Louis Jordan was an American popular music innovator who recorded from the 1930s until the 1970s. During the 1940s, he was the most popular recording artist of the soon-to-be-called
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
music.
[Whitburn 1988, p. 584.] Jordan had eighteen No. 1 hits, which places him as the third most successful singles artist in
''Billboard'' R&B charts history.
[ Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder are tied for first with twenty each.] His 1946 recording of "
Choo Choo Ch'Boogie
"Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" is a popular song written by Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, and Milt Gabler.
The song was recorded in January 1946 by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five and released by Decca Records. It topped the R&B charts for 18 weeks f ...
" is tied for second place for spending the most weeks (eighteen) at No. 1.
[ Joe Liggins's "]The Honeydripper
"The Honeydripper (Parts 1 and 2)" is an R&B song by Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers which topped the US Billboard R&B chart (at that time called the "Race Records" chart) for 18 weeks, from September 1945 to January 1946.
History
Liggins cla ...
" was also No. 1 for eighteen weeks. Jordan's success was not limited to the R&B market — he also had No. 1 hits on the Billboard
Pop and
Country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...
charts.
The peak of Jordan's popularity occurred when the two-song record
single was the typical format, before the emergence of the
long-playing record
The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and ...
album. As a result, although he recorded prolifically, he had relatively few albums until compilations began appearing after his death in 1975. Listed here are the singles and albums Jordan recorded during his career, as well as the more current and notable compilations.
Singles
1930s
1940s
V-Disc
V-Disc ( "V" for Victory) was a record label that was formed in 1943 to provide records for U.S. military personnel. Captain Robert Vincent supervised the label from the Special Services division.
Many popular singers, big bands, and orches ...
s
1950s
1960s
Albums
Studio albums
*''Somebody Up There Digs Me'' (
Mercury MG-20242, 1957)
*''Man, We're Wailin (Mercury MG-20331, 1958)
*''One Sided Love – Then Sakatumi'' (Pzazz LP-321, 1968)
*''I Believe in Music'' (Disques Black And Blue 33.059, 1973; CD reissue:
Black & Blue BB-876, 1996)
Live albums
*''Live Jive'' (A Touch of Magic 4, 1994)
Compilation albums
*''The Best of Louis Jordan'' (MCA 2-4079, 1975; CD reissue: 1989)
*''Five Guys Named Moe (Original Decca Recordings, Vol. 2)'' (MCA 10503, 1992)
*''Let the Good Times Roll (The Complete Decca Recordings 1938–1954)'' (
Bear Family BCD-15557, 1992) 9-CD
*''Louis Jordan on Film 1942–1948'' (Krazy Kat KKCD-17, 1996)
*''Let the Good Times Roll (The Anthology 1938–1954)'' (MCA/Decca 2-11907, 1999) 2-CD
*''Jivin' with Jordan'' (
Proper
Proper may refer to:
Mathematics
* Proper map, in topology, a property of continuous function between topological spaces, if inverse images of compact subsets are compact
* Proper morphism, in algebraic geometry, an analogue of a proper map for ...
BOX 47, 2002) 4-CD
*''The Aladdin, "X" & Vik Recordings 1953–1955'' (
Rev-Ola
Rev-Ola Records is a British independent record label formed in 1990 that specializes in reissues, as well as select new releases. The label is headed by Joe Foster, a former child actor and musician/producer. He, along with Alan McGee and ...
CRBAND-2, 2006)
*''Roc Doc! Louis Jordan on Mercury 1956–1957'' Rev-Ola CRREV-244, 2008)
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Louis
Discographies of American artists
Rhythm and blues discographies
Blues discographies
Jazz discographies
Louis Jordan songs