloway. Bessie Smith's music can be heard during the loading screen and in the level Paupers Drop, and in the various hallways and rooms of the sunken city.
Canadian folk singer Valdy's song "Peter and Lou" refers to "Bessie Smith singin' the blues..." three times.
More Genres
No Artists Found
More Artists
Load All
No Albums Found
More Albums
Load All
No Tracks Found
Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Search results not found
Song not found
Bessie Smith Lyrics
'T ain't nobody's biz-ness if I do There ain't nothing I can do or nothing I can…
'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness If I Do There ain't nothing I can do, or nothing I can…
'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do There ain't nothing I can do or nothing I can…
A Good Man Is Hard to Find My heart's sad and I am all forlorn, my man's…
A The Christmas Ball Hey, Bessie, it's Christmas here Here, here Hurray for Chris…
After You're Gone Now won't you listen honey, while I say, How could…
Aggravatin Papa I know a triflin' man They call him Triflin' Sam He lives…
Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle Let me tell you daddy Momma ain't gonna sit here and…
Ain't got nobody There's a saying going 'round and I begin to think…
Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do There ain't nothing I can do or nothing I can…
Alexander Come on and hear, come on and hear Alexander's Ragtime Band …
Alexander's Rag Time Come on and hear, come on and hear Alexander's Ragtime Band…
Alexander's Ragtime Band Come on and hear, come on and hear Alexander's Ragtime Band …
Alexander's Ragtime Band 1927 Oh my honey Oh my honey You better hurry and let's go…
Alexanders Ragtime Band Come on and hear, come on and hear Alexander's Ragtime Band…
Alexander´s Ragtime Band Come on and hear, come on and hear Alexander's Ragtime Band …
Any Woman's Blues My man ain't acting right, he stays out late at…
At the Christmas Ball Hey, Bessie, it's Christmas here Here, here Hurray for Chris…
Baby Honey, there's a funny feeling 'round my heart, And it's bou…
Baby Have Pity On Me You show your sympathy to every bird and bee But when…
Baby Won I've got the blues, I feel so lonely I'll give the…
Baby Won't You Please Come Home (1923) Menu Baby Won't You Please Come Home Bessie Smith I've go…
Baby Won't You Please Come Home 1923 I've got the blues, I feel so lonely I'll give the…
Back Water Blues When it rains five days and the skies turn dark…
Band Intro I hate's to see that evenin' sun go down Hate's to…
Beale Street Blues Jenny Neale Down in Beale Gave her papa the air Left him…
Black Mountain Blues Out in Black Mountain a child will smack your face I'm…
Blackwater Blues When it rained five days and the sky turned dark…
Bleading Hearted Blues Gee, but it's hard to love someone When that someone don't…
Blue Blue My man ain't acting right, he stays out late at…
Blue Blues The blues, the blues, the yodeling blues They seem to haunt…
Blue Spirit Blues I heard the folks were talking here yesterday As I listened…
Blue Sprit Blues My man ain't acting right, he stays out late at…
Boweavil Blues Hey boweavil, don't bring them blues no more Hey boweavil, d…
Cake Walkin Babies Cake walkers may come, cake walkers may go, But I…
Cake Walkin' Babies from Home Cake walkers may come, cake walkers may go, But I…
Cake Walkin' Babies From Home 1925 Cake walkers may come, cake walkers may go, But I…
Cake Walkin' Blues Cake walkers may come, cake walkers may go, But I…
Cake Walking Babie Cake walkers may come, cake walkers may go, But I…
Careless Love Love, oh love, oh careless love You've fly through my head…
Careless Love Blues 1925 Love, oh love, oh careless love You've fly through my head…
Careless Love: 1 Love, oh love, oh careless love You've fly through my head…
Careless Lover Blues Love, oh love, oh careless love You've fly through my head…
Cemetery Blues Folks, I know a gal named Cemetary Lize, Down in Tennessee; …
Chicago Bound Blues Late last night, I sold away and cried Late last night,…
Cold in Hand Blues I′ve got a hardworkin' man The way he treats me I…
Crap Game I hate's to see that evenin' sun go down Hate's to…
Devil It's a long, long lane that has no turning And the…
Devil's Gonna Git You It's a long, long lane that has no turning And it's…
Devils Gonna Get You It's a long, long lane that has no turning And the…
Devils Gonna Git You It's a long, long lane that has no turning And it's…
Dirty No Gooders Blues Did you ever fall in love with a man that…
Dixie Flyer Blues Hold that train Hold that engine, catch me mama, get on…
Do Your Duty If I cal three times a day baby Come and drive…
Don't Cry Baby Honey, please don't cry, listen to me There's no reason why…
Down Hearted Blues Gee, but it's hard to love someone When that someone don't…
Down In the Dumps My man's got somethin', he gives me such a thrill Every…
Downhearted Blues Gee, but it's hard to love someone When that someone don't…
Dying Gambler's Blues I don't know what love is, but I think I…
Easy Come Easy Go Blues Some folks, they always crying Crying their mean old blues N…
Eavesdropper's Blues I heard the folks were talking here yesterday As I listened…
Empty Bed Blues I woke up this morning with a awful aching head I…
Empty Bed Blues 1 Did you ever fall in love with a man that…
Empty Bed Blues 1928 I woke up this morning with a awful aching head I…
Empty Bed Blues Part 1 Did you ever fall in love with a man that…
Empty Bed Blues Part 2 I woke up this morning with a awful aching head I…
Empty Bed Blues Part I Did you ever fall in love with a man that…
Empty Bed Blues Pt.2 I woke up this morning with a awful aching head I…
Empty Bed Blues, Pt. 2 When my bed get empty, make me feel awful mean…
Empty Bed Bues I woke up this morning with a awful aching head I…
Far Away Blues We left our southern homes And wandered north to roam Lik…
Film Soundtrack St. Louis Blues I hate's to see that evenin' sun go down Hate's to…
Florida Bound Blues Goodbye, north, hello, south Goodbye, north, hello, south It…
Follow the Deal On Down Stop rollin' them bones & listen to me; I had a…
Foolish Man Blues Men sure is deceitful and they's gettin' worser ev'ry day M…
Frosty Mornin' Blues How come I'm blue as can be, how come I…
Gimme a Pigfoot Twenty-five cents? Ha! No! No! I wouldn't pay twenty-five ce…
Gin House Blues Lord, this house is goin' to get raided, yes, sir!…
Golden Rule Blues I can't understand, I can't keep my man Won't somebody plea…
Good Old Times Come along, get you ready Wear your bran', bran' new…
Graveyard Dream Blues Blues on my mind, blues all around my head Blues on…
Gulf Coast Ablues I done pack my belong Gonna leave my woes Goin' to a…
Gulf Coast Blues I've been blue all day, my man's gone away He has…
Hard Driving Papa Lord, I wish I could die ′cause my man treats…
hard time blues My man said he didn't want me I'm getting tired of…
Haunted House Blues Don't bring no ghosts in the front, hurry 'em round…
He's Gone Blues I feel blue, I want someone to cheer me Oh so…
He's Got Me Goin' Don't know what come over me, Done lost my self control; H…
Homeless Blues Mississippi River, what a fix you left me in Old Mississippi…
Honey Man Blues Mister Rich Man, Rich Man Open up your heart and mind Mister…
Honeyman Blues I've got the blues and it's all about my honey…
Hot Springs Blues If you ever get real fucked Let me tell you what…
Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight Come along, get you ready Wear your bran', bran' new…
House Rent Blues Where's that coalman? I want a big lump of coal this…
Hustlin Dan Listen sportin′ fellas, all you brown and black girls too Te…
Hustlin' Dan Listen sportin' fellas, all you brown and black girls too T…
I Ain't Goin to Play Second Fiddle Let me tell you daddy Momma ain't gonna sit here and…
I Ain't Got Nobody There's a saying going 'round and I begin to think…
I Ain't Got to Play No Second Fiddle Let me tell you daddy Momma ain't gonna sit here and…
I Aint Got Nobody There's a saying going 'round and I begin to think…
I Got What It Takes Oh, stingy Ginny saved up all her pennies Straight to the…
I Need A Little Dugar In My Bowl Tired of bein' lonely, tired of bein' blue I wished I…
I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama Yes I′m mad, and have every right to be After what…
I Want Ev'ry Bit of It Listen to my plea this mornin' My love gonna get you…
I'd Rather Be Dead and Buried in My Grave I′m like a fox without a hole A ship without a…
I'm Down in the Dumps My man's got somethin', he gives me such a thrill Every…
I'm Wild About That Thing Honey baby, won't you cuddle near, Just sweet mama whisper …
I've Been Mistreated and I Don't Like It Oh, there is something I can't understand Why a good wo…
I've Got What It Takes Oh, stingy Ginny saved up all her pennies Straight to the…
If You Don't I Don't Know Who Will Daddy, I want some furs and things Daddy, I want the…
Im Down in the Dumps My man's got somethin', he gives me such a thrill Every…
In the House Blues Lord, this house is goin' to get raided, yes, sir!…
It Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do There ain't nothing I can do or nothing I can…
It Won't Be You You have really broken my heart I wished I knew before…
Ive Got What It Takes Oh, stingy Ginny saved up all her pennies Straight to the…
J.C. Holmes Blues Listen people if you want to hear A story told about…
Jail House Blues Lord, this house is goin' to get raided, yes, sir!…
Jailhouse Blues Lord, this house is goin' to get raided, yes, sir Thirty…
Keep It to Yourself If your man is nice and sweet Serving you lots of…
Keeps on A-Rainin' One dark and stormy night Big John was feeling blue Ain't he…
Kitchen Man Madam Buff's was quite deluxe Servants by the score Footmen …
Lady Luck Blues Bad luck has come to stay Trouble never end My man has…
Lonesome Desert Blues A fly will stick to jelly and wood will stick…
Lost Your Head Blues I was with you, baby, when you didn't have a…
Lou'siana Low Down Blues Lou'siana, Lou'siana Mama's got the low down blues Lou'sia…
Love Me Daddy Blues I got nobody, I want somebody And while I′m sad and…
M Down in the Dumps My man's got somethin', he gives me such a thrill Every…
Mama's Got the Blues Some people say that the weary blues ain't bad Some people…
Me and My Gin Stay way from me cause I'm in my sin Stay way…
Mean Old Bedbug Blues Gals, bed bugs sure is evil, they don't mean me…
Midnight Blues Daddy, daddy, please come back to me Daddy, daddy, please c…
Mistreatin' Daddy Daddy, mama's got the blues The kind of blues that's hard…
Moan You Moaners Sisters and brothers We meet here on some serious business. …
Money Blues Daddy, I need money now All day long I hear that…
Moonshine Blues Drunk all night, babe, drunk the night before But when I…
Mountain Top Blues Feelin' sad and sorrowful Run over with the blues Feelin' …
Muddy Water Dixie moonlight, Swanee shore Headed homebound just once mor…
My And My Gin Stay way from me cause I'm in my sin Stay way…
My Kitchen Man Madam Buff's was quite deluxe Servants by the score Footmen …
My Man Blues Who was that man I saw you with the other…
My Sweet Went Away I've got a lovesick tale to tell to you Though it…
Nashville woman blues My man ain't acting right, he stays out late at…
Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl Tired of bein' lonely, tired of bein' blue I wished I…
New Gulf Coast Blues I done pack my belong Gonna leave my woes Goin' to a…
New Orleans Hop Scop Blues Old New Orleans is a great big old southern town,…
Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine In a bakery shop today I heard Miss Mandy Jenkins say She…
Nobody Know You When You're Down And Out Once I lived the life of a millionaire Spending my money,…
Nobody Knows When You're Down and Out Once I lived the life of a millionaire Spent all my…
Nobody knows when your down and out Once I lived the life of a millionaire Spending my money,…
Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out) Once I lived the life of a millionaire Spent all my…
Nobody Knows You When You Are Down and Out Once I lived the life of a millionaire Spending my money,…
Nobody's Blues but Mine Daddy, daddy, where did you stay last night? Daddy, daddy, …
Nowbody Knows You When You're Down And Out Once I lived the life of a millionaire, Spending my money,…
Oh Daddy Blues Just like a flower I am fading away The doctor call…
On Revival Day Have you ever seen a church begin to rock? Heard a…
On Revival Day (A Rhythmic Spiritual) Have you ever seen a church begin to rock? Heard a…
One and Two Blues Did you ever fall in love with a man that…
One Monkey Don't Stop No Show You wanna get rich you got to get out and…
Outside of That I've got the meanest man in the land But his love…
Pickpocket Blues My best man, my best friend Told me to stop peddlin′…
pinchbacks-Take 'em Away Oh, stingy Ginny saved up all her pennies Straight to the…
Poor Man's Blues Mister Rich Man, Rich Man Open up your heart and mind Mister…
Preachin' the Blues Down in Atlanta, GA, under the viaduct ev'ry day, drinking…
Put It Right Here (Or Keep It Out There) I had a man for fifteen years Give him his room…
Reckless Blues When I wasn't nothin' but a child When I wasn't nothin'…
Reckless Blues 1925 Love, oh love, oh careless love You've fly through my head…
Red Mountain Blues Goin' around Red Mountain in the mornin' Goin' around Red Mo…
Rockin' Chair Blues Did you ever wake up With sorrow all on your mind? Did…
Safety Mama Let me tell you how and why what no-good man…
Saint louis blues I hate to see The evening sun go down I hate to…
Saint-Louis Blues I hate to see de evenin' sun go down, Hate…
Sam Jone's Blues Who's that knockin' on that door Jones? You better get away …
Sam Jones' Blues Who's that knockin' on that door Jones? You better get awa…
See If I'll Care You say that you leavin' ant that you going away But…
See See Rider Blues I hate's to see that evenin' sun go down Hate's to…
Send Me The 'Lectric Chair Judge you want to hear my plea Before you open up…
Shipwreck Captain, tell your men to get on board I sure see…
Short John Short John is my doctor, and he sho' is good…
Sing Sing Prison Blues Gonna journey up the Hudson Goin' on a lonesome trail Gonn…
Sissy Man Blues Mister Rich Man, Rich Man Open up your heart and mind Mister…
Sobbin' Hearted Blues Gee, but it's hard to love someone When that someone don't…
Soft Pedal Blues There′s a lady in our neighborhood Who runs a buffet flat An…
Sorrowful Blues If you catch me stealin', I don't mean no harm If…
Spider Man Blues Early in the morning when it's dark and dreary outdoors Earl…
Squeeze Me Daddy, you've been doggone sweet on me daddy, you the…
St Louis Blues I hate to see de evenin' sun go down, Hate…
St Louis Blues Film Soundtrack I hate's to see that evenin' sun go down Hate's to…
St Louis Gal I hate to see The evening sun go down I hate to…
St. Louis Blues Part 1 I hate's to see that evenin' sun go down Hate's to…
St. Louis Blues: The St. Louis Blues I hate to see The evening sun go down I hate to…
St. Louis Gal Worried in the nighttime, worried in the day 'Cause another …
St.Louis Blues I hate to see de evenin' sun go down, Hate to…
Standin in the Rain Blues Standin' in the rain and ain't a drop fell on…
Summertime Summertime, And the livin' is easy Fish are jumpin' And the …
Sweet Mistreater He was a Jack from Jacksonville She was a Lou from…
T aint nobodys biz-ness if I do There ain't nothing I can do or nothing I can…
Take It Right Back You came home about half past three Wakin' me up, papa,…
Take Me for a Buggy Ride You're my man, you're so nice and brown Sweetest man in…
The Devil's Gonna Git You It's a long, long lane that has no turning And it's…
The Gin House Blues I've got a sad sad story today I've got a sad…
The House Blues Lord, this house is goin' to get raided, yes, sir!…
The Saint Louis Blues I hate to see de evenin' sun go down, Hate…
The St. Louis Blues I hate to see de evenin' sun go down, Hate…
The St.Louis Blues I hate to see The evening sun go down I hate to…
The Yellow Dog Blues Ever since Miss Susie Johnson Lost her jockey Lee There has …
Them "Has Been" Blues Maybe you'd like to know, know why I'm blue Know why…
Them's Graveyard Words I've got a man I had for a year But he just…
There'll Be A Hot Time Come along, get you ready Wear your bran', bran' new…
Thinking Blues Did you ever sit thinking with a thousand things on…
Ticket Agent Ease Your Window Down Tell me what′s wrong with me My man, we can't agree Now…
Trombone Cholly Know a fool that blows a horn, He came from way…
T`aint Nobody`s Business If I Do There ain't nothing I can do or nothing I can…
Wasted Life Blues I've lived a life but nothin' I've gained Each day I'm…
Weepin Willow Blues I went down to the river, sat beneath the willow…
What's the Matter Now Papa, Papa, treetop tall Hear your lovin' mama call You ain'…
When I Get Low I Get High My fur coat's sold Oh Lord ain't it cold But I'm not…
Whoa Tillie Take Your Time Tillie Brown was a dancing fool Spent her time in a…
Woman's Trouble Blues My man ain't acting right, he stays out late at…
Work House Blues Lord, this house is goin' to get raided, yes, sir Thirty…
Worn out Papa Blues Papa, papa, you in a good man's way Papa, papa, you…
Yellow Dog Blues Ever since Miss Susie Johnson Lost her jockey Lee There has …
Yes Indeed He Do I don't know what makes it rain Can't tell what makes…
Yodling Blues The blues, the blues, the yodeling blues They seem to haunt…
You Don't Understand Daddy, I want some furs and things Daddy, I want the…
You Ought to Be Ashamed You′ll be sorry, daddy You just wait and see Daddy, wait and…
you've been a good old wagon lookee here daddy, I wanna tell you, please get out…
You've Got to Give Me Some Loving is the thing I crave For your love I'll be…
Young Woman blues My man ain't acting right, he stays out late at…
Young Woman's Blues Woke up this mornin' when chickens was crowin' for day Felt…
Young Womans Blues My man ain't acting right, he stays out late at…
Youve Been A Good Ole Wagon lookee here daddy, I wanna tell you, please get out…