From Wikipedia:

The Midnight Special

“Midnight Special” is a traditional folk song thought to have originated among prisoners in the American South. The title comes from the refrain which refers to the Midnight Special and its “ever-loving light” (sometimes “ever-living light”).

Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me,
Let the Midnight Special shine her ever-loving light on me. (Traditional)

The song is historically performed in the country-blues style from the viewpoint of the prisoner. The song has been covered by many different artists.

Lyrics appearing in the song were first recorded in print by Howard Odum in 1905.

Get up in the mornin’ when ding dong rings,
Look at table—see the same damn thing.

The first printed reference to the song itself was in a 1923 issue of Adventure magazine, a three-times-a-month pulp magazine published by the Ridgway Company. In 1927 Carl Sandburg published two different versions of “Midnight Special” in his The American Songbag, the first published versions.

The song was first commercially recorded on the OKeh label in 1926 as “Pistol Pete’s Midnight Special” by Dave “Pistol Pete” Cutrell (a member of McGinty’s Oklahoma Cow Boy Band). Cutrell follows the traditional song except for semi-comedic stanzas about McGinty and Gray and “a cowboy band”.

Now, Mister McGinty is a good man,
But he’s run away now with a cowboy band.

Refrain

Now Otto Gray, he’s a Stillwater man,
But he’s manager now of a cowboy band.

Refrain

In March 1929, the band, now Otto Gray and the Oklahoma Cowboys, recorded the song again, this time with the traditional title using only the traditional lyrics.

Sam Collins recorded the song commercially in 1927 under the title “The Midnight Special Blues” for Gennett Records. His version also follows the traditional style. His is the first to name the woman in the story, Little Nora, and he refers to the Midnight Special’s “ever-living” light.

Yonder come a Little Nora. How in the world do you know?
I know by the apron and the dress she wears.

In 1934 Huddie William “Lead Belly” Ledbetter recorded a version of the song at Angola Prison for John and Alan Lomax, who mistakenly attributed it to him as the author. However, Ledbetter, instead, for his Angola session, appears to have inserted several stanzas relating to a 1923 Houston jailbreak into the traditional song. Ledbetter recorded at least three versions of the song, one with the Golden Gate Quartet, a slick gospel group (recorded for RCA at Victor Studio #2, New York City, June 15, 1940).

John and Alan Lomax, in their book, Best Loved American Folk Songs, told a credulous story identifying the Midnight Special as a train from Houston shining its light into a cell in the Sugar Land Prison. They also describe Ledbetter’s version as “the Negro jailbird’s ballad to match Hard Times Poor Boy. Like so many American folk songs, its hero is not a man but a train.” The light of the train is seen as the light of salvation, the train which could take them away from the prison walls. It is highly reminiscent of the imagery of such gospel songs as Let the Light from your Lighthouse Shine on Me. Carl Sandburg had a different view. He believed the subject of the song would rather be run over by a train than spend more time in jail.

The song, as popularized by Ledbetter, has many parallel lines to other prison songs. It is essentially the same song as “De Funiac Blues,” sung and played by Burruss Johnson and recorded by John Lomax at the Raiford State Penitentiary in Florida on 2 June 1939. Many of the lines appear in prison work songs such as “Jumpin Judy,” “Ain’t That Berta,” “Oh Berta” and “Yon’ Comes de Sargent.” These songs, including Ledbetter’s “Midnight Special.” are composite. They mix standard prison song verses indiscriminately. Many of these component pieces have become canonized in the blues idiom and appear in mutated forms regularly in blues lyrics.

Although later versions place the locale of the song near Houston, early versions such as Walk Right In Belmont (Wilmer Watts; Frank Wilson, 1927) and North Carolina Blues (Roy Martin, 1930)—both essentially the same song as Midnight Special—place it in North Carolina. Most of the early versions, however, have no particular location. Only one recording, collected by the Lomaxes at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, actually identifies the railroad operating the Midnight Special— the Illinois Central which had a route through Mississippi.

SAM COLLINS (1927)

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BIG BILL BROONZY (1935)

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LEAD BELLY (1940)

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SONNY TERRY & BROWNIE MCGHEE (1941)

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LONNIE DONEGAN (1958)

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HARRY BELAFONTE (1962)

(with Bob Dylan on harmonica in his first studio recording experience)

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JOHNNY RIVERS (1965)

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CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL (1969)

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PAUL MCCARTNEY (1988)

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Estelle "Mama" Yancey

Estelle “Mama” Yancey (January 1, 1896–April 19, 1986) was an American blues vocalist. She was nominated four times for the Blues Foundation: Blues Music Awards, “Traditional Blues Female Artist.”

Yancey, born Estella Harris in Cairo, Illinois, grew up in Chicago, where she sang in church choirs and learned how to play the guitar. In 1917, when she was 21, she married Jimmy Yancey, who had traveled the U.S. and Europe as a vaudeville dancer. She often sang with him at informal get-togethers and house parties in the 1930s and 1940s and performed with him at Carnegie Hall, New York in 1948. Because Jimmy Yancey was a great boogie-woogie/blues piano player, Estelle recorded frequently with her husband. In 1943, the Yanceys recorded for Session Records, and went back into the studio to record the album Pure Blues for Atlantic Records. The session was just a few months before Jimmy Yancey’s death that same year.

Estelle Yancey's album, "Maybe I'll Cry"

Estelle continued to perform and record. One of the best examples of her soulful, expressive vocals can be found on an album for Atlantic Records, Jimmy and Mama Yancey: Chicago Piano, Vol. 1. (1952). Songs include “Lady Bump,” “Devil Eyes,” “Wizard Bump,” “A-B-C of Love,” “1-2-3-4…Fire!,” “Big Bad Boy,” “Baby Doll,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “I’m Knocking (At Your Door).”

Mama Yancey’s recordings with other pianists include “South Side Blues” for the Riverside label (1961), some records with Art Hodes for Verve Records in 1965, and Maybe I’ll Cry with Erwin Helfer for the Red Beans label in 1983, recorded at age 87.

Estelle Yancey died April 19, 1986 in Chicago, Illinois.

PALLET ON THE FLOOR

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EZEE RIDER

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MAMA YANCEY AND LITTLE BROTHER MONTGOMERY REMINISCING (1982)

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Ray Smith

Ray Smith (October 30, 1934 – November 29, 1979) was an American rockabilly musician.

Smith recorded for Vee-Jay Records, Tollie Records, Smash Records, and Sun Records during his career, and had a hit with the song “Rockin’ Little Angel” in 1960 on Judd Records. “Rockin’ Little Angel” took its tune from the 1844 song “Buffalo Gals”. The record sold over one million copies, earning a gold disc. He often recorded material written by Charlie Rich, and was heavily influenced by Elvis Presley.

Smith committed suicide on November 29, 1979, at age 45.

ROCKIN’ LITTLE ANGEL

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SHAKE AROUND

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RIGHT BEHIND YOU BABY

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I WON’T MISS YOU (TILL YOU GO)

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ONE WONDERFUL LOVE

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I GUESS I BETTER MOVE ALONG

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THAT’S ALL RIGHT

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• On this date in 1886, the Folies Bergère staged its first revue
  
• On this date in 1924, Comedy Writer and song parodist, Allan Sherman was born
  
• On this date in 1929, the former host of American Bandstand, Dick Clark was born
  
• On this date in 1945, British Bassist, Roger Glover of Deep Purple was born
  
• On this date in 1953, American Singer, June Pointer of The Pointer Sisters was born
  
• On this date in 1955, British Singer, Billy Idol, formerly of the band Generation X was born
  
• On this date n 1959, American Singer, Cherie Currie of The Runaways was born
  
• On this date in 1996, American Ukulele Player and Entertainer, Tiny Tim died
  
• On this date in 1999, American Jazz Guitarist, Charlie Byrd died
  
• On this date in 2000, Canadian Bassist, Scott Smith of Loverboy died

Viola McCoy

Viola McCoy (ca. 1900 – ca. 1956) was an African-American blues singer who performed in the classic female blues style during a career that lasted from the early 1920s to the late 1930s.

Her birth name may have been Amanda Brown (a name under which she sometimes recorded). She is believed to have been born in Mississippi, although a press release of 1924 claims she was from Memphis, Tennessee. In the early 1920s, she moved to New York City, where she worked in cabarets and appeared in revues at the Lincoln and Lafayette Theaters. She toured the Theater Owners Bookers Association vaudeville circuit, and made numerous recordings between 1923–1929 for various labels including Gennett, Vocalion, and Columbia Records.

On her recordings from 1923 her most frequent accompanist was pianist Porter Grainger; later accompanists included Fletcher Henderson, Louis Hooper, and Bob Fuller, among others. A few of her recordings are enlivened by kazoo solos performed by McCoy.

Viola McCoy

In 1927, she briefly owned and performed in Jack’s Cabaret in New York City. By 1930 she owned and operated a nightclub in Saratoga, New York. In 1938, she settled in Albany, New York, and was mostly inactive in music during the remainder of her life. Viola McCoy is thought to have died in Albany, New York, circa 1956.

Author Derrick Stewart-Baxter wrote of McCoy: “She belongs to the great vaudeville tradition, but in all she does there is a strong jazz strain … Possessing a lovely contralto voice and fine diction, she was able to project herself through even the worst recording … It would be true to say that in the three years she was recording most prolifically she hardly ever made a bad record”.

McCoy recorded songs under various pseudonyms, including Amanda Brown (Columbia, Perfect and Pathe labels), Daisy Cliff (Guardsman label), Clara White or Bessie Williams (Oriole and Domino labels), Gladys White (Variety label), Fannie Johnson (Cameo) and Susan Williams (Lincoln label).

IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR DADDY HOME

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SHAKE THAT THING

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• On this date in 1877, Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph for the first time

• On this date in 1894, American Singer, Lucille Hegamin was born
  

• On this date in 1895, American Stage and Film Musical Pioneer, Busby Berkeley was born

• On this date in 1915, American Musician and Composer, Billy Strayhorn was born
  

• On this date in 1917, American Country Musician, Merle Travis was born
  

• On this date in 1933, British Musician, John Mayall was born
  

• On this date in 1940, Canadian Singer, Denny Doherty of The Mamas and the Papas was born
  

• On this date in 1940, American Musician, Chuck Mangione was born
  

• On this date in 1944, American Musician, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals was born
  

• On this date in 1947, American Guitarist, Ronnie Montrose was born

• On this date in 1958, British Musician, Michael Dempsey of The Cure was born
  

• On this date in 2001, British Musician, George Harrison of The Beatles died