Brooks, Shelton: standards, 1909 to 1917

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page originally published on 3 May 2010; latest edit: 28 July 2020

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words and music by Shelton Brooks, except as noted:

You Ain’t Talking to Me (m. Shelton Brooks, w. Mat Marshall) — 1909
Some of These Days — 1910
All Night Long — 1912
I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone? — 1913
Walkin’ the Dog — 1916
Darktown Strutters’ Ball — 1917

other songs:

I Want to Shimmie (w.m. Shelton Brooks and Grant Clarke) – 1919

Hole in the Wall (Shelton Brooks)- 1939

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Shelton Brooks biographies:

• Jass.com
• Wikipedia
• AllMusic

In 1909, around the time Brooks began composing his own music, he wrote a song called “You Ain’t Talking to Me” with words by Mat Marshall. An early sheet music cover for “Some of These Days” mentions the earlier song. Charlie Poole and his North Carolina Ramblers recorded the song as “You Ain’t Talkin’ to Me” for Columbia on 25 July 1927, using only the last two of the five original verses. The song later became a country standard, especially popular among banjo-led bands. It is so closely associated with Poole that the song title was used in the title of a 2005 three disc box set of re-mastered original Poole recordings. The set was nominated for three Grammy awards. A 1936 copyright entry indicates a renewal of the copyright on 13 October 1936.

Links:

• Mudcat Cafe thread: You Ain’t Talkin’ to Me (Marshall/Brooks)
• 1909 sheet music
  • York Space Institutional Repository: all 6 pages (pdf), front cover
  • Indiana State University: 3 pages (music only) (pdf), front cover
    

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You Ain’t Talkin’ to Me (m. Shelton Brooks, w. Mat Marshall)

Eddie Morton — 1909

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Some of These Days (Shelton Brooks) — published in 1910

Friom Wikipedia:

“Some of These Days”became a signature song for Sophie Tucker, who made the first of her several recordings of it in 1911. Ted Lewis and his band backed Sophie Tucker on her classic, million-selling 1926 recording that stayed in the #1 position on the charts for five weeks beginning November 23, 1926, and re-affirmed her lasting association with the song.^[1]

The song has been recorded many other artists, including notable versions by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Bobby Darin, Sue Raney, Andrew Bird, Elkie Brooks, Judy Garland and Serena Ryder.

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The American Quartet with Billy Murray – 1911

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Sophie Tucker with Ted Lewis and his Band – 1926

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Sophie Tucker, accompanied by Ted Shapiro on piano and unknown other musicians — recorded on 2 September 1927

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Bing Crosby – 1932

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Django Reinhardt and the Quintette du Hot Club de France – recorded in September 1935

Django Reinhardt, Joseph Reinhardt, PierreFerret – guitar
Stephane Grappelly – violin
Louis Vola – bass

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Leon Redbone – on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Johnny mentions his current album, Sugar, which dates this appearance 1990 or ’91. The song is not on that album however. Accompanying Redbone is the esteemed jazz clarinetist Bobby Gordon.

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The Sant Andreu Jazz Band with Ignasi Terrassa, Pepe Robles and Sergi Vergés (band’s Youtube link: santandreujazzband) — recorded on 21 June 2009 at the Hotel Casa Fuster, Barcelona

excerpt from the description of an earlier video:

The SANT ANDREU JAZZ BAND is a dream come true. It is the result of sharing my passion for jazz with its members (most of whom are between 10 and 16 years old), of believing that they can do as well or better than me, of feeling like the most advanced student rather than the teacher, and of not putting limits on their abilities. Last year, the band performed various concerts in prestigious Catalan jazz festivals and clubs, and received very good reviews from the audiences. – Joan Chamorro

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The Sant Andreu Jazz Band — published on 14 January 2010

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All Night Long (Shelton Brooks) – published in 1912

Billy Murray and Ada Jones – 1913

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I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone? (Shelton Brooks) — written in 1913

Excerpts from the Wikipedia article, adapted:

I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone? is a ragtime/blues song written by Shelton Brooks in 1913. A response to the song was written in 1915 by W.C. Handy, “Yellow Dog Rag”, later retitled “Yellow Dog Blues”. Lines and melody from both songs show up in the 1920s and 30s in such songs as “E. Z. Rider”, “See See Rider”, “C. C. Rider”, and “Easy Rider Blues”.

“I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone?” was first popularized on the vaudeville stage by Sophie Tucker. It is most noted for its performance in a 1933 movie, She Done Him Wrong, in which Mae West sang it in a suggestive manner.

Mae West in She Done Him Wrong (1933)

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Walkin’ the Dog (Shelton Brooks)  was written for a revue called The Dancing Follies of 1916; the second video indicates that it was also used that year in the revue Vanity Fair which opened at the Palace Theatre, London on 6th November 1916.

The Six Brown Brothers – 1916

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Darktown Strutters’ Ball (Shelton Brooks) — published in 1916 — aka “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball”, “At the Darktown Strutters’ Ball”

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band – 1917

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The Six Brown Brothers — recorded as “At the Darktown Strutters’ Ball” — 1917

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Miff Mole’s Molers — issued 7 April 1927 on the 10-inch 78 rpm single OKeh 40784, as the B-side of “A Hot Time in the Old Town” — both sides recorded in New York, New York on 7 March 1927

personnel, according to the video provider:

Red Nichols, t / Miff Mole, tb / Jimmy Dorsey, cl, as / Arthur Schutt, p / Dick McDonough, bj, g / Joe Tarto, bb / Ray Bauduc, d

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Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra – 1949

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Alberta Hunter – from the album Amtrak Blues – 1978

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I Want to Shimmie (Shelton Brooks and Grant Clarke) – copyright 27, 28 January 1919

no recording yet found

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Hole in the Wall (Shelton Brooks) — performed by Shelton Brooks in the film Double Deal (1939)

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Adi Nobis’ Swinging Four play “Some of These Days” – 2009

Adi Nobis – Tenor-Saxophon, Rudolf “Pluto” Kemper – Guitar, Martin Gehrmann – Contrabass, Juri Artamonov – Piano — Recorded in Osnabrueck, Germany in 2009

DEUTSCH: Adi Nobis – Tenor-Saxofon, Rudolf “Pluto” Kemper – Gitarre, Martin Gehrmann – Kontrabass, Juri Artamonov – Piano

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