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.
My Handy Man Ain't Handy No More
Alberta Hunter Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Positively, absolutely sure was blind
'Cause I just found the best man that ever was
And here's just a few of the things that he does, ow
He shakes my ashes,
Greases my griddle,
Churns my butter,
My man, is such a handy man
Now he threads my needle,
And he creams my wheat,
Heats my heater,
And he chops my meat, he's a mess,
My man, is such a handy man
Now I don't care if you believe it or not,
He's a mighty nice man to have around,
'Cause when my furnace gets too hot, mm
He's right there to turn my damper down,
For everything, that man of mine's got a scheme
And honey it's amazing the way he handles my machine
My man, is such a handyman (oh that man is a mess ow)
He flaps my flapjacks,
Cleans off the table,
Feeds the horses in my stable,
My man, is such a handyman
And do you know, sometimes he's up, way before dawn,
Busy cleaning the rough edges off my lawn,
My man, is such a handyman
Now, he never has a single word to say,
While he's working hard (poor soul),
And I'd give anything if you could see the way,
He handles my front yard, aw
Now my ice never gets a chance to melt away,
'Cause he sees that I get a nice fresh piece everyday,
My man, is such a handyman
Alberta Hunter's song Handy Man is an ode to her lover and how he helps to make her life easier. The lyrics express how she had once believed that it was hard to find a good man but now she has found one who is "the best man that ever was." The song goes on to list some of the things that he does for her such as shaking her ashes, greasing her griddle, churning her butter, stroking her fiddle, threading her needle, and chopping her meat. The lyrics also mention how he handles her furnace and lawn, feeds her horses, and ensures that she always has fresh ice.
Line by Line Meaning
Now whoever said a good man was hard to find
The person who first claimed that it is difficult to find a good man must have been blind.
Positively, absolutely sure was blind
The person who said that a good man is hard to find must have been completely unaware of my man's existence.
'Cause I just found the best man that ever was
I have discovered the most outstanding man of all time.
And here's just a few of the things that he does, ow
Here's a brief summary of the many tasks he performs for me, including some that are sexually pleasing.
He shakes my ashes,
He disposes of my cigarette ashes in an efficient manner.
Greases my griddle,
He maintains my cooking appliances in excellent working condition.
Churns my butter,
He produces and processes dairy products for me.
And he strokes my fiddle, aw
He provides sexual fulfillment by stimulating my genitals manually.
My man, is such a handy man
He is a highly capable individual who is able to perform a wide range of tasks competently.
Now he threads my needle,
He assists me in sewing by threading my sewing equipment in a skilled manner.
And he creams my wheat,
He prepares my grain products in a skillful manner.
Heats my heater,
He manages my heating system in a proficient manner.
And he chops my meat, he's a mess,
He prepares and handles my meat in a skillful, but also somewhat chaotic or untidy way.
My man, is such a handy man
He is an invaluable presence in my life who is capable of performing a broad range of jobs and household tasks.
Now I don't care if you believe it or not,
I do not mind if you are skeptical of my claims.
He's a mighty nice man to have around,
He is an excellent person to have in my life.
'Cause when my furnace gets too hot, mm
When my heating system becomes too hot, he knows how to resolve the issue effectively.
He's right there to turn my damper down,
He is always present to adjust the damper and regulate the heating system.
For everything, that man of mine's got a scheme
My partner always has a plan or strategy for dealing with any situation that arises.
And honey it's amazing the way he handles my machine
His proficiency in managing and handling electrical devices is remarkable.
My man, is such a handyman (oh that man is a mess ow)
He is an expert in multiple areas, although he may not always be very tidy about it.
He flaps my flapjacks,
He physically manipulates my breakfast items in a skilled manner.
Cleans off the table,
He tidies my living areas and removes debris following a meal.
Feeds the horses in my stable,
He provides food and care for the horses that I own.
My man, is such a handyman
He is the ultimate problem solver and provides solutions for a vast range of issues, small or large.
And do you know, sometimes he's up, way before dawn,
In some instances, he works hard and diligently long before most people awaken.
Busy cleaning the rough edges off my lawn,
He is busy removing the rough, unwanted areas of my landscape in a highly skilled manner.
My man, is such a handyman
He is an exceptional individual, unmatched in his skills and abilities.
Now, he never has a single word to say,
He is the type of person who is not loquacious and speaks very little when focused on a task.
While he's working hard (poor soul),
Despite the fact that he is working hard, he never complains and always maintains an optimistic attitude.
And I'd give anything if you could see the way,
I yearn for others to appreciate the way he handles tasks and how highly skilled and proficient he is.
He handles my front yard, aw
He is especially skilled in the maintenance of the area in front of my house.
Now my ice never gets a chance to melt away,
My ice never has the opportunity to melt because he makes sure there is always a fresh supply.
'Cause he sees that I get a nice fresh piece everyday,
He takes care of me every day and ensures that I get the best possible solution to every problem.
My man, is such a handyman
My partner is unparalleled in his abilities and multi-faceted problem-solving skills.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: EUBIE BLAKE, ANDY RAZAF
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind