Born in Memphis, she left home while still in her early teens and settled in Chicago, Illinois. There, she peeled potatoes by day and hounded club owners by night, determined to land a singing job. Her persistence paid off, and Hunter began a climb through some of the city's lowest dives to a headlining job at its most prestigious venue for black entertainers, the Dreamland ballroom. She had a five-year association with the Dreamland, beginning in 1917, and her salary rose to $35 a week.
She first toured Europe in 1917, performing in Paris and London. The Europeans treated her as an artist, showing her respect and even reverence, which made a great impression on her.
Her career as singer and songwriter flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, and she appeared in clubs and on stage in musicals in both New York and London. The songs she wrote include the critically acclaimed "Downhearted Blues" (1922). She recorded several records with Perry Bradford from 1922 to 1927.
Hunter recorded prolifically during the 1920s, starting with sessions for Black Swan in 1921, Paramount in 1922–1924, Gennett in 1924, OKeh in 1925–1926, Victor in 1927 and Columbia in 1929.
Hunter wrote "Downhearted Blues" while recording for Ink Williams at Paramount Records, but she received only $368 in royalties. Williams secretly sold the recording rights to Columbia Records, in a deal giving the royalties to Williams. The song became a big hit for Columbia, with Bessie Smith as the vocalist. Hunter learned what Williams had done and stopped recording for him.
In 1928, Hunter played "Queenie" opposite Paul Robeson in the first London production of Show Boat at Drury Lane. She subsequently performed in nightclubs throughout Europe and appeared for the 1934 winter season with Jack Jackson's society orchestra at London's Dorchester Hotel. One of her recordings with Jackson is Miss Otis Regrets (she is unable to Lunch Today). While at the Dorchester, she made several HMV recordings with the orchestra and appeared in Radio Parade of 1935 (1934), the first British theatrical film to feature the short-lived Dufaycolor, but only Hunter's segment was in color. She spent the late 1930s fulfilling engagements on both sides of the Atlantic and the early 1940s performing at home. In 1944, she took a U.S.O. troupe to Casablanca and continued entertaining troops in both theatres of war for the duration of World War II and into the early postwar period. In the 1950s, she led U.S.O. troupes in Korea, but her mother's death in 1954 led her to her seek a radical career change. She prudently reduced her age, "invented" a high school diploma, and enrolled in nursing school, embarking on what was apparently a fulfilling career in healthcare.
Hunter was working at New York's Goldwater Memorial Hospital in 1961 when record producer Chris Albertson asked her to break an 11-year absence from the recording studio. The result was her participation (four songs) on a Prestige Bluesville Records album, entitled Songs We Taught Your Mother. The following month, Albertson recorded her again, this time for the Riverside Records label, reuniting her with Lil Armstrong and Lovie Austin, both of whom she had performed with in the 1920s. Hunter enjoyed these outings, but had no plans to return to singing. She was prepared to devote the rest of her life to nursing, but the hospital retired her in 1977, when they believed her to have reached retirement age (she was aged over 80).
Bored by inactivity, Hunter decided to resume her singing career, because she "never felt better." In 1978, at the suggestion of Charles Bourgeois, restaurateur Barney Josephson offered Hunter a limited engagement at his Greenwich Village club, The Cookery. She accepted and a two-week gig proved a smash when the comeback garnered generous media attention and people started flocking into The Cookery.
Impressed with the attention paid her by the press, John Hammond signed Hunter to Columbia Records. He had not previously shown interest in Hunter, but he had been a close associate of Barney Josephson decades earlier, when the latter ran the Café Society Uptown and Downtown clubs. Her Columbia albums, The Glory of Alberta Hunter, Amtrak Blues, (where she sang the jazz classic "The Darktown Strutters' Ball"), and Look For the Silver Lining, did not do as well as expected, but sales were nevertheless healthy. There were also numerous television appearances, including on To Tell The Truth (in which panelist Kitty Carlisle had to recuse herself, the two having known each other in Hunter's heyday). There was also a walk-on role in Remember My Name, a film produced by film director Robert Altman, for which he commissioned her to write and to perform the soundtrack music. As capacity audiences continued to fill The Cookery nightly, concert offers came from Brazil to Berlin, and there was an invitation for her to sing at the White House. At first, she turned it down, because, she explained, "they wanted me there on my day off," but the White House amended its schedule to suit the veteran artist. During that time, there was also a visit from former First Lady turned book editor Jackie Onassis, who wanted to sign her up for an autobiography but was unhappy with the co-author assigned to the project. The book was eventually done for another publisher, with the help of writer Frank Taylor.
The comeback lasted six years, and Hunter toured in Europe and South America, made more television appearances, and enjoyed her renewed recording career as well as the fact that record catalogs now once again contained her old recordings, going back to her 1921 debut on the Black Swan label.
Hunter's life was documented in Alberta Hunter: My Castle's Rockin' (1998), a documentary written by Chris Albertson and narrated by pianist Billy Taylor, and in Cookin' at the Cookery, a biographical musical by Marion J. Caffey that has toured the United States in recent years with Ernestine Jackson as Hunter.
Hunter came from a difficult background. Her father left when she was a child and to support the family Hunter’s mother worked as a servant to a whorehouse in Memphis. Although she married again in 1906, Hunter was not happy with her new family. Hunter left for Chicago around the age of eleven, in the hopes of becoming a paid singer; she had heard that it paid ten dollars an hour. Instead of finding a job as a singer she had to earn money by working at a boardinghouse that paid six dollars a week as well as room and board. Hunter's mother left Memphis and moved in with her soon afterwards.
Hunter was a lesbian, though she kept her sexuality relatively private. Her 1919 marriage to Willard Saxby Townsend was short-lived. In August of 1927, she sailed for France, accompanied by Lottie Tyler, a New York lady whom she had met in Chicago a few years earlier. Their relationship lasted until Ms. Tyler's death, many years later.
Hunter eventually moved to New York City. She performed with Bricktop and recorded with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. She continued to perform on both sides of the Atlantic, and as the head of the USO's first black show, until her mother's death, 1954. That year, she gave up show business and became a registered nurse. When Roosevelt Island's Goldwater Memorial Hospital retired her, believing her to have reached that age, Alberts (who was actually several years older) decided to return to singing. She had already made a brief return by appearing on two record albums, but now she too had a regular engagement at a Greenwich Village club, becoming a huge attraction there until her death in October 1984. She is buried in the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum, Hartsdale, Westchester County, New York (Elmwood section; plot 1411).
Hunter was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011, while her album Amtrak Blues had been previously honored in 2009.
Aggravatin' Papa
Alberta Hunter Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
They call him Triflin' Sam,
He lives in Birmingham,
'Way down in Alabam,
Now, the other night,
He had a fight
With a gal called Mandy Brim,
She sadly stated, she was aggravated,
Aggravatin' Papa, don't try to two-time me!
Aggravatin' Papa, treat me kind or let me be;
Listen while I get you told,
Stop messin' round with my jellyroll,
If I catch you out with your high-brown baby,
I'll smack you down, and I don't mean maybe!
Aggravatin' Papa, I'll do anything you say,
But when you start to running, don't you run around my way;
Now, Papa, treat me pretty, nice and sweet,
'Cause I possess a forty-four that don't repeat,
So, Aggravatin' Papa, don't try to two-time me!
Aggravatin' Papa, don't try to two-time me!
Aggravatin' Papa, treat me kind or let me be;
Listen while I get you told,
Stop messin' round with my jellyroll,
If I catch you out with your high-brown baby,
I'll smack you down, and I don't mean maybe!
Aggravatin' Papa, I'll do anything you say,
But when you start to running, don't you run around my way;
Got one hand on my razor, one arm around my gun,
If I catch you foolin' round, I'll tear your doghouse down,
So, Aggravatin' Papa, don't try to two-time me!
Alberta Hunter’s song “Aggravatin’ Papa” tells the story of a woman who is fed up with her unfaithful and trifling partner. The song is clear in its message to her partner - treat her with kindness or leave her alone. The woman warns him angrily to stop his tomfoolery and to not two-time her with another woman. The chorus of “Aggravatin’ Papa, don't try to two-time me! Aggravatin' Papa, treat me kind or let me be!” reiterates this message of self-respect, and the woman warns him that if she catches him with someone else, there will be consequences. She is possessive of her partner and warns him to stay away from his temptations.
The lyrics also describe the woman as a strong and independent individual who is willing to fight for her rights. She mentions her firearm and her razor, warning her partner that she is capable of tearing his “doghouse down” if he gets out of line. It portrays a woman who values herself and will not tolerate any mistreatment from her partner. This song is a feminist anthem that uplifts women and encourages them to demand respect in their relationships.
Line by Line Meaning
I know a triflin' man,
I am aware of a man who is deceitful and unreliable,
They call him Triflin' Sam,
People refer to him as Triflin' Sam,
He lives in Birmingham,
He resides in Birmingham,
'Way down in Alabam,
This is located in the southern state of Alabama,
Now, the other night,
Recently,
He had a fight
He got into an argument,
With a gal called Mandy Brim,
It was with a woman named Mandy Brim,
She sadly stated, she was aggravated,
She expressed feelings of frustration,
And she yelled these words to him:
She shouted the following message:
Aggravatin' Papa, don't try to two-time me!
Deceitful father figure, don't attempt to deceive or cheat on me with another woman!
Aggravatin' Papa, treat me kind or let me be;
Unreliable father figure, treat me with respect, or leave me alone;
Listen while I get you told,
Pay attention while I assert my dominance or opinion,
Stop messin' round with my jellyroll,
Stop messing around with my body or physical self;
If I catch you out with your high-brown baby,
If I find out that you are with your lighter-skinned other woman,
I'll smack you down, and I don't mean maybe!
I will strike you with force, there is no doubt about it!
Aggravatin' Papa, I'll do anything you say,
Deceitful father figure, I will comply with all of your wishes,
But when you start to running, don't you run around my way;
But if you decide to flee, don't come near me;
Now, Papa, treat me pretty, nice and sweet,
Now, father figure, treat me with attractiveness, kindness, and sweetness,
'Cause I possess a forty-four that don't repeat,
Because I have a handgun that won't miss the second shot,
So, Aggravatin' Papa, don't try to two-time me!
Therefore, deceitful father figure, don't try to deceive or cheat on me!
Got one hand on my razor, one arm around my gun,
I have a razor in one hand, and my gun arm wrapped around my arm,
If I catch you foolin' round, I'll tear your doghouse down,
If I find out that you are being unfaithful or cheating, I will cause destruction in your life,
So, Aggravatin' Papa, don't try to two-time me!
Therefore, deceitful father figure, don't try to deceive or cheat on me!
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: ADDY BRITT, J. RUSSEL ROBINSON, ROY TURK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind