Liner Notes

Birth of the Sugar Blues

What? Yet another trumpet player in my dad’s collection I haven’t introduced you to yet? But of course.

Clyde McCoy is not nearly as well known as the myriad of other horn players I’ve shown off, but he recorded a lot of music from 1917 through 1985.

His 1931 version of a song written nine years earlier set off a mini craze within jazz and set his career on fire.

So get ready to hear a trumpet played in such a style that it inspired a popular electronic tool for guitar players used still to this day in Volume 234: Sugar Blues.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

You can check out the video version here or on YouTube:

Go Directly to Any Song or Break on YouTube:

00:00 – Season’s Show Intro
00:49 – Episode Introduction
01:49 – Sugar Blues
04:52 – First Break: Why I chose this record for this episode
05:52 – Honeysuckle Rose
08:33 – Second Break: More information about the record, its marketplace value and what condition my dad’s vinyl is in.
11:54 – Beale Street Blues
14:35 – Third Break: What are the Sugar Blues?
17:12 – Swamp Fire
19:37 – Fourth Break: Artist Bio
22:17 – Farewell Blues
24:38 – Fifth Break: this episode’s Interesting Side Note.
27:07 – Deep In A Dream
29:40 – Sixth Break: Final Words
31:24 – Ridin’ To Glory On A Trumpet
33:45 – Close

Credits and Copyrights:

See information from the Discogs.com page here

Clyde McCoy – The Golden Era Of The Sugar Blues
Label: Design Records – DLP 28
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono
Released: 1957
Genre: Jazz
Style: Big Band

We will hear 7 of the 12 songs on this album.

Sugar Blues
written by Clarence Williams and Lucy Fletcher
Recorded in 1931

Honeysuckle Rose
written by Andy Razaf and Fats Waller
Recorded January 22, 1931

Beale Street Blues
written by W.C. Handy
Recorded 10/14/1935

Swamp Fire
written by Hal Mooney
Recorded sometime in 1936

Farewell Blues
written by Elmer Schoebel, Paul Mares, and Leon Roppolo
Recorded 7/5/1935

Deep In A Dream
written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Eddie DeLange
It was recorded maybe in 1938 or 1939.

Ridin’ To Glory On A Trumpet
written by Clyde McCoy
Recorded 3/24/1936

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

#clydemccoy #sugarblues #dixielandmusic #trumpetsrule #musichistory #musicalmemories #vinylcollecting #vinylrecords

Here is the Episode Script!

Thanks sweetie and thank YOU for tuning into episode 234 of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl.

What? Yet another trumpet player in my dad’s collection I haven’t introduced you to yet? But of course.

Clyde McCoy is not nearly as well known as the myriad of other horn players I’ve shown off, but he recorded a lot of music from 1917 through 1985.

His 1931 version of a song written nine years earlier set off a mini craze within jazz and set his career on fire.

So get ready to hear a trumpet played in such a style that it inspired a popular electronic tool for guitar players used still to this day in Volume 234: Sugar Blues.

[Music: Sugar Blues]

Clyde McCoy and his orchestra with
Sugar Blues
written by Clarence Williams and Lucy Fletcher
Recorded in 1931

Ok…Why this record for this episode?

Well, it was one of those albums that just kept looking back at me. I’ll explain more when we get to describing the cover. So I thought it was time to give this record a spin to hear what was on it.

I immediately recognized many of the songs, but not the musician nor the style that has been dubbed sugar blues.

I’ll go more into that subject later.

Once again, it’s the happy go lucky fun music I was used to hearing around the house while growing up. Most of the songs were written by jazz legends, but the style belongs to McCoy.

Up next a song co-written by a legendary piano player.

[Music: Honeysuckle Rose]

Honeysuckle Rose
written by Andy Razaf and Fats Waller
January 22, 1931

Now let me tell you about my dad’s vinyl I am spinning for this episode.

Clyde McCoy – The Golden Era Of The Sugar Blues
Label: Design Records – DLP 28
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono
Released: 1957
Genre: Jazz
Style: Big Band

We will hear 7 of the 12 songs on this album.

There are quite a few liner notes, so I’ll only read a few.

I’m not sure who wrote these, but they come from his perspective.

Here is another in Designs Great series of collectors albums. We are proud to present the greatest name in trumpet dumb, the absolute king, Clyde mccoy. no one song featuring The Trumpet has ever approached the popularity of Clyde’s great all-time favorite the sugar blues. It gives a fella a scare when he realizes that this number which is still popular today and still sounds as modern as a pop tune could have been written in the year of his birth.. but that’s when Lucy Fletcher and Clarence Williams sat down and wrote it. all the way back in 1923. Clyde, who was 20 years old at the time had no idea that this tune was to make him one of the most popular and sought after artists in america. one of the secrets of Clyde’s success in the music field is his determination to play completely danceable music. Like Guy Lombardo and Lawrence Welk, he always arranged to keep the melody out front where the dancers and listeners could hear it, understand it and enjoy it.

Let’s see what prices this record is being sold at on discogs dot com.

$4.99 High
$0.12 Low

$1.84 Average
$1.25 Median

Last sold on Mar 01, 2024 for that low of 10 pence.
My dad’s record is in fair condition. Not too much hiss or popping. It’s pretty clean between the tracks.

The surface is also in fair condition. Just some usual markings from the usual playing of the record.

The cover is in poor condition. It’s kind of dirty and there’s a large slit along the top. There’s a green magic marker streak and the word Posted stamped on the back.

This is really an old album that he just might have bought right when it was released because he has three address labels stacked on top of each other. I can’t see it, but from what I’ve seen on previous album covers, the bottom label is most likely from the house I was born in. We moved out of that house in 1964.

So I will value my dad’s vinyl at 75 cents.

Next up, Clyde really goes crazy with the sugar on this one.

[Music: Beale Street Blues]

Beale Street Blues
written by W.C. Handy
10/14/1935

So…how did this style of music come about?

Let’s take a trip back to the early days of jazz, where a tune called “Sugar Blues” became a sensation and even inspired a distinctive sound within the genre. Written in 1919 by Clarence Williams and Lucy Fletcher, “Sugar Blues” first gained attention through recordings by Leona Williams and her Dixie Band in the early 1920s, but it really hit its stride in 1931 when trumpeter Clyde McCoy adopted it as his theme song. What set this style apart was the signature “wah-wah” trumpet effect—a growling, voice-like sound created by manipulating a mute, which gave the music a sweet yet mournful character, much like the lyrics’ tale of love gone sour.

The term “Sugar Blues” perfectly captured this bittersweet vibe. The “sugar” referred to the sweetness of love, while the “blues” reflected the sadness when that love turned bad—a classic blues theme. The style was especially popular from the late 1920s through the 1940s, peaking in the swing era when big bands and jazz orchestras brought “Sugar Blues” to dance halls and radio broadcasts across America. Clyde McCoy’s performances at the Drake Hotel in Chicago and his best-selling recordings helped cement the song—and its sound—as a jazz standard, and the wah-wah trumpet became so iconic that it even inspired the invention of the famous Vox “wah-wah” pedal for electric guitar decades later.

Many jazz greats put their own spin on “Sugar Blues,” including Count Basie, Fats Waller, Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Each brought their own flavor, but the hallmark remained that expressive, almost vocal trumpet sound. So, the next time you hear a trumpet “talking” in a jazz tune, you might just be hearing the legacy of the Sugar Blues—a sweet and sorrowful slice of jazz history.

Interesting!

This next tune gives off a Cab Calloway vibe.

[Music: Swamp Fire]

Swamp Fire
written by Hal Mooney
Sometime in 1936

Let’s now shine a spotlight on a trumpeter whose career spanned an incredible seven decades.

Born on December 29, 1903, in Ashland, Kentucky, Clyde McCoy grew up in a region steeped in American folk and early jazz traditions. He picked up the trombone as a child in Portsmouth, Ohio, but soon found his true calling with the trumpet, developing a signature muted “wah-wah” sound that would become his musical trademark. His early gigs on riverboats and in dance halls exposed him to the lively rhythms of Dixieland and the blues, which became the backbone of his style.
McCoy’s musical influences were rooted in the jazz and Dixieland scenes, and he was inspired by the energy of the big band era and the improvisational spirit of early jazz musicians. He formed his first jazz band in 1920 and, by 1930, was leading his own orchestra at Chicago’s Drake Hotel, where he introduced his iconic theme song, “Sugar Blues.”

That tune, with its unmistakable trumpet “wah-wah,” became a massive hit, selling over a million copies in the depths of the Great Depression and ultimately moving more than fourteen million records worldwide. McCoy’s band, which often featured his brother Stanley on bass, toured the country and became known for lively performances and even pioneering the “battle of the bands” format—pitting two orchestras against each other on stage.

Beyond his recording successes, Clyde McCoy left an indelible mark on music history. He was a co-founder of Down Beat magazine in 1935, a publication that would become a cornerstone of jazz journalism. His influence extended into the world of rock and pop when the Vox Clyde McCoy Wah-wah pedal, inspired by his trumpet technique, became one of the most significant guitar effects of all time.

McCoy’s orchestra continued to perform into the 1970s, and he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a testament to his enduring impact on American music.

He died June 11, 1990 in Memphis, Tennessee. Clyde McCoy was 86 years old.

Up next is a song you’ve heard plenty of times on this show.

[Music: Farewell Blues]

Farewell Blues
written by Elmer Schoebel, Paul Mares, and Leon Roppolo
7/5/1935

Time now for this episode’s interesting side note and it has to do with the wah wah guitar pedal.

McCoy had been experimenting for nearly ten years with the “wah-wah” trumpet mute. He used it when performing the song “Sugar Blues” and many of the songs in his band’s library of arrangements. It was so popular that he licensed the King Instrument Company to manufacture and market the device.

McCoy developed the signature “wah-wah” sound in the late 1920s by fluttering a Harmon mute in the bell of his trumpet. In 1967, a similar effect was made for electric guitar with the introduction of the Vox Clyde McCoy Wah-Wah Pedal (Clyde’s name was only used for promotion and Clyde had nothing to do with the use or development of the pedal), the most significant guitar effect of its time. The Wah-wah pedal was invented by a young engineer named Brad Plunkett, who worked for the Thomas Organ Company, Vox/JMI’s U.S. counterpart. The wah circuit basically sprang from the 3-position midrange voicing function used on the Vox Super Beatle amplifier.

Vox cleverly packaged the circuit into an enclosure with a rocker pedal attached to the pot (which controlled the frequency of the resonant peak) and named the new device after Clyde McCoy. Early versions of the Clyde McCoy pedal featured an image of McCoy on the bottom panel, which soon gave way to his signature only before Thomas Organ changed the name of the pedal to Cry Baby. Thomas Organ’s failure to trademark the Cry Baby name soon led to the market being flooded with Cry Baby imitations from various parts of the world, including Italy, where the McCoy pedals were originally made.

I’ll have to ask some of my guitar playing buddies if they knew this. I’m sure they didn’t.

OK…off to something that seems to be eluding many I know these days.

[Music: Deep In A Dream]

Deep In A Dream
written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Eddie DeLange
It was recorded maybe in 1938 or 1939.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

My dad loved this style of music. Not so much the Sugar Blues specifically, but this early jazz with a mostly Dixieland feel to it. And we most certainly heard a master at the craft in this episode.

I think I remember this album cover from my growing up days in the house.

It’s a very distinctive photo of Clyde wearing a black and red checkered jacket. Looking everything like the country bumpkin he grew up as. He’s wearing a bow tie with blue and white dots on red material pinned to a mustard colored shirt. On his head is a straw hat with a blue and gold hat band. He’s got his elbow leaning on a material covered table where an NBC microphone is perched. In his hand is his trusty trumpet. He’s got a big smile on his face as he looks slightly off camera.

To the left in large all cap paint brush strokes is Clyde McCoy. On the other side is all caps Times new Roman font spelling out The Golden era of the Sugar Blues.

The back cover is typical for the time period. Simply divided in three. Liner notes on the left, song titles and a bit of information in the middle and an advertisement for Spectra-sonic sound from Design Records on the right.

Now to finish up, a heavenly song penned by our featured artist.

[Music: Ridin’ To Glory On A Trumpet]

Ridin’ To Glory On A Trumpet
written by Clyde McCoy
Recorded 3/24/1936

And there you have selections from the trumpet player who popularized a very specific style of jazz.

So thanks for tuning into Volume 234: Sugar Blues

however you did. If you want more information about this SHOW, head over to spinning my dad’s vinyl dot com.

I’ll be back next week with all my skips, scratches, and pops

FOR Volume 235: Still Stanley

Until then,
Go with the flow my friends.