In his youth, Prima played trumpet with Irving Fazola, his brother's band, and the pit band of the Saenger Theater. In 1933 he began his busy recording career, as part of the David Rose orchestra at station WGN, Chicago; he was also part of the small recording group The Hotcha Trio, with Rose on piano and Norman Gast on violin. In 1934 Prima moved to New York, working regularly on 52nd Street with old New Orleans friends like Eddie Miller (tenor sax and clarinet) and George Brunies (trombone), and also new acquaintances like Pee Wee Russell (clarinet). Prima's informal jazz group was known as Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang, and this band recorded prolifically for Brunswick through 1936, and then for Vocalion and Decca.
Prima's 1936 composition, "Sing Sing Sing", which he had released with the New Orleans Gang in March, 1936 as a Brunswick 78, Brunswick 7628, with "It's Been So Long" as the B side, became one of his biggest hits and one of the most covered standards of the swing era; Benny Goodman's performance of the song at Carnegie Hall with a featured performance by Gene Krupa on drums has become iconic.
Louis Prima and His Band
Prima moved to Los Angeles to headline at the Famous Door nightclub. He appeared in several Hollywood movies, including a featured performance with Bing Crosby in the 1936 film Rhythm on the Range. Prima and his Dixieland Gang continued to play club dates across the nation, including a 1939 stint at New York's Hickory House.
Big bands were big business then, and Prima apparently bowed to pressure from booking agents and formed a conventional big band in 1940. He exploited a distinctive, shuffling beat (which he called "Gleeby Rhythm"); this trademark Prima shuffle remained part of his repertoire for two decades. Prima sang most of the band vocals, with Lily Ann Carol as the "girl singer." Prima's high-powered drummer at this time was Jimmy Vincent, an energetic teenager who remained with the Prima band for many years.
In 1947 he added singer Cathy Ricciardi, who recorded under the name Cathy Allen. She was succeeded in 1949 by Keely Smith (who was to become his fourth wife), and the band concentrated on novelty songs like "Civilization (Bongo Bongo Bongo)" and "All Right, Louis, Drop the Gun." Prima's big band continued into the early 1950s, with a series of novelty recordings supervised (sometimes heavy-handedly) by record producer Mitch Miller.
Vegas years
The popularity of the big-band sound started to wane, and Prima began losing money, just as he needed it to support the pregnant Smith. Prima found work with Smith in small venues all over the East Coast. Eventually he called up his friend Bill Miller, who was then entertainment director of The Sahara nightclub and casino in Las Vegas, and asked for a job. His friend Cab Calloway warned him against the cramped Sahara lounge, but the financial pressure was too great. Prima telephoned saxophonist Sam Butera and instructed him to pick up a few musicians and go to Las Vegas in time for Prima's debut.
Prima acknowledged his new musicians for the opening-night crowd, and spontaneously asked Butera what the name of the band was. Butera ad-libbed, "The Witnesses!" From then on, Sam Butera and the Witnesses backed Prima and Smith on stage and records.
Prima and Smith worked hard throughout the 1950s, performing multiple shows a night and finishing at 6 a.m. Their efforts were rewarded with a resurgence in their popularity, and they were at least partly responsible for making the lounge at The Sahara a hotspot. On stage, Prima insisted on Smith adopting a humorless, poker-faced character that would play straight to Prima's zany ad libs. Smith actually had a fine sense of comedy that is often audible on the team's recordings; no matter how much the incorrigible Prima tried to disrupt her vocals, Smith would often come back with a funny remark of her own.
Louis Prima and Keely Smith were very much the model for Sonny & Cher: the exuberant Italian musician and the serious, exotic female singer, Smith and Cher both being of Cherokee descent (although Cher's heritage is primarily Armenian). Similarly, echoes of the stage banter between Prima and Butera would be heard years later in the early performances of the E Street Band and the interplay between Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons.
In 1959, Prima and Smith won the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus for "That Old Black Magic."
In 1956 the Prima ensemble performed at the Sahara Hotel and Casino to record tracks for the album The Wildest!. It was an attempt by Capitol Records to capture the essence of the Vegas act. Over the next nine years, Prima and Smith raised two children, while he made scores of records, owned racehorses, appeared on television, and even opened a golf course. They outgrew the lounge and were promoted to the big room. They appeared in a few quickie musical films, including Senior Prom and Hey Boy! Hey Girl! Prima co-produced the feature Twist All Night, in which his band also appeared.
During this whirlwind of activity, according to Smith, the couple drifted farther and farther apart. One night, he refused to conduct for one of Smith's performances, delegating to Butera instead. A few days later they were in court, petitioning for divorce.
Later years
Following the divorce, he began dating Gia Maione. Maione was a long-time fan of Prima's, was already familiar with all the arrangements to his songs, and even kept a signed photo of him in her purse. She eventually became Prima's fifth and final wife, and was with the band right up until 1975. By this point, the band was putting out a markedly different and more contemporary sound, with electric organs and synthesizers, even dabbling in progressive rock.
In 1967 Prima's distinctive voice and jazzy delivery landed him a role in Walt Disney's animated feature The Jungle Book, as the raucous orangutan King Louie. He performed the hit song "I Wanna Be Like You" on the soundtrack, leading to the recording of two albums with Phil Harris: The Jungle Book and More Jungle Book, on Disneyland Records. He can also be heard on the soundtrack of another cartoon feature, The Man Called Flintstone.
He suffered a mild heart attack in 1973. In 1975, following headaches and episodes of memory loss, Louis Prima sought medical attention, and found out he had a stem brain tumor. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and went into a coma following surgery to remove the tumor. He never recovered, and died three years later, having been moved back to New Orleans. He was buried in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans; his gray marble crypt is topped by a figure of Gabriel, the trumpeter-angel. The inscription on the crypt's door quote the lyrics from one of his hits: "When the end comes, I know, they'll all say 'just a gigolo' as life goes on without me. Lovingly, your little family..."
St. Louis Blues
Louis Prima Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Drives that man around by her apron strings
If it wasn't for powder and for store bought hair
The man she loves, he wouldn't go nowhere
Got the blues, got the blues
Got the blues, got the St. Louis blues
Got the blues, got the blues
I got the blues, got the blues
Got the blues, got the St. Louis blues
I hate to see the evenin' sun go down
I hate to see the evenin' sun go down
The woman I love she done left this town
Bring her back, bring her back
Bring that woman back to me
Bring her back, bring her back
Bring that St. Louis woman back to me
Oh, I'm as sad as I can be
St. Louis woman come on back
St. Louis woman come on back
St. Louis woman come on back
Won't you please come home to me
Oh, St Louis woman won't you please come home
Blues, blues, blues
I got the blues, I got the blues, I got the blues
I got the blues, I got the blues, I got the blues
I got the blues, I got the blues, oh, St. Louis blues
I got the blues, I got the blues, I got the blues
I got the blues, the St. Louis blues, I got the blues, oh
St., St. Louis woman won't you come on back to me
Come on back, go down, go down, uh, go down, go down
Oh babe, come on baby, come on back to me
St. Louis woman why won't you please come home
Yeah, yeah, yeah come on now, baby, hurry on home
St. Louis woman, oh please, please come on home
Louis Prima's song St. Louis Blues describes a man's sorrowful lament for his lost love, a beautiful and wealthy woman from St. Louis. The song's opening lines describe her extravagance and the hold she has over her lover ("St. Louis woman with all the diamond rings / Drives that man around by her apron strings"). However, the chorus of the song reveals the true nature of the man's despair - he's got the blues, the St. Louis Blues, and he hates to see the evening sun go down now that his love's gone.
The song's final verse reveals the man's desperation, as he repeatedly begs for his St. Louis woman to come back to him ("Bring her back, bring her back / Bring that woman back to me / Oh, I'm as sad as I can be"). The song is an emotional tour de force that captures the essence of the blues: deep sadness, longing, and heartbreak.
In conclusion, Louis Prima's St. Louis Blues is a powerful testament to the raw emotion and soulfulness of blues music. It speaks to the universal experience of love and loss, and captures the essence of what it means to have the blues.
Line by Line Meaning
St. Louis woman with all the diamond rings
A wealthy St. Louis woman who wears diamond rings is being talked about
Drives that man around by her apron strings
She has a lot of control over her man and can make him do anything she wants
If it wasn't for powder and for store bought hair
If the woman didn't make herself look good with cosmetics and purchased hair, her man wouldn't be with her
The man she loves, he wouldn't go nowhere
He is devoted to the woman and would never leave her
Got the blues, got the blues
The singer is in a state of sadness and depression
Got the blues, got the St. Louis blues
The sadness the singer feels is specific to St. Louis
I hate to see the evenin' sun go down
The night is the worst time of day for the singer
The woman I love she done left this town
The woman who the singer is in love with is no longer in St. Louis
Bring her back, bring her back
The singer wants the woman to return to St. Louis
Bring that woman back to me
The woman the singer loves should come back to St. Louis specifically to be with him
Oh, I'm as sad as I can be
The singer is extremely sad
St. Louis woman come on back
The singer is asking the woman he loves to come back to St. Louis
Won't you please come home to me
The singer makes an additional plea for the woman to return to him
Blues, blues, blues
The feeling of sadness is being emphasized by repeating 'blues'
I got the blues, I got the blues, I got the blues
The singer is emphasizing his own feeling of sadness
St., St. Louis woman won't you come on back to me
The singer is addressing the woman he loves in St. Louis
Oh babe, come on baby, come on back to me
The singer is using a more affectionate tone to request that the woman come back to St. Louis
St. Louis woman why won't you please come home
The singer is pleading with the woman he loves to return home to St. Louis
Yeah, yeah, yeah come on now, baby, hurry on home
The singer is using even more urgency to ask the woman to return to him in St. Louis
St. Louis woman, oh please, please come on home
The song concludes with the singer's desperate plea for the woman to return to St. Louis
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: WILLIAM C HANDY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind