The Juke In The Back” focuses on the “soul that came before rock n’ roll,” the records that inspired Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and countless others.
The “Juke In The Back” presents Part 4 of our mammoth, 6 part series, featuring the most important musical figure of the 1940s, Louis Jordan. He was the most successful African-American artist of the decade, selling millions of records to both Black and White audiences. Jordan charted 57 singles between 1942 and 1951, scoring 18 #1 R&B hits and 56 top 10s. Several of his records even crossed over into the Pop Top 10, which was an almost unheard of feat at the time.
Part 4 of our series focuses on the incredible hit-making years of 1947 and ’48. Jordan scored 4 #1 records in 1947, spending an amazing 40 weeks at the top of the Race Record Chart (the name of the R&B chart at that time).
The year was kicked off with “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens,” which topped the chart for 17 weeks and nearly every record that Decca issued on Jordan that year was a major seller. “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” became the catchphrase of 1947, along with “Open The Door, Richard.” The latter was a tune based on a Black Vaudeville routine, which hit #2 on the R&B charts by 4 different artists, including Louis Jordan. Count Basie’s version of “Richard” crossed over to #1 on the Pop Chart, making “Richard” a huge crossover success.
We’re also highlighting the first half of 1948. It’s still a big year for Jordan, but the hits begin to slow down a bit. He only scored 1 #1 in ’48.
The “Juke” is jumpin’ with Jordan this week on part 4 of “Juke In The Back”‘s tribute to the “King Of The Jukeboxes, Louis Jordan.
Join Matt the Cat for Juke in the Back, tomorrow morning at 04:00 AM Eastern, with an encore presentation, Sunday afternoon at 03:00 PM Eastern, on Mushroom FM, the home of the fun guys, making four decades of magic mushroom memories!
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