On July 16, 1930, two of the great forefathers of American music met in a Los Angeles recording studio. Louis Armstrong, the great jazz and blues man — and probably America’s greatest contributor to music, had been hired to back up the “Father of Country Music” Jimmie Rodgers on “Blue Yodel 9 (Standing on the Corner).”
History does not record how the two men came to record this song together. Armstrong and his wife Lillian, who played piano on the recording, had recently moved to California. Armstrong was signed to a different record company (Okeh) than where they were recording at Victor.
Some have guessed that the two legends must have somehow ran into each other, or that Rodgers proposed the meeting. On “Blue Yodel 9,” Rodgers included some lyrics he took from Nolan Walsh’s 1926 blues recording of “The Bridewell Blues.” And, in addition to the lyrics, Rodgers must have liked the trumpet accompaniment on Walsh’s song, played by Louis Armstrong.
Unfortunately, Armstrong did not get to sing, but he played his trumpet. Armstrong and Rodgers would never get to record together again, as Rodgers died from tuberculosis in 1933. But they made a great record, and there may have never been a greater teaming of two artists in American music history.
Although Rodgers and Armstrong never got to combine their vast talents again, Armstrong did later get the chance to return to “Blue Yodel 9” with another country music legend. In the fall of 1970, he appeared on Johnny Cash’s variety show on ABC. During the show, the two men performed the song.
At the time, Armstrong was not in good health (he would die on July 6, 1971). And his doctors had told him not to play his trumpet. But he did anyway, and this time he got to throw in some vocal riffs with Cash’s yodels. Not surprisingly, Armstrong got a standing ovation. It was awesome.
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