Big Joe Turner (Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., Kansas City, Missouri, May 18, 19… Read Full Bio ↴Big Joe Turner (Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., Kansas City, Missouri, May 18, 1911 โ Inglewood, California, November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter.
Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", Turner's career as a performer stretched from the 1920s into the 1980s.
(for stride pianist Joseph H. Turner (3.11.07-21.7.90) > Joe Turner)
Known variously as The Boss of the Blues, and Big Joe Turner (due to his 6'2", 300+ lbs stature), Turner was born in Kansas City and first discovered his love of music through involvement in the church. Turner's father was killed in a train accident when Joe was only four years old. He began singing on street corners for money, leaving school at age fourteen to begin working in Kansas City's club scene, first as a cook, and later as a singing bartender. He eventually became known as The Singing Barman, and worked in such venues as The Kingfish Club and The Sunset, where he and his piano playing partner Pete Johnson became resident performers. The Sunset was managed by Piney Brown. It featured "separate but equal" facilities for white patrons. Turner wrote "Piney Brown Blues" in his honor and sang it throughout his entire career.
At that time Kansas City was a wide-open town run by "Boss" Tom Pendergast. Despite this, the clubs were subject to frequent raids by the police, but as Turner recounts, "The Boss man would have his bondsmen down at the police station before we got there. We'd walk in, sign our names and walk right out. Then we would cabaret until morning".
His partnership with boogie-woogie pianist Pete Johnson proved fruitful. Together they headed to New York in 1936, where they appeared on a bill with Benny Goodman, but as Turner recounts, "After our show with Goodman, we auditioned at several places, but New York wasn't ready for us yet, so we headed back to K.C.". Eventually they were spotted by the talent scout, John H. Hammond in 1938, who invited them back to New York to appear in one of his "From Spirituals to Swing" concerts at Carnegie Hall, which was instrumental in introducing jazz and blues to a wider American audience.
Due in part to their appearance at Carnegie Hall, Turner and Johnson scored a major hit with "Roll 'Em Pete". The track contained one of the earliest recorded examples of a back beat. It was a song which Turner recorded many times, with various combinations of musicians, over the ensuing years.
In 1939, along with boogie players Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, they began a residency at Cafรฉ Society, a club in New York City, where they appeared on the same bill as Billie Holiday and Frank Newton's band. Besides "Roll 'Em, Pete", Turner's best-known recordings from this period are probably "Cherry Red", "I Want A Little Girl" and "Wee Baby Blues".
In 1941, he headed to Los Angeles where he performed in Duke Ellington's revue Jump for Joy in Hollywood. He appeared as a singing policeman in a sketch called "He's on the Beat." Los Angeles became his home base for a time, and in 1944 he worked in Meade Lux Lewis's Soundies musical films. Although he sang on the soundtrack recordings, he was not present for the filming, and his vocals were mouthed by comedian Dudley Dickerson for the camera. In 1945 Turner and Pete Johnson opened their own bar in Los Angeles, The Blue Moon Club.
Turner made lots of records, not only with Johnson but with the pianists Art Tatum and Sammy Price and with various small jazz ensembles. He recorded on several record labels, particularly National Records, and also appeared with the Count Basie Orchestra. In his career, Turner successively led the transition from big bands to jump blues to rhythm and blues, and finally to rock and roll. Turner was a master of traditional blues verses and at the legendary Kansas City jam sessions he could swap choruses with instrumental soloists for hours.
In 1951, while performing with the Count Basie Orchestra at Harlem's Apollo Theater as a replacement for Jimmy Rushing, he was spotted by Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegรผn, who signed him to their new recording company, Atlantic Records. Turner recorded a number of hits for them, including the blues standards, "Chains of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen". Many of his vocals are punctuated with shouts to the band members, as in "Boogie Woogie Country Girl" ("That's a good rockin' band!", "Go ahead, man! Ow! That's just what I need!" ) and "Honey Hush" (he repeatedly sings "Hi-yo, Silver!", probably in reference to The Treniers singing the phrase in their Lone Ranger parody "Ride, Red, Ride"). Turner's records shot to the top of the rhythm-and-blues charts; although they were sometimes so earthy that some radio stations wouldn't play them, the songs received heavy play on jukeboxes and records.
Turner hit it big in 1954 with "Shake, Rattle and Roll", which not only enhanced his career, turning him into a teenage favorite, but also helped to transform popular music. The song is fairly raw, as Turner yells at his woman to "get outa that bed, wash yo' face an' hands" and comments that she's "wearin' those dresses, the sun comes shinin' through!" He sang the number on film in the 1955 theatrical feature Rhythm and Blues Revue.
Although the cover version of the song by Bill Haley and His Comets, with the risquรฉ lyrics incompletely cleaned up, was a bigger hit, many listeners sought out Turner's version and were introduced thereby to the whole world of rhythm and blues. Elvis Presley showed he needed no such introduction. His version of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" combined Turner's lyrics with Haley's arrangement, but was not successful as a single.
In addition to the rock 'n' roll songs, he found time to cut the classic Boss of the Blues album.
After a number of hits in this vein, Turner left popular music behind and returned to his roots as a singer with small jazz combos, recording numerous albums in that style in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1966, Bill Haley helped revive Turner's career by lending him the Comets for a series of popular recordings in Mexico (apparently no one thought of getting the two to record a duet of "Shake, Rattle and Roll", as no such recording has yet surfaced). In 1977 he recorded a version of Guitar Slim's song, "The Things I Used to Do".
In the 1960s and 1970s he was reclaimed by jazz and blues, appearing at many festivals and recording for the impresario Norman Granz's Pablo label, once with his friendly rival, Jimmy Witherspoon. He also worked with the German boogie-woogie pianist Axel Zwingenberger.
It is a mark of his dominance as a singer that he won the Esquire magazine award for male vocalist in 1945, the Melody Maker award for best 'new' vocalist in 1956, and the British Jazz Journal award as top male singer in 1965. His career thus stretched from the bar rooms of Kansas City in the 1920s (at the age of twelve when he performed with a pencilled moustache and his father's hat), on to the European jazz music festivals of the 1980s.
In 1983, only two years before his death, Turner was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
He died in Inglewood, California in November 1985, at the age of 74 of a heart attack, having suffered the earlier effects of arthritis, a stroke and diabetes. Big Joe Turner was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Tribute
The late, New York Times music critic Robert Palmer, said: "...his voice, pushing like a Count Basie solo, rich and grainy as a section of saxophones, which dominated the room with the sheer sumptuousness of its sound.
Most famous recordings
"Roll 'Em, Pete" - 1938; (available in many versions over the years. Used for the million-dollar first scene in Spike Lee's film, Malcolm X).
"Chains Of Love" - 1951 โ (this was Turner's first million seller. The song was written by 'Nugetre' (words) - Ahmet Ertegรผn, Van Wallis (music), and the disc reached the million by 1954).
"Honey Hush" - 1953 โ
"Shake, Rattle and Roll" - 1954
"Flip Flop And Fly" - 1955 โ (has sold a million through the years. The song was written by Charles Calhoun and Turner, although credited to the latter's wife, Lou Willie Turner).
"Cherry Red" - 1956
"Corrine, Corrina" - 1956 โ (the fourth million seller...with adaption by J. Mayo Williams, Mitchell Parish and Bo Chatmon in 1932. This disc was #41, and spent 10 weeks in the Billboard chart).
"Wee Baby Blues" - 1956; (a song Turner had been singing since his Kingfish Club days)
"Love Roller Coaster" 1956
"Midnight Special" - 1957
Tracks marked as โ were million selling discs.
Select discography
Big Joe Rides Again (1956)
The Boss of the Blues (1956)
Bosses of the Blues, Vol. 1 (1969)
Texas Style (1971)
Flip, Flop & Fly (1972)
Life Ain't Easy (1974)
The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner (1974)
Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", Turner's career as a performer stretched from the 1920s into the 1980s.
(for stride pianist Joseph H. Turner (3.11.07-21.7.90) > Joe Turner)
Known variously as The Boss of the Blues, and Big Joe Turner (due to his 6'2", 300+ lbs stature), Turner was born in Kansas City and first discovered his love of music through involvement in the church. Turner's father was killed in a train accident when Joe was only four years old. He began singing on street corners for money, leaving school at age fourteen to begin working in Kansas City's club scene, first as a cook, and later as a singing bartender. He eventually became known as The Singing Barman, and worked in such venues as The Kingfish Club and The Sunset, where he and his piano playing partner Pete Johnson became resident performers. The Sunset was managed by Piney Brown. It featured "separate but equal" facilities for white patrons. Turner wrote "Piney Brown Blues" in his honor and sang it throughout his entire career.
At that time Kansas City was a wide-open town run by "Boss" Tom Pendergast. Despite this, the clubs were subject to frequent raids by the police, but as Turner recounts, "The Boss man would have his bondsmen down at the police station before we got there. We'd walk in, sign our names and walk right out. Then we would cabaret until morning".
His partnership with boogie-woogie pianist Pete Johnson proved fruitful. Together they headed to New York in 1936, where they appeared on a bill with Benny Goodman, but as Turner recounts, "After our show with Goodman, we auditioned at several places, but New York wasn't ready for us yet, so we headed back to K.C.". Eventually they were spotted by the talent scout, John H. Hammond in 1938, who invited them back to New York to appear in one of his "From Spirituals to Swing" concerts at Carnegie Hall, which was instrumental in introducing jazz and blues to a wider American audience.
Due in part to their appearance at Carnegie Hall, Turner and Johnson scored a major hit with "Roll 'Em Pete". The track contained one of the earliest recorded examples of a back beat. It was a song which Turner recorded many times, with various combinations of musicians, over the ensuing years.
In 1939, along with boogie players Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, they began a residency at Cafรฉ Society, a club in New York City, where they appeared on the same bill as Billie Holiday and Frank Newton's band. Besides "Roll 'Em, Pete", Turner's best-known recordings from this period are probably "Cherry Red", "I Want A Little Girl" and "Wee Baby Blues".
In 1941, he headed to Los Angeles where he performed in Duke Ellington's revue Jump for Joy in Hollywood. He appeared as a singing policeman in a sketch called "He's on the Beat." Los Angeles became his home base for a time, and in 1944 he worked in Meade Lux Lewis's Soundies musical films. Although he sang on the soundtrack recordings, he was not present for the filming, and his vocals were mouthed by comedian Dudley Dickerson for the camera. In 1945 Turner and Pete Johnson opened their own bar in Los Angeles, The Blue Moon Club.
Turner made lots of records, not only with Johnson but with the pianists Art Tatum and Sammy Price and with various small jazz ensembles. He recorded on several record labels, particularly National Records, and also appeared with the Count Basie Orchestra. In his career, Turner successively led the transition from big bands to jump blues to rhythm and blues, and finally to rock and roll. Turner was a master of traditional blues verses and at the legendary Kansas City jam sessions he could swap choruses with instrumental soloists for hours.
In 1951, while performing with the Count Basie Orchestra at Harlem's Apollo Theater as a replacement for Jimmy Rushing, he was spotted by Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegรผn, who signed him to their new recording company, Atlantic Records. Turner recorded a number of hits for them, including the blues standards, "Chains of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen". Many of his vocals are punctuated with shouts to the band members, as in "Boogie Woogie Country Girl" ("That's a good rockin' band!", "Go ahead, man! Ow! That's just what I need!" ) and "Honey Hush" (he repeatedly sings "Hi-yo, Silver!", probably in reference to The Treniers singing the phrase in their Lone Ranger parody "Ride, Red, Ride"). Turner's records shot to the top of the rhythm-and-blues charts; although they were sometimes so earthy that some radio stations wouldn't play them, the songs received heavy play on jukeboxes and records.
Turner hit it big in 1954 with "Shake, Rattle and Roll", which not only enhanced his career, turning him into a teenage favorite, but also helped to transform popular music. The song is fairly raw, as Turner yells at his woman to "get outa that bed, wash yo' face an' hands" and comments that she's "wearin' those dresses, the sun comes shinin' through!" He sang the number on film in the 1955 theatrical feature Rhythm and Blues Revue.
Although the cover version of the song by Bill Haley and His Comets, with the risquรฉ lyrics incompletely cleaned up, was a bigger hit, many listeners sought out Turner's version and were introduced thereby to the whole world of rhythm and blues. Elvis Presley showed he needed no such introduction. His version of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" combined Turner's lyrics with Haley's arrangement, but was not successful as a single.
In addition to the rock 'n' roll songs, he found time to cut the classic Boss of the Blues album.
After a number of hits in this vein, Turner left popular music behind and returned to his roots as a singer with small jazz combos, recording numerous albums in that style in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1966, Bill Haley helped revive Turner's career by lending him the Comets for a series of popular recordings in Mexico (apparently no one thought of getting the two to record a duet of "Shake, Rattle and Roll", as no such recording has yet surfaced). In 1977 he recorded a version of Guitar Slim's song, "The Things I Used to Do".
In the 1960s and 1970s he was reclaimed by jazz and blues, appearing at many festivals and recording for the impresario Norman Granz's Pablo label, once with his friendly rival, Jimmy Witherspoon. He also worked with the German boogie-woogie pianist Axel Zwingenberger.
It is a mark of his dominance as a singer that he won the Esquire magazine award for male vocalist in 1945, the Melody Maker award for best 'new' vocalist in 1956, and the British Jazz Journal award as top male singer in 1965. His career thus stretched from the bar rooms of Kansas City in the 1920s (at the age of twelve when he performed with a pencilled moustache and his father's hat), on to the European jazz music festivals of the 1980s.
In 1983, only two years before his death, Turner was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
He died in Inglewood, California in November 1985, at the age of 74 of a heart attack, having suffered the earlier effects of arthritis, a stroke and diabetes. Big Joe Turner was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Tribute
The late, New York Times music critic Robert Palmer, said: "...his voice, pushing like a Count Basie solo, rich and grainy as a section of saxophones, which dominated the room with the sheer sumptuousness of its sound.
Most famous recordings
"Roll 'Em, Pete" - 1938; (available in many versions over the years. Used for the million-dollar first scene in Spike Lee's film, Malcolm X).
"Chains Of Love" - 1951 โ (this was Turner's first million seller. The song was written by 'Nugetre' (words) - Ahmet Ertegรผn, Van Wallis (music), and the disc reached the million by 1954).
"Honey Hush" - 1953 โ
"Shake, Rattle and Roll" - 1954
"Flip Flop And Fly" - 1955 โ (has sold a million through the years. The song was written by Charles Calhoun and Turner, although credited to the latter's wife, Lou Willie Turner).
"Cherry Red" - 1956
"Corrine, Corrina" - 1956 โ (the fourth million seller...with adaption by J. Mayo Williams, Mitchell Parish and Bo Chatmon in 1932. This disc was #41, and spent 10 weeks in the Billboard chart).
"Wee Baby Blues" - 1956; (a song Turner had been singing since his Kingfish Club days)
"Love Roller Coaster" 1956
"Midnight Special" - 1957
Tracks marked as โ were million selling discs.
Select discography
Big Joe Rides Again (1956)
The Boss of the Blues (1956)
Bosses of the Blues, Vol. 1 (1969)
Texas Style (1971)
Flip, Flop & Fly (1972)
Life Ain't Easy (1974)
The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner (1974)
Corrina Corrina
Big Joe Turner Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Corrine Corrina, where you been so long?
Corrine Corrina, where you been so long?
Ain't been no lovin' since you been gone
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
I love Corrina, tell the world I do
I love Corrina, tell the world I do
I pray every night, she learn to love me too
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
I left Corrina, way across the sea
I left Corrina, way across the sea
If you see my Corrina, send her home to me.
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
Corrine, Corrina, why don't you come on home?
Corrine, Corrina, why don't you come on home
I'm mighty tired, bein' all alone
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so (Corrine Corrina)
Corrine Corrina, where you been so long?
Ain't been no lovin' since you been gone
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
I love Corrina, tell the world I do
I love Corrina, tell the world I do
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
I left Corrina, way across the sea
I left Corrina, way across the sea
If you see my Corrina, send her home to me.
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
Corrine, Corrina, why don't you come on home?
Corrine, Corrina, why don't you come on home
I'm mighty tired, bein' all alone
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Corrine Corrina, I love you so (Corrine Corrina)
The song "Corrina Corrina" by Big Joe Turner is a classic example of a love song that speaks to the depths of one's emotions. In the first verse, Big Joe wonders where Corrina has been for so long, and laments that there has been no love in his life since she's been gone. The repetition of the phrase "Corrina Corrina" creates a sense of longing and the fact that there has been no love in his life without her suggests that perhaps she was someone special, and the love they shared was deep and profound.
In the second verse, he declares his love for Corrina and wishes to tell the world about it. He prays every night that she would learn to love him too, suggesting that the love between them may be unrequited. The repetition of the phrase "Corrina Corrina" also highlights the depth of his feelings, suggesting that he can't get her out of his mind, even when he wishes to.
In the third verse, Big Joe Turner reveals that he left Corrina way across the sea, and now he's asking anyone who sees her to send her home to him. This highlights the distance between them and further emphasises the longing he feels for her. He concludes the song by directly addressing Corrina and pleading for her to come back home to him. The final repetition of the phrase "Corrina Corrina" reinforces the strength of his feelings.
Line by Line Meaning
Corrine Corrina, where you been so long?
Hey Corrina, it's been a while since I've seen you, where have you been?
Ain't been no lovin' since you been gone
I haven't had any love since you've been gone
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Hey Corrina, come back to me
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
Corrina, I love you deeply
I love Corrina, tell the world I do
I want to shout to the world that I love you, Corrina
I pray every night, she learn to love me too
Every night, I hope and pray that Corrina will learn to love me too
I left Corrina, way across the sea
I left Corrina behind somewhere across the sea
If you see my Corrina, send her home to me.
If you come across Corrina, please send her back to me
Corrine, Corrina, why don't you come on home?
Hey Corrina, why don't you come back home to me?
I'm mighty tired, bein' all alone
I'm feeling so tired of being all alone without you, Corrina
Corrine Corrina, Corrine Corrina
Hey Corrina, please come back to me
Corrine Corrina, I love you so
Corrina, I love you so much
Lyrics ยฉ BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: McKinley Morganfield
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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@sauquoit13456
On this day in 1956 {May 10th} Big Joe Turner's "Corrine, Corrine" peaked at #2* {for 1 week} on Billboard's 'Most-Played R&B Records on Juke Boxes' chart, for the week it was at #2, the #1 record for that week was "Long, Tall Sally"/"Slippin' and Slidin'" by Little Richard ...
"Corrine, Corrine" reached #41 {for 1 week} on Billboard's Top 100 chart...
Between 1945 and 1958 the Kansas City, Missouri native had twenty charted records on the R&B charts, seventeen made the Top 10 with two reaching #1, "Honey Hush" for eight weeks in December of 1953 and "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" for three weeks in June of 1954...
Big Joe Turner, born Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., passed away at the age of 74 on November 24th, 1985...
May he R.I.P.
* "Corrine, Corrine" was Big Joe Turner's third of three of his records to peak at #2, his other two #2 records were "Chains of Love" in 1951 and "Flip, Flop, and Fly" in 1951...
And from the 'For What It's Worth' department, the remainder of the Most-Played Juke Box Top 10 on May 10th, 1956:
At #3. "I'm In Love Again"/"My Blue Heaven" by Fats Domino
#4. "Magic Touch" by the Platters
#5. "I Want You To Be My Girl" by the Teen-Agers featuring Frankie Lymon
#6. "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" by the Teen-Agers featuring Frankie Lymon
#7. "Drown In My Own Tears" by Ray Charles
#8. "Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins
#9. "Forty Days and Forty Nights" by Muddy Waters and his Guitar
#10. "Sweet Baby of Mine" by Ruth Brown
@bigdancd
Big Joe will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart. He was one of the first stars I seen live back in May 1956. I was a freshman in Dayton. It was my first live concert at the old U.D. Fieldhouse. It's gone now, but not the memories. I saw Big Joe and LaVern Baker, Clyde McPhatter, Bill Haley & The Comets, Bo Diddley, The Drifters, The Platters, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, and the Teen Queens (Eddie My Love). What a great concert! I've been to many over the years, but this was my first.
@ravenrose3730
Wow! I could only dream of attending such a concert. You are fortunate for having been to it.
@michaelmendel4004
WOW!
@barbararichmond2167
I love everyone of the artists that you named. What a good time!
@Mustanglover66
Who is listening to this awesome song by Big Joe Turner in 2020? :)
@wadebarnett2542
ME! I'm most familiar with Dean Martin's version. I'm listening to all the different versions I can find.
@napalmglop1
Me!
@ianmoney3166
Me . from Ontario Canada !!
My favorite version.
@Dylan-pl6wv
Me in quarantine
@belgadog99
I do ! (Toronto, Canada)