Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 - July 6, 1971) nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, … Read Full Bio ↴Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 - July 6, 1971) nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.
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.

Oh Lady Be Good
Louis Armstrong Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Listen to my tale of woe
it's terribly sad but true
All dressed up, no place to go
Each evening I'm awfully blue
I must win some handsome guy
Can't go on like this
I could blossom out I know
With somebody just like you, so

Oh sweet and lovely
Lady be good
Oh lady be good to me
I am so awfully misunderstood
So lady be good, to me
Oh, please have some pity
I'm all alone in this big city
I tell you I'm just
a lonesome babe in the wood
So lady be good to me

Oh, please have some pity
I'm all alone in this big city
I tell you I'm just
a lonesome babe in the wood
So lady be good to me

Oh, lady be good to me

Overall Meaning

In "Oh Lady Be Good," the singer experiences loneliness in the big city, searching for someone to share life's joys with. They long for a significant other, lamenting their situation of being "all dressed up, no place to go" and "awfully blue each evening." They want someone who they can connect with and who will understand them, but who they have not found yet. The singer yearns for someone to be kind to them, to take them out of their loneliness and misunderstanding, and to show them the attention they crave.

The song is a representation of the search for love and companionship, particularly during times of hardship such as those faced in the big city. The singer of the song is not alone in their quest for love and belonging, as many people often face similar struggles in their personal lives.

Line by Line Meaning

Listen to my tale of woe
Hear my sad story

it's terribly sad but true
It's a really sad but honest story

All dressed up, no place to go
I'm ready to go out but have nowhere to go

Each evening I'm awfully blue
Every night I'm very sad

I must win some handsome guy
I need to find a good-looking man

Can't go on like this
I can't keep living like this

I could blossom out I know
I have the potential to be happy

With somebody just like you, so
If I had someone like you in my life

Oh sweet and lovely
You are kind and beautiful

Lady be good
Please be nice to me

Oh lady be good to me
Please be kind to me