Les Paul and Mary Ford were a popular 1950s husband-and-wife duo, in which … Read Full Bio ↴Les Paul and Mary Ford were a popular 1950s husband-and-wife duo, in which Les Paul played guitar and sang (sometimes) and Mary Ford sang and played guitar. In 1951 alone, they sold six million records.

Les Paul (Lester William Polsfuss, June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009) and Mary Ford (Iris Colleen Summers, July 7, 1924 – September 30, 1977) were introduced to each other by Gene Autry in 1946 and married in 1949.
They first appeared in the pop charts in 1950. Between the years 1950 and 1954, Les Paul and Mary Ford had 16 top-ten hits. They had five top-ten hits within nine months. "Tennessee Waltz", "Mockin' Bird Hill", "How High the Moon" (#1 for nine weeks), "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" and "Whispering". From August 1952 to March 1953 they had five more top-ten hits; "My Baby's Coming Home", "Lady of Spain", "Bye Bye Blues", "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" and "Vaya Con Dios" (#1 for 11 weeks). Their 1954 version of "I'm a Fool to Care" went to #6, and was featured in a memorable Southern Comfort commercial in 2013 that got over 1 million views on YouTube.

In 2009, they were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Les Paul and Mary Ford are famous for creating a makeshift recording studio in their garage. In their garage studio, they used multitrack recording to record many of their hits including ‘Lover’, ‘Nola’, ‘Brazil’ and ‘Whispering' with only the two of them.

YouTube has a large selection of clips from their syndicated TV show "Les Paul & Mary Ford At Home" (1954-'55).

Les Paul and Mary Ford divorced acrimoniously in December 1964, which also ended the collaboration between the two.

The duo have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Les Paul had hosted a 15-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford, and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humour between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented dazzling re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood," "Little Rock Getaway," "Brazil," and "Tiger Rag." Several recordings of these shows survive among old-time radio collectors today.

The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (aka Les Paul & Mary Ford At Home) with "Vaya Con Dios" as a theme song. Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine, it was widely syndicated during 1954–55 and was only five minutes long (one or two songs) on film and therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in on programming schedules. Since Les created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to up-to-date quality at the time of his death.

St Louis Blues
Les Paul & Mary Ford Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I hate to see that evening sun go down
I hate to see that evening sun go down
Cause my baby, he's gone left this town

Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
If I'm feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
I'll pack my truck and make my give-a-way

St. Louis woman with her diamond ring
Pulls that man around by her, if it wasn't for her and her
That man I love would have gone nowhere, nowhere

I got the St. Louis blues, blues as I can be
That man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me

I love my baby like a school boy loves his pie

Like a Kentucky colonel loves his mint 'n rye
I love my man till the day I die

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Les Paul & Mary Ford's song "St. Louis Blues" tell the story of a heartbroken person who is devastated that their lover has left them. The opening lines, "I hate to see that evening sun go down / Cause my baby, he's gone left this town," set the stage for the emotional despair that the singer is feeling. They are so heartbroken that they don't want to see the sun set because it reminds them that their lover has left.

The next lines, "Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today / If I'm feelin' tomorrow like I feel today / I'll pack my truck and make my give-a-way," imply that the singer sees no hope for the future. They believe that they will feel just as miserable tomorrow as they do today, and if that's the case, they will leave and start over somewhere else.

The reference to the "St. Louis woman with her diamond ring" is most likely a metaphor for a wealthy or influential person who has taken the singer's lover away from them. Without this woman and her influence, the singer's lover "would have gone nowhere, nowhere." The phrase "St. Louis blues" refers to the feeling of deep sadness that the singer has. They love their lover deeply ("I love my baby like a schoolboy loves his pie / Like a Kentucky colonel loves his mint 'n rye"), but they are powerless to keep them.

St Louis BluesLes Paul & Mary Ford Lyrics

St Louis Blues
Les Paul & Mary Ford Lyrics