donderdag 24 februari 2022

Red Cross Blues (1933) / Red Cross Man (1933) / Red Cross Store (1934) / New Red Cross Blues (1936) / Welfare Blues (1938) / Welfare Store Blues (1941)


"Red Cross Blues" is alluding to Dr. Joseph Goldberger’s experiments on prisoners, designed to determine the dietary deficiency causing pellagra. Goldberger proposed yeast extract supplements to  combat the disease and arranged distribution via the Red Cross. 
Poor blacks felt stigmatized by handouts and found themselves, press ganged into slave labour when they queued for help at the Red Cross stations/stores


SEE Forum Weeniecampbell  SOTM June 19th - Red Cross Store

SEE ALSO  Walter Roland


The first artist to sing a protest song about the Red Cross Stores was Walter Roland. The song was later recorded by artists as diverse as Leadbelly, Forest City Joe, Sonny Boy Williamson (as "Welfare Store Blues"), Speckled Red (as "Welfare Blues") and many others. 
Although Walter Roland (as "Alabama Sam") was the first to record the blues standard "Red Cross Blues", Walter Davis was the first to register a song called "Red Cross Blues" for copyright. Its subject-matter is the only connection with Roland's song and they stand as separate songs. 
Roland's song was registered for copyright (as having been composed jointly by himself and Calaway) early in 1934.
The next master was "Red Cross Blues No 2", his record company (ARC) presumably anticipating big sales on No. 1 had him record a follow-up in advance! 
In both of these versions, Walter Roland laments the fact that he cannot go to Hill's, he would have to go the Red Cross Store instead. Hill's, according to Guido Van Rijns book "Roosevelt's Blues", was a grocery store located opposite the Red Cross Store in Birmingham, Alabama.
Lucille Bogan, who traveled with Roland from 1933 till 1935, did her "Red Cross Man" at the same session, same melody. different lyrics by Bogan. 
"Red Cross Blues" was slightly adapted from "Kokomo Blues", yet to be recorded by Kokomo Arnold but already on record by Madlyn Davis, Scrapper Blackwell, Walter Fennell and Jabo Williams, the powerful pianist from “Pratt City” (a district of north Birmingham) who was almost certainly an early influence on Roland. There was considerable interchange of material between them
Sonny Scott, who also traveled with Roland and Bogan between 1933 and 1935, also recorded two versions of "Red Cross Blues" (both lyrically different to Roland’s),


(c) Alabama Sam (=Walter Roland) (1933) (as "Red Cross Blues")
Piano Walter Roland
Recorded July 17, 1933 in New York City
Matrix 13550
Released on Banner 32822, Conqueror 8329, Melotone M-12753, Oriole 8254
Also released on Perfect 0251, Romeo 5254 and Paramount 901.





Lyrics:

Said me and my good girl talked last night, me and her talked for hours,
She wanted me to go to the Red Cross Store, and get a sack of that Red Cross flour,
I told her: “No”. Great Lord, said: “Woman I sure don’t want to go”,
Say: “I have to go to Hill’s ’cause I, got to go to that Red Cross Store”. 

Say you know them Red Cross folks there they, sure do treat you mean,
Don’t want to give you nothin’ but, two – three cans of beans,
Now I told ‘em: “No”. Great Lord girl, said: “I don’t want to go”,
I said: “You know I cannot go to Hill’s, I’m got to go yonder to that Red Cross Store”. 

But you know the governor done take it in charge now said he gon’ treat, everybody right,
He gon’ give ‘em two cans of beans now, and one little can of tripe,
Now I told ‘em: “No”. Great Lord girl, says: “I don’t want to go”,
“I think I better wait till I get a job and go to Hill’s, ’cause other than that I’ve got to go to that Red Cross Store”. 

Say you go up there early in the mornin’, said he ask you: “Boy, how you feel?”
Gettin’ ready to give you a nickel’s worth of rice and a, bag of that boultin’ meal.
Now I told him: “No”. Great Lord girl, says: “I don’t want to go”,
Says: “You know I cannot go to Hill’s, I’m got to go yonder to that Red Cross Store”. 

But you know say I got girl now says she gon’, get herself a job,
She gon’ take care of me now, while the times is hard,
And I told her: “Yes”. Great Lord, “Then I won’t have to go”,
I said: “When you get paid off we’ll go to Hill’s, I won’t have to go to that Red Cross Store”. 

But you know say a girl told me this mornin’ that she loved me ’cause I, work two days a week,
I told her I worked for the Red Cross, didn’t get nothin’ but somethin’ to eat.
She told me: “No”. Great Lord, says: “Man I don’t want to go”,
She said: “But are you is carryin’ me to Hill’s” says; I say: “I take you to that Red Cross Store”.

Listen here:




On the same day and same location Lucille Bogan recorded a version of this song, with Walter Roland accompanying her on the piano.

(c) Bessie Jackson (=Lucille Bogan) (1933) (as "Red Cross Man")
Walter Roland on piano.
Recorded July 17, 1933 in New York City
Matrix 13548
Released on Banner 33072, Melotone M-13036, Oriole 8342, Perfect 0281 and Romeo 5342.
 



Lyrics:

If anybody don't believe I've got a Red Cross man
Go out in my back yard to get my Red Cross can
Oh, baby don't you want to go, 
Go with me and my man down to the Red Cross Store

Red Cross gives my man, three days a week, 
Sack of Red Cross flour, hunk of old white meat.
Oh, baby don't you want to go, 
You can't go with my man down to the Red Cross Store

Listen here:



As I said above, on the same day and same location,Walter Roland also recorded a "Red Cross Blues No 2", this time with guitar-accompaniment.

(c) Walter Roland (1933) (as "Red Cross Blues No 2")
Recorded July 17, 1933 in New York City
Matrix 13551
Released on Banner 33121, Melotone M-13088, Oriole 8363, Perfect 0291 and Romeo 5363




Listen here:




In a span of 2 days, American country blues artis Sonny Scott, primarily noted for his association with Walter Roland and Lucille Bogan, also cut 2 versions of "Red Cross Blues"


(c) Sonny Scott (1933) (as "Red Cross Blues")
Recorded July 18, 1933 in New York City
Matrix 13572
Released on Vocalion 25012
 

Listen here:

 


(c) Sonny Scott (1933) (as "Red Cross Blues No 2")
Recorded July 20, 1933 in New York City
Matrix 13602
Released on Vocalion 02614
 

Listen here:




(c) Pete Harris (1934) (as "Red Cross Store")
Recorded May 1934 in Richmond, TX (Alan Lomax recording)



Listen here:




(c) Frank "Springback" James (1936) (as "New Red Cross Blues")
Frank James: piano / Willie Bee James: guitar
Recorded December 21, 1936 in Chicago, ILL
Released on Bluebird B-6824


Listen here:




(c) Frazier Family (1938) (as "Welfare Blues")
Calvin Frazier: vocal/guitar and Sampson Pittman: guitar
Recorded October 16, 1938 in Detroit, MI
Released on the next album:  


Listen here:




(c) Speckled Red (1938) (as "Welfare Blues")
Recorded December 17, 1938 in Aurora, ILL
Released on Bluebird B-8069




Listen here:




(c) Sonny Boy Williamson (1940) (as "Welfare Store Blues")
Recorded May 17, 1940 in Chicago, ILL
Released on Bluebird B-8610



Listen here:




(c) Huddie Leadbelly (1940) (as "The Red Cross Store Blues")
Recorded June 15, 1940 in New York City
Released on Bluebird B-8709
 


Listen here:



In fact Leadbelly had already recorded a version  (as "Red Cross Sto") for the Library of Congress in February 1935.




More versions here:






NOT TO BE CONFUSED with Walter Davis' "Red Cross Blues", which is a different song, recorded with the common AAB blues pattern

Lyrics:

The Red Cross is helping poor people who cannot help themselves (2x)
I went down there this morning, they said they wasn't helping no one else

Uncle Sam's flag is painted, painted in red, white and blue  (2x)
'cause the Red Cross won't help us, what in the world is we going to do?

I spent all my money, did not save a lousy dime  (2x)
I didn't ever think I would be worried, people, with these hard old times

So I will remember this, the longest day I live  (2x)
The Red Cross has told me they did not have nothing to give

My little children was screaming, crying "Papa we ain't go no home"  (2x)
The Red Cross has cut us off, man, and left us all alone

Listen here:



A few months later Walter Davis also recorded a "Red Cross Blues - Part2"

This was covered in 1934 by Josh White as "Welfare Blues".


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woensdag 16 februari 2022

Western Home (1873) / Home On The Range (1910) / Werkende Handen (1938) / Hem (1938)


"Home on the Range" is a classic cowboy song, sometimes called the "unofficial anthem" of the American West. 
It is generally believed that Dr. Brewster Higley (also spelled Highley) of Smith County, Kansas, wrote the lyrics as the poem "Western Home" in 1872 or 1873.
Shotly afterwards, Daniel E. Kelley (1808–1905), a friend of Higley and member of the Harlan Brothers Orchestra, developed a melody for the song on his guitar. Higley's original lyrics are similar to those of the modern version of the song, but not identical. For instance, the original poem did not contain the words "on the range".






In 1934 William and Mary Goodwin filed a $500,000 lawsuit claimed infringement of their "My Arizona Home",  which had been copyrighted in 1905. 



An Arizona Home. Ballad | Library of Congress



The Museum Publishers Protective Association (MPPA) conducted an extensive investigation on the claim. They hired Samuel Moanfeldt, a New York lawyer, to investigate the Goodwins’ claims. Moanfeldt started searching for the song’s origins. All trails led to a version that John Lomax had collected.
A transcription of the song was published in Lomax's book "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads", in 1910. Lomax had recorded a black saloonkeeper singing "Home on the Range" in 1908. The saloonkeeper had previously driven cattle on the Chisholm Trail to Kansas.
From the record Lomax made that day, Henry Lebermann, a blind teacher of music at the State School for the Blind in Austin, a few weeks afterwards set down the music. Lebermann used earphones and played the record over and over again until he felt sure that he had captured the music as the black saloonkeeper had rendered it. This music, printed in the 1910 edition of Cowboy Songs, makes up the core of the tune that has become popular (and the first version containing the words "on the range")





A transcription of the song and the story of its collection were also published The John & Alan Lomax book "Best Loved American Folk Songs" (1947) 
This version had essentially the same lyrics, but with the "diamond sand" verse omitted. 
The notes, however, are quite interesting: 

62. HOME ON THE RANGE One day in 1908 I walked into the Buckhorn Saloon in San Antonio lugging a heavy Edison recording machine. It was the earliest, crudest type of dictaphone, requiring for its operation earphones and a large five-foot horn. The amazed German proprietor stared at my strange equipment and hastily put his hand under the counter where he was supposed to keep his arsenal of democracy. When I told him I was looking for cowboy songs, his face relaxed. He seemed to feel safe, though not entirely satisfied. He kept looking furtively at the unwieldly big-mouthed horn as though he feared it might be a gun. My friend, the proprietor, had two fads: it was said that festooned on the walls of his saloon hung the world’s largest collection of horns; he was likewise interested in ballads. I had come to the right place. He told me of a Negro singer who ran a beer saloon out beyond the Southern Pacific depot, in a scrubby mesquite grove. This Negro had been a chuck-wagon cook for years and had made the trip up the Chisholm Trail half a dozen times. He sang many cowboy songs. I found my man behind his saloon shack with his hat drawn down over his eyes, his head tilted back against a mesquite tree. When I shook him awake and told him what I wanted, he muttered as he looked at me with bloodshot eyes, "I'se drunk, I’se drunk, come back tomorrow and I’ll sing for you." I spent all the next day under the mesquite with this Negro. Among the songs he sang for me was "Home on the Range." From the record- ing I made that day down in the redlight district (they used stolen switch-lanterns to advertise the trade), Henry Leberman, a blind teacher of music, a few weeks afterward set down the music. This version, printed in the 1910 edition of Cowboy Songs, makes up the core of the tune that has become popular in this country and is sung throughout the English-speaking world. Mr. Leberman used earphones and played the old-fashioned cylinder records over and over again until he felt sure that he had captured the music as the Negro saloon-keeper had rendered it. In 1925, Oscar J. Fox of San Antonio put the song into sheet-music form. Five years afterward, David Guion of Dallas followed with a slightly different arrangement. During the next six years eight other publishers of music issued the song with some variations. In 1933 the radio people took it up. For two or three years afterwards, “Home on the Range” was broadcast nightly by all of the big networks. It became known that it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s favorite song. Suddenly radio stations in the United States were warned not to include “Home on the Range” on their programs. A suit for infringement of copyright had been filed in the courts of New York against thirty-five individuals and corporations for a cool half a million dollars. The claimants brought forth a copyright version of “Home on the Range,” dated 1905, the music of which was similar to the current tune. A clever New York attorney, however, managed to locate in Smith Center, Kansas, eighty-six year old Clarence Harlan and his wife who made affidavit that in 1874 they had learned the song under the title of “The Western Home.” The old couple recorded their early version of “Home on the Range” on phonograph records. The lawyer exhibited his new evidence to the plaintiff’s attorney. The suit was dropped and the song was established in the public domain. Homer Croy has gone further into the Kansas origin of “Home on the Range” in his book, “Corn Country.” He tells of his visit to Smith Center, where old timers reminisced about Bruce Higley, the “writing doctor,” who came out to Kansas from Indiana to escape a termagant wife and homesteaded in a little cabin on the banks of Beaver Creek. Higley farmed a little, doctored his sod-buster neighbors and wrote a lot of verse. One evening, as he waited for a deer to stick its head up along the breaks of the Beaver, an idea for a poem came to him and he scribbled down the first rough version of “Home on the Range.” O give me the gale of the Solomon Vale, Where light streams with buoyancy flow; On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever, Any poisonous herbage doth grow. Time has dealt kindly with this crude poem. The folk have rubbed off its rough edges and improved the poesy. Time has turned the Higley cabin into a henhouse and filled the once-clear Beaver with sand and gravel. Higley, himself, moved to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where he died in 1911, a year after I published the Texas version of “Home on the Range” in my first book of cowboy songs. When I read Mr. Croy’s story, I turned to my files. A folklorist learns to be skeptical of any story of “ultimate origins.” There I found a letter which stated that “Home on the Range” was sung in Texas in 1867. Where will the trail end? My guess is that it goes far back beyond Kansas and Texas, as well, into the big songbag which the folk have held in common for centuries.


In 1925 Oscar J. Fox made a new arrangement of the 1910 Lomax version. 
This version of "Home on the Range" was published by Carl Fischer Inc.





The MPPA also found a mining song, "Colorado Home", with similar music and lyrics, that had been sung as early as 1885, and "written" by Crawford O. "Bob" Swartz.
A letter with the music and lyrics was published in 1932 by Paull-Pioneer Music Corporation in the songbook "The Cowboy Sings - Songs of the Ranch and Range"




In Dodge City, Moanfeldt collected statements from former cowboys, stagecoach drivers, buffalo hunters, and others who agreed that the "Home on the Range" was well-known in the area before 1890.



And the 86-year-old Clarence B. "Cal" Harlan, living in Smith County, recalled singing the tune 60 years earlier in the Harlan Brothers Orchestra.  The Harlan Brothers Orchestra consisted of : Clarence, Marcus and Lulu Harlan and Lulu's husband Dan Kelley.
Clarence Harlan told Moanfeldt, that the lyrics of "Western Home" had been written by Brewster M. Higley and the music, shortly afterwards, by his brother-in-law Dan Kelley.
As a proof, Moanfeldt made a recording of Clarence Harlan and Mary Eulalia "Lulu" Harlan (Dan Kelley's widow) singing "Western Home". This, together with the testimony of 40 of their neighbors, convinced Moanfeldt, he had found the conclusive evidence.  After this the Goodwins' claim was rejected.


On top of that, almost 60 years earlier, the song had already been the subject of plagiarism.
According to the next link a poem with the lyrics of  "Western Home" was first published in the fall of 1873 in the Smith County Pioneer.


But the Smith County Pioneer newspaper lost all of that edition’s copies. The Kirwin Chief published them on March 21, 1874, in a now-lost edition.
 
On February 6, 1876, the Kirwin Chief published the lyrics again, under the headline “Plagiarism!”, in response to the February 3, 1876 edition of The Stockton News, who had published a poem "My Home In The West", purporting to have been written by Mrs. Emma Race, of Raceburgh in Rook County.
 

Here below a transcription of the article in the February 6, 1876 edition of the Kirwin Chief 

"PLAGIARISM"

The editor of the Stockton News has allowed himself to become the victim of an ambitious aspirant for political fame. In his issue of Febr 3rd, 1876 he publishes under the head of "My Home In the West" a poem, purporting to have been written by Mrs. Emma Race, of Raceburgh, Rooks County, Kansas. The poem in question, with the exception of two words, was written by Dr. B. Higley of Beaver Creek, Smith County, Kansas, and first published in the Kirwin Chief March, 21st, 1874.
We re-publish the article as written by Dr. Higley, and ask our readers to compare it with the stolen article from Raceburgh. 
Bro. Newell must look to his laurels, as he will find plenty of people who are willing to profit by the brain work of others.
 

Following is the poem as republished on The Kirwin Chief's front page on February 26, 1876. 
Note that Higley's words do not include the nowadays familiar phrase "home on the range".

Western Home

Oh! Give me a home where the buffalo roam
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where never is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not clouded all day

A home! A home!
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not clouded all day

Oh! Give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Throws its light from the glittering streams
Where glideth along the graceful white swan
Like the maid to her heavenly dreams

Oh! Give me a gale of the Solomon vale
Where the lifestreams with buoyancy flow
On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever
Any poisonous herbage doth grow

How often at night, when the heavens were bright
With the light of the twinkling stars
Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceed that of ours

I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours
I love the wild curlew's shrill screen
The bluffs and white rocks and antelope flocks
That graze on the mountain so green

The air is so pure and the breezes so free
The zephyrs so balmy and light
That I would not exchange my home here to range
Forever in azures so bright


The fascinating story of how a supposed folk song was tracked down to its lyricist, composer, date of composition and date of first publication is best described in Kirke Mechem, "Home on the Range," in the Kansas Historical Quarterly (Nov 1949).



Although 'Home on the Range" had been written around 1873, the song was not recorded until 1927.

(o) Vernon Dalhart (1927) (as "Home On The Range")
Vernon Dalhart, vocal and harmonica
acc. prob. Murray Kellner, fiddle; Carson Robison, guitar.
Recorded April 2, 1927 in New York
Released on Brunswick 137 and Supertone S 2009




(c) Jules Allen (1928) (as "Home On The Range")
Recorded April 24, 1928 in El Paso, TX
Released on Victor 21627
 




Or here:




(c) The Arkansas Woodchopper (=Luther W. Ossenbrink) (1929) (as "Home On The Range")
Recorded October 17, 1929 in Richmond, IND
Released on Gennett 7065 and on Supertone 9571
 


Listen here:





Another important person in spreading the success of "Home On The Range" was David Guion, who published his arrangement in 1930.
 

Within four months of publication in 1930, the Roxy Theatre featured Guion's "Home On The Range" in a cowboy production, with it's composer David W. Guion, appearing in person.




The Guion arrangement was recorded by John Charles Thomas for the Victor-label.

(c) John Charles Thomas (1931) (as "Home on the Range")
Recorded May 26, 1931 in New York
Released on Victor 1525
 



Or here:




Bing Crosby's version was a top 20 hit in the USA

(c) Bing Crosby (1933) (as "Home on the Range")
Recorded September 27, 1933 in Los Angeles, CA
Released on Brunswick 6663





Or here:




(c) Willy Derby (1938) (as "Werkende Handen")
Arrangement by Willem Ciere / Dutch lyrics by Ferry (van Delden)
Recorded December 1937 in Berlin
Released on Parlophone B 73016 and Odeon A 164488
 

Listen here:




(c) Tex Ritter (1938) (as "Home On The Range")
In the movie "Where The Buffalo Roam"

Here's the complete movie:




(c) Harry Brandelius (1938) (as "Hem")
Swedish lyrics by Sven Loke (=Sven-Olof Sandberg)
Recorded September 29, 1938 in Stockholm
Released December 1938 on His Master's Voice X.6140



Listen here:




In 1940 the uncredited King's Men sang "Home On The Range" in a cute cartoon of the same name.
Directed by Rudolf Ising.

(c) King's Men (1940) (as "Home On The Range")

Watch it here:




In 1980 Neil Young sang "Home On The Range" and a few variotions on this song, in the movie "Where The Buffalo Roam". 
The film was scored by Neil Young, who sings the opening theme, "Home on the Range" (from which the film derives its title), accompanied by a harmonica. Variations on "Home on the Range" are played by Young on electric guitar as "Ode to Wild Bill" and by an orchestra with arrangements by David Blumberg on "Buffalo Stomp".

(c) Neil Young (1980) (as "Home On The Range")


Listen here:




(c) John Denver & The Muppets (1983) (as "Home On The Range")


Listen here:





More versions here:






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maandag 7 februari 2022

Bahamian Lullaby (1956) / All My Trials (1957) / All My Sorrows (1957) / An American Trilogy (1971)


"All My Trials" was a folk song during the social protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on a Bahamian lullaby that tells the story of a mother on her death bed, comforting her children, 
Hush little baby, don't you cry./You know your mama's bound to die, because, as she explains, All my trials, Lord,/Soon be over.

This spiritual-lullaby probably originated in the antebellum South, from where it was transported to the West Indies. It appears to have died out in this country, only to be discovered in the Bahamas. From there it was reintroduced to us, eventually becoming one of the standards of the popular folk song movement.

Here are the lyrics of the first recorded version of "All My Trials" by Bob Gibson (1956)

Hush little baby, don't you cry
You know your mama is bound to die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

Too late, my brothers
Too late, but never mind
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

The Jordan river is chilly and cold
It chills the body, but it warms the soul
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

The tallest tree in Paradise
The Christians call it the Tree of Life
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

Too late, my brothers
Too late, but never mind
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

If religion was a thing that money could buy
Then the rich would live and the poor would die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

Too late, my brothers
Too late, but never mind
All my trials, Lord, soon be over


The first 2 lines are from song #580: "Hush, Little Baby", published in 1952 on page 629 of the Frank C. Brown Collection Volume 3. Collected ca 1927-1928 by Julian P. Boyd from Catherine Bennett, a pupil of the school of Alliance, Pamlico County, NC
 



Another verse The tallest tree in Paradise, The Christians call it the Tree of Life is also from a song published in the Frank C. Brown Collection Volume 3.
It's the song #644 "Tree In Paradise", especially the B-version on page 677 of this collection.
Collected ca 1927-1928 by Julian P. Boyd from B.D. Banks, a pupil of the school of Alliance, Pamlico County, NC
 



And then the verse: If religion was a thing that money could buy, then the rich would live and the poor would die
Lawrence Levine offers a transcription of a turn-of-the-century spiritual in Black Culture and Black Consciousness.

  Ef salvation was a thing money could buy, 
  Den de rich would live and de po' would die.
  But Ah'm so glad God fix it so,
  Dat de rich mus' die jes' as well as de po'!

In the same book Levine presented a 1916 version by Alabama blacks with an even more contemparary twist.

  If-a 'ligion wuz er thing that money could buy,
  The rich would live and the po' would die.
  I'm so glad things je' like dis,
  Dere's 'nother good chance for the po' coon yet.



And the verse Jordan river is chilly and cold. It will chill-a my body but not my soul
appeared before in 2 spirituals "Stand Still Jordan" and "Every Time I feel The Spirit"




The message, that no matter how bleak the situation seemed, the struggle would "soon be over", propelled the song to the status of an anthem in the 1950's and 1960's, recorded by many of the leading artists of the era.


(o) Bob Gibson (1956) (as "Bahamian Lullaby")

The first one in a row seems to be Bob Gibson, who recorded this traditional tune in April 1956 for his album "Offbeat Folksongs" (Riverside Records RLP 12-802).
 

He didn't use the familiar title "All My Trials" yet, his was titled "Bahamian Lullaby". 
In the Linernotes he says he "learned the arrangement from the singing of Erik Darling of New York".
 

SEE BACKSLEEVE HERE:  img (800×796)





Listen here:  -Bahamian-Lullabye.mp3

Or here: 




(c) Cynthia Gooding (1957) (as "All My Trials")

Cynthia Gooding was the first one to use the more familiar title "All My Trials", in 1957 on her album "Faithful Lovers and other Phenomena" (Elektra 107).
In the liner-notes Cynthia says:
"ALL MY TRIALS is supposed to be a white spiritual, that went to the British West Indies and returned with the lovely rhythm of the Islands to enhance its simple sentiments. There is a certain banality to the words which the music overcomes. I learned it from Erik Darling who is enchanted by it as are most singers, because of its rhythm, and in this case, because there is a chord he was always longing to use and which fits pefectly."

SEE LINERNOTES on the back of this album



Listen here:




(c) Glenn Yarbrough (1957) (as "All My Sorrows")

Glenn Yarbrough was the first one to give the song a love-song interpretation and re-titled it 
"All My Sorrows".


Listen here:




(c) Billy Faier (1958) (as "Bahaman Lullaby")
According to his own site he recorded "Bahaman Lullaby" in 1958 on the album: "Travelin' Man" (Riverside RLP 12-657).
In the liner-notes Billy says:
"I heard Erik Darling sing Bahaman Lullaby three or four times in the Spring of 1954. Two years later I thought of the song and spent the best of a month trying to remember it. The final result was quite different from Erik's version."

SEE LINERNOTES on the back of this album


SEE LINERNOTES on the back of this album







Erik Darling, who, according to Bob Gibson, Cythia Gooding and Billy Faier, introduced the song in the US, also recorded a version with his group, the Tarriers. 
The Tarriers' version (as "All My Trials") was recorded in 1956 or 1957, but not released at the time.
It was finally released in 2001, as an extra track on a re-recording of the first album of The Tarriers.


Listen here:




(c) Harry Belafonte (1958) (as "All My Trials")
Recorded in 1958 in New York and Hollywood.
Released in March 1959 on the next album


See ALSO:  Albums 49-59

Listen here:




Kingston Trio's Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds first came across "All My Trials" in a Los Angeles coffee house. 
Later they heard Glenn Yarbrough, who would become lead singer of The Limeliters, give it a love-song interpretation ("All My Sorrows"), and they kept that approach for their own adaptation in 1959.

(c) Kingston Trio (1959) (as "All My Sorrows")
Recorded February 17, 1959 in Capitol Recording Studio in New York City.
Released in April 1959 on the B-side of "M.T.A."



Listen here:




Not long after Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio was claimed by cancer, Lindsey Buckingham did a cover version of "All My Sorrows" for his 1992 album "Out Of The Cradle". Acknowledged as one of the geniuses of modern Rock, the former Fleetwood Mac member learned many a guitar lick from Kingston Trio records, and he considered Dave a good friend, as well as a mentor. Said Lindsey "I thought that would just be something nice for him."

(c) Lindsey Buckingham (1992) (as "All My Sorrows")


Listen here:




(c) Art and Paul (1960) (as "All My Trials")
Released February 1960 on the next album.


Listen here:




(c) Joan Baez (1960) (as "All My Trials")
Recorded July 1960 in New York City
Released on her debut albom


Here's a quote from that Joan Baez abum
This spiritual-lullaby probably originated in the antebellum South, from where it was transported to the West Indies. It appears to have died out in this country, only to be discovered in the Bahamas. From there it was reintroduced to us, eventually becoming one of the standards of the popular folk song movement.

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(c) Pete Seeger (1961) (as "All My Trials")
Released in 1961 on the album American Favorite Ballads vol 4.


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The Shadows recorded the song in 1961 (vocals by Jet Harris). 
They literally followed the Kingston Trio's version.

(c) Shadows (1961) (as "All My Sorows")


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(c) Anita Carter (1963) (as "All My Trials")
Recorded October 22, 1962 in Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, TN


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(c) Peter, Paul & Mary (1963) (as "All My Trials")
Released October 1963


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(c) Odetta (1963) (as "All My Trials") 
Released September 1063


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In February 1964, Dick and Dee Dee's "All My Trials" debuted at No. 89 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for three weeks.

(c) Dick and Dee Dee (1963) (as "All My Trials")


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In August 1971, Ray Stevens' "All My Trials" stayed on the Hot 100 for six weeks, peaking at No. 70 and stayed on the Easy Listening charts for eight weeks, peaking at No. 6

(c) Ray Stevens (1971) (as "All My Trials")


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In the 1960's Nick Drake (together with his sister Gabrielle) made a home recording of "All My Trials", which was released a few decades later on the album Family Tree.


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In 1971 Mickey Newbury interpolated "All My Trials" in "An American Trilogy", which is in fact a medley of "Dixie", "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "All My Trials". 
Newbury first recorded "An American Trilogy" for his 1971 album Frisco Mabel Joy.
The single taken from the album, reached No. 26 on the charts in 1972, and No. 9 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart.

(c) Mickey Newbury (1971) (as "An American Trilogy")
Recorded ca June 1971 in Nashville, TN


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Presley began singing "An American Trilogy" in concert in January 1972; a live recording made the following month was released as a single by RCA Records.
Elvis's version didn't equal the US chart success of Newbury's single, reaching No. 66 late in 1972 and peaking at No. 31 on the Easy Listening chart. Elvis's recording was more successful in the UK, where it reached No. 8.

(c) Elvis Presley (1972) (as "An American Trilogy")
Recorded February 16, 1972 live in Las Vegas Hilton. 


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In December 1990, Paul McCartney's live version of "All My Trials" debuted at No. 35 and spent six weeks on the UK Singles Chart.

(c) Paul McCartney (1990) (as "All My Trials")


Also included on the British "Highlights" version of the Tripping the Live Fantastic live album.


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More versions here:








Not to be confused with another traditional lullaby titled "Hush Little Baby" / "Mockingbird"


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