Bees Making Honey Down in Sunny Alabam' .

I've done a few posts on this blog about songs and music related to Alabama. Two such pieces on songs from the 19th and early 20th centuries can be found here and here. I've written an item on three pretty obscure albums by state musicians. I also wrote an extensive post on songs featuring Birmingham. I recently came across another relevant early 20th century song, so here we are. 

The title is a mouthful: "When the Bees Make Honey Down in Sunny Alabam'". You can read the lyrics below. The singer tells us he's anxious to go home not only to see his folks "who are like a pair of bees in a honey comb" but also to see his "honey lamb" on a Sunday afternoon and maybe buzz up a "honey moon". It's a lighthearted romantic tune with lots of wordplay related to bees and honey.

So who wrote this classic? 

Actually, three men very accomplished in their day were responsible. Two  collaborated on the lyrics, Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. Born in New York City, Lewis was a cafe singer who began writing in 1912. His other songs include "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" and "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody", which was introduced by Al Jolson in a Broadway musical. His songs were used in such recent films as The Pelican Brief [1993] and Big Fish [2003], which was based on the 1998 novel by Birmingham native Daniel Wallace. 

Co-lyricist Young was born in New York City. He was also a singer and entertained U.S. troops in World War I. In 1935 with Fred Ahlert he wrote his most famous tune, "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter." Young also wrote "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" and "Dancing with You."

Composer Walter Donaldson was born in Brooklyn. He also wrote music for such standards as "Makin' Whoopee", "My Blue Heaven" and "Yes Sir, That's My Baby."

The publishing company Waterson, Berlin and Snyder was founded in 1908 as the Ted Snyder Company. Partners Henry Waterson and Irving Berlin joined in 1917. By the 1920s the firm was one of the largest publishers of popular sheet music in the U.S.

I've come across two recordings of this song. The first was released by Columbia in 1919; the singers are Irving and Jack Kaufman. Jack was the older brother; he, Irving and Philip often sang together. Irving began his recording career in 1914. He sang in a vaudeville style, but even so recorded with such jazz greats as Bix Beiderbecke and the Dorsey Brothers. A link to the recording at the Internet Archive can be found below.

A more recent recording by Ian Whitcomb [1941-2020] from 2007 is available on Spotify. Whitcomb was an English actor, author and singer-songwriter who wrote several books on popular music, including the classic After the Ball [1972]. He stimulated a revival in the use of the ukulele, which he played in concerts, records and film scores. 

This sheet music is from my personal collection. 

This 1919 recording is available at the Internet Archive. 

WHEN THE BEES MAKE HONEY DOWN IN SUNNY ALABAM' (Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young / Walter Donaldson, 1919) I just feel like telling the world I'm happy and gay; I just feel like telling you why I'm feeling that way; This is just the time of the year when bees start to buzz, And I've got a bee in my bonnet, simply because: I will be the busiest bee that you ever knew; Sipping honey all thro' the day that's just what I'll do; When the bees are buzzin' away near some Rosemary, How I love to bumble around just take it from me. When the bees make honey down in sunny Alabam', That's when I said, I'd be sending a telegram; Down to honey suckled home, Where my folks live all alone; They're like a pair of honey bees, In a honey comb. I'm gonna make a beeline straight for home, That's where I am, And I've a plan to buzz around with my honey lamb; Some Sunday afternoon, If I don't get stung, there'll be a honey moon, When the bees make honey, down in sunny, Oh! you Alabam.

Source: International Lyrics Playground

Joe Young [1889-1939] in 1919

Source: Wikipedia

Sam M. Lewis [1885-1959] in 1919

Source: Wikipedia

Walter Donaldson [1893-1947] in 1919

Source: Wikipedia

Alabama on the Rolling Stone "500 Greatest Songs" List

Rolling Stone magazine recently released a list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time": "For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics." Let's see how Alabama artists and other state connections fared on this list. 

At number 350 is John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery". The song describes a woman in that city who is very unhappy with her life. Prine has said he probably used Montgomery because of its ties to Hank Williams. You can read the lyrics here. The song has been recorded by numerous artists including John Denver, Bonnie Raitt, Tonya Tucker and the Dave Matthews Band. 

Raitt and Prine sing the tune in 2019

Source: Rolling Stone

Number 318 is "Hound Dog" as recorded by Big Mama Thornton in Los Angeles on 
August 13, 1952. Released in February 1953, her version sold over 500,000 copies. Of
course, Elvis recorded the song in July 1956 and that version sold over 10 million copies 
worldwide and was his best-selling single. More than 250 other artists have also recorded the
tune over the years. Thornton did not write "Hound Dog", but she did write another
classic, "Ball and Chain". Thornton was born in Ariton, Alabama, on December 11, 1926
and died July 25, 1984.

Numbers 130 "Dancing in the Streets" and 257 "Heatwave" were both recorded by
Martha and the Vandellas, one of the signature Motown girl groups in the 1960's. Lead 
singer Martha Reeves was born in Eufaula, Alabama, on July 18, 1941. 

Rosaland Ashford, Martha Reeves, and Betty Kelley in 1965 

          Source: Wikipedia

Of course, Hank Williams has a couple of songs on the list, number 165 "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and number 237, "You're Cheatin' Heart". Despite his brief life, Williams wrote and recorded numerous songs and has had a tremendous influence on both modern country music and popular music more broadly as well. 
He's credited with helping to transform "hillbilly" music into country music and along with Woodie Guthrie was an early prototype of the singer-songwriter so prevalent from the 1960's until today. 

Hank Williams and his guitar on a Montgomery street in 1938

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour" is number 218 on the list. The song was recorded at Stax Studios in Memphis on May 12, 1965. He and Steve Cropper--guitarist for Booker T and the MGs and numerous others--wrote the song at the Lorraine Hotel, where Martin Luther King would later be assassinated. Pickett was born March 18, 1941, in Prattville on the farm of his sharecropper parents; he had ten siblings. He died January 19, 2006; Little Richard delivered the eulogy. 

Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues" appeared on the group's 1977 album Aja and is number 217 on the Rolling Stone list. You can read the lyrics here. The chorus goes

I'll learn to work the saxophone
I'll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

The sentence "They call Alabama the Crimson Tide" has been explained by Donald Fagen, who along with Walter Becker made up Steely Dan. “If a college football team like the University of Alabama could have a grandiose name like the Crimson Tide, the nerds and losers should be entitled to a grandiose name as well.” That name "Deacon Blues" was suggested by the name of football player Deacon Jones. 

This Alabama connection reminds me of other minor ones that have popped up from time to time in popular culture, like Groucho Mark's joke about Tuscaloosa and the reference to an Auburn football game in that great elevator scene with Frank Sinatra and Angie Dickinson in the original Ocean's 11 film.

Source: Wikipedia

At least one song I found was recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. "Wild Horses" was written by guitarist Keith Richards about his wife and new son as he prepared to leave with the band for an American tour. Number 193 on the list, it was recorded December 2-4, 1969, at the Alabama studio. 

I've always liked the Stones version, but I like the cover version by the British group The Sundays even better. The vocals by Harriet Wheeler really bring out the longing at the heart of the song.

Source: Discogs

Now we come to another pair of entries, both by one of the masters of classic rock and roll, Little Richard. "Good Golly Miss Molly" is number 92 and "Tutti Fruitti" is number 35. Recorded in 1956 and 1955 respectively, these two songs sent loud waves of sexual energy into popular music. 

In 1957 Little Richard--real name Richard Penniman--left secular music and enrolled in Huntsville's Oakwood College to study theology. By 1962 he had returned to popular music and continued to perform and record until his death on
May 9, 2020. He is buried in Oakwood University's Memorial Gardens Cemetery. 

Little Richard in 2007

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Discogs.com

Source: al.com

Reaching the number 1 song on the list, "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, and what do we find? Why, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, of course!

In early 1967 Franklin had left Columbia Records for Atlantic, and recorded one song in Muscle Shoals, "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Loved You)" and it was a hit. Producer Jerry Wexler brought the Swampers as the musicians were known then to New York City, and on February 14 Franklin recorded a cover of the Otis Redding song, "Respect". Several other songs were also recorded that day, but "Respect" would become Franklin's signature tune. 

Source: Discogs.com

Bing Crosby Sings Alabama--Twice

Bing Crosby [1903-1977] was one of the most popular singers, recording artists, and radio, film and television stars for several decades in the twentieth century. He was born in Tacoma, Washington, and by 1923 was singing with a group of high school students at dances, clubs and on the radio in the Spokane area. In the early 1930's he found some success in California and New York with various orchestras and did his earliest solo recordings and radio work.

By the time he died in October 1977 Crosby's achievements were legendary. Over 1 billion records, tapes, CD's and downloads of his songs and albums have been sold. In 1944 he won the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as a priest in Going My Way. The next year he was nominated for the same award for The Bells of St. Mary's, becoming the first of only six actors nominated twice for playing the same character. 

In 1963 he was the first winner of a Grammy Global Achievement Award. He is one of only 33 people who have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame--motion picture acting and radio and music recording. Crosby was among the earliest to adopt reel-to-reel recording technology so he could pre-record his radio shows. He was also instrumental in the early development of videotape.

One of the final recordings Crosby released before his death was A Southern Memoir in 1975. The work is what we would call a "passion project"; Crosby recorded it at TTG Studios in Los Angeles at his own expense. Jazz pianist Paul Smith, with whom Crosby had worked before, and his Orchestra provided the music. The album had twelve tracks; seven more mostly alternate takes appeared on a 2010 CD issue. The album was the first recording Crosby made after a large abscess and a portion of his left lung had been removed in January 1974.

The Wikipedia entry on the album includes this quote about the songs:

"Record producer, Ken Barnes, wrote: "This collection of “Southern-cum-mammy” type songs was a pet project of Bing’s and his affection for the material reveals itself time and again throughout each of the twelve songs. The small-band backings arranged by pianist-conductor Paul Smith are beautifully written and very well played. Bing sings with greater spirit and drive than on his album with Basie and some of the tracks, notably “Carolina in the Morning,” “Swanee,” and “Sailing Down the Chesapeake Bay” stand comparison with some of his best-ever up-tempo performances."

The quote is taken from Barnes 1980 book, The Crosby Years.

Two of the songs on side one of the album are Alabama-related. "Alabamy Bound" is second on that side and is a 1924 piece with music written by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy DeSylva and Bud Green. I've written more about the history of the song and a 1941 recorded performance by Jackie Green and the Five Spirits of Rhythm in a blog post here.

The fourth song on side one of Crosby's album is the classic "Stars Fell on Alabama." Written in 1934, the composer was Frank Perkins and the lyricist was Mitchell Parish. Perkins was a native of Salem, Massachusetts, who wrote music for a number of songs as well as film and television. Parish had changed his name from Michael Hyman Pashelinsky that he was born with in Lithuania. He came to the U.S. as a young child with his parents and briefly lived with relatives in Louisiana before the family moved to New York City.  I leave it to readers to sort out the ironies in all of this background.

Parish apparently took the title of his song from a 1934 book of the same title by Carl Carmer. Carmer came to Alabama in 1927 from New York and spent six years on the faculty at the University in Tuscaloosa. His book has chapters devoted to various aspects of the state's history and culture. One of those describes the spectacular Leonid meteor shower seen in Alabama in November 1833.

As I noted in the blog post linked above, "Alabamy Bound" has been recorded by a number of artists and so has "Stars Fell on Alabama". Singers ranging from Billie Holliday to Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Jimmy Buffett have performed it. Unlike "Alabamy Bound" and many other Tin Pan Alley songs referencing the state, "Stars" is tied to an actual event in the state's history. 

Bing Crosby ca. 1946

Source: Bing Crosby's Photos

The cover of A Southern Memoir

Source: Wikipedia

Jackie Green & the Five Spirits of Rhythm, "Alabamy Bound"

I recently ran across a soundie with an Alabama connection. 

What's a "soundie", you ask? Well, according to Wikipedia, soundies were  "three-minute American musical 16mm films, produced in New York City, Chicago, and Hollywood, between 1940 and 1946, each containing a song, dance and/or band or orchestral number." They were shot live and distributed around the country for showings on coin-operated film jukeboxes in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, factory employee lounges and similar spaces. In other words, they were an early form of what we call music videos. A similar performance technology, telescriptions, was used from 1950 until 1952.

The soundie I have in mind is a 1941 recording of "Alabamy Bound", which features the 1924 Tin Pan Alley song by that title. Music for the tune was written by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy DeSylva and Bud Green. All three of those men were highly successful in popular music for decades beyond their collaboration on "Alabamy Bound."

Their song was first recorded in 1924 by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. Since then numerous other groups and individuals have put their spin on it. Some surprising singers include Dean Martin and Bobby Darin. Bing Crosby recorded it twice, first in 1957 and again in 1975 on his album A Southern Memoir that also includes "Stars Fell on Alabama". Al Jolson and Ray Charles also recorded it. The song appears in various films, as noted in the Wikipedia entry, including Woody Allen's 1985 The Purple Rose of Cairo, where it's sung by actor Jeff Daniels. 

Most relevant to our "soundie" is another popular performer of the 20th century, singer, actor, comedian, etc., Eddie Cantor. The singer in the soundie is a Cantor impersonator named Jackie Greene. Cantor himself performed the song a cappella in the 1944 film Show Business. 

Beyond his appearance in this film, I've been able to learn almost nothing about Greene. He did appear as Eddie Cantor in the Broadway musical "You'll See Stars." The show lasted 5 days, December 29, 1942 through January 2, 1943 at Maxine Elliott's Theatre in New York City. The show was essentially a gimmick revue in which other actors played performing stars of the day such as George Jessel, the Marx Brothers, Cantor, etc. 

The 1941 soundie opens aboard the Santa Fe Special train. Greene begins the song in the lounge car among various passengers appreciatively tapping along. Then the instrumental break features a long sequence in which four of the Five Spirits of Rhythm do not sing but perform stereotypical bits as train porters shining shoes. Then another lengthy scene features four young women in a sleeping car showing off their long, bare legs. The short film ends with Greene singing and surrounded by all Five Spirits of Rhythm.

The Spirits of Rhythm was a jazz string band active for about a decade beginning in the early 1930's. The number of members varied, but the five in this soundie are playing on the soundtrack. Unfortunately, we do not get to see them play. Guitarist Teddy Bunn was a member at this time.

This soundie was produced by Sam Coslaw and directed by Dudley Murphy. The two men were both active in the film industry for several decades. Coslaw was also a well-known singer and songwriter in the early years of his career. 

You can find videos of "Alabamy Bound" performed by an incredible number of musical artists here. And don't let those heebie jeebies be hangin' round!

Sleeping berths aboard the train are mentioned in the song's lyrics and are thus perfect spots for several shots of bare female legs. 

The real Eddie Cantor [1892-1964]

Source: Wikipedia

Alabamy Bound

I'm Alabamy bound
There'll be no Heebie Jeebies hangin' 'round
Just gave the meanest ticket man on earth
All I'm worth, to put my tootsies in an upper berth
Just hear that choo choo sound
I know that soon I'm gonna cover ground
I'm gonna holler, so the world will know
Here I go, I'm Alabamy bound

Just hear that choo choo sound
I know that soon I'm gonna cover ground
I'm gonna holler, so the world will know
Here I go, I'm Alabamy bound
I'm Alabamy bound

Source: LyricWiki 

The 1835 "Alabama Waltz"

A standard feature of this blog has been postings about nineteenth and early 20th century songs with some Alabama connection. One example can be found here. I recently ran across the earliest song I've located so far, and here's what little I know about it.

I came across this 1835 composition by Wilhelm Iucho on the Hathi Trust digital site. The piece was published in New York City by William A. Pond & Company at 547 Broadway. After some research I've been able to find only a bit more information about Iucho and nothing about Pond.


One of the few references to Iucho I've found appeared on a web page about Kentucky politician Henry Clay and his wife Lucretia. In her journal Lucretia's great-granddaughter wrote, "Two time-stained pieces of music, The Lexington Grand Waltz and The Ashland Quadrilles, dedicated to Mrs. Henry Clay by Professor Wilhelm Iucho, are tributes to her musical ability." 

The title "Professor" may have been earned or one Iucho bestowed upon himself to upgrade his teaching status to potential patrons or employers. Via Ancestry.com I did find him listed as Professor of Music at the Brooklyn Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies in their 1830 catalog. 

Also via Ancestry I found a marriage notice for Iucho. "In Brooklyn, on Tuesday evening, July 26th, by the Rev. Mr. Milnor of New York, Mr. Wilhelm Iucho of Hucho to Miss Julia Ann Baldwin, daughter of the Rev. Isaac Van Doren, all of Brooklyn." The year was 1831. The Rev. Isaac Van Doren was one of the principals of the Brooklyn Collegiate Institute.

"Alabama Waltz" is dedicated to "Miss  Harriet M.(?) Turner from Huntsville, Alabama". I have been unable to find anything about her. I wonder if Iucho met all these ladies in New York.

See below for two examples of other pieces composed by Iucho and dedicated to single women.

Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections

A couple of Iucho's other compositions are below; I found them here. He seems to have dedicated his works to the ladies, often single ones. Perhaps Miss Griffith had family connections with Scotland. "Come Where the Violets Blow," a "Duet for Two Voices" is composed and arranged for a married couple but dedicated to a pair of single ladies. Iucho got a good bit of mileage out of that tune.