Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly-recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin-color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. He rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation during the Little Rock Crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man.
Armstrong was born and brought up in New Orleans, a culturally diverse town with a unique musical mix of creole, ragtime, marching bands, and blues. Although from an early age he was able to play music professionally, he didn't travel far from New Orleans until 1922, when he went to Chicago to join his mentor, King Oliver. Oliver's band played primitive jazz, a hotter style of ragtime, with looser rhythms and more improvisation, and Armstrong's role was mostly backing. Slow to promote himself, he was eventually persuaded by his wife Lil Hardin to leave Oliver, and In 1924 he went to New York to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. At the time, there were a few other artists using the rhythmic innovations of the New Orleans style, but none did it with the energy and brilliance of Armstrong, and he quickly became a sensation among New York musicians. Back in Chicago in 1925, he made his first recordings with his own group, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and these became not only popular hits but also models for the first generation of jazz musicians, trumpeters or otherwise.
Other hits followed through the twenties and thirties, as well as troubles: crooked managers, lip injuries, mob entanglements, failed big-band ventures. As jazz styles changed, though, musical purists never lost any respect for him -- although they were sometimes irritated by his hammy onstage persona. Around the late forties, with the help of a good manager, Armstrong's business affairs finally stablilized, and he began to be seen as an elder statesman of American popular entertainment, appearing in Hollywood films, touring Asia and Europe, and dislodging The Beatles from the number-one position with Hello Dolly". Today many people may know him as a singer (a good one), but as Miles Davis said: “You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him."
The 62-year-old Armstrong became the oldest act to top the US charts when "Hello Dolly" reached #1 in 1964. Four years later Satchmo also became the oldest artist to record a UK #1, when "What a Wonderful World" hit the top spot.
I Still Get Jealous
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I still get jealous
When they look at you
I may not show it
But I do
It's more than I can bear
When they start to stare
Too good to be true
I still get jealous
When we kiss goodnight
Unless you hold me extra tight
And dear, I know a secret
You didn't know I knew
I still get jealous
'Cause it pleases you
And dear, I know a secret
You didn't know I knew
I still get jealous
'Cause it pleases you
Mama
Dear Dolly, I know a secret
You didn't know, I knew
I still get jealous, honey
Very jealous, ha ha ha
I still get jealous 'cause it pleases you
In this song, Louis Armstrong sings about being jealous when other people look at the person he is in a relationship with. Although he may not show it, he still feels jealous inside. When people stare at his significant other, he finds it unbearable because they seem to think that she is too good to be true. This jealousy also extends to when they kiss goodnight - he needs her to hold him extra tight to help ease his jealousy. Even though he knows that his jealousy is not rational, he cannot help feeling jealous sometimes. He sings about the secret he knows - that he still gets jealous, but he does it because it pleases his significant other.
Line by Line Meaning
I still get jealous
I can't help feeling envious
When they look at you
When others look at you in admiration
I may not show it
I try my best to hide my feelings
But I do
But inside I really feel it
It's more than I can bear
It's difficult to cope with
When they start to stare
When they begin to stare at you constantly
'Cause they think you're
Because they believe you're
Too good to be true
Unbelievable
When we kiss goodnight
When we share a goodnight kiss
Unless you hold me
If you don't embrace me tightly enough
Extra tight
With more pressure or strength
And, dear, I know a secret
And, my love, I have something to confess
You didn't know I knew
You're unaware that I am aware
'Cause it pleases you
'Cause it makes you happy
Maamaa
Dear dolly, I know a secret
Dear darling, I have a secret
Very jealous, ja ja ja
Very envious, ha ha ha
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Anonymous
on What A Wonderful World
What A Wonderful World - Casey Abrams - Lyrics
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Singing how do you do
They're really singing
I love you
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll learn much more
Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Musical Interlude
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Singing how do you do
They're really singing
I love you
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They goin’ learn much more
Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I think to myself
What a wonderful world