The Historical Timeline of Stagger Lee
1921 - 1930
Important Events in the Stagger Lee Story
1923 The first two recordings of the song as Stack O'Lee Blues are both instrumentals! Both versions credit Ray Lopez as writer. Lopez was an American jazz cornetist, trumpeter and songwriter born in 1889, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians record theirs on 16th of October. Released 14th December.
Frank Westphal & His Regal Novelty Orchestra record it as a jazz instrumental on the 18th of October in Chicago.
1925 Ma Rainey & her Georgia Band (including Louis Armstrong on Cornet).
1926 First Hawaiian version by Sol Ho’opi’i. Hawaiian versions are uniformly instrumental.
In 1916, 78 rpm records featuring an indigenous Hawaiian instrument outsold every other genre of music in the United States. Hawaiian music in that period has been described as like Beatlemania. Hawaiian slack key guitarists travelled in vaudeville acts alongside African American blues guitarists. It is probable that the open tunings used in Blues guitar come directly from the Hawaiian and Blues guitarists hanging out together on these vaudeville tours.
1927 The recording by Long "Cleeve" Reed & "Little" Harvey Hull of "Original Stack O’Lee Blues" will go on to become one of the most valuable record to collectors. There is only one known copy in existence. The owner, Joe Bussard, was offered $50,000 and he laughed it off with no intention of ever selling. He wants to be buried with it.
Stag Lee was a bully, he bullied all his life.
Well he bullied to Chicago town with a ten cent pocket knife.
1927 Duke Ellington records "Stack O’Lee Blues. He and his band became a permanent fixture at the Cotton Club and made weekly broadcasts from there on radio station WHN. We don’t yet know if "Stack O’Lee Blues" was included in a broadcast.
1927 Frank Hutchison records "Stack a Lee" . He is remembered as the first white man to record the blues. Bob Dylan would cover this song in 1993 on his album World Gone Wrong.
1928 Mississippi John Hurt records his original version. Rumor has it that there were verses Hurt regularly sang but did not record as they were "unsuitable" for general release. In ’63, after Hurt’s rediscovery, he adds a lengthy introduction describing a robbery by Stagolee and Jesse James of a card game in a coal mine. He insists that Stagolee was a white man. Beck covers Hurt's 1928 version in 2001.
1928
Gambling's good when you're winning. Gambling's bad when you lose. But a new gambling story is always good to hear. In "Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee" Furry Lewis, popular Vocalion blues star, tells us a story of two gamblers you won't want to miss. On the other side, he sings and plays "Good Lookin' Girl Blues," a mighty good number, too. Be sure to listen to this record today!
"Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee" by Furry Lewis as advertised in The Chicago Defender April 21, 1928.