"Early in the Mornin'" or "'Early in the Morning" is a song that was recorded by Louis Jordan

Louis Jordan

Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...

 and His Tympany Five

Tympany Five

Tympany Five was a successful rhythm and blues and jazz dance band founded by Louis Jordan in 1938. The group was composed of a horn section of three to five different pieces and also drums, double bass, guitar and piano. After playing in Chicago at the Capitol Lounge in 1941, Jordan and his band...

 in 1947. It is an early example of a blues which incorporates Afro-Cuban

Music of Cuba

The Caribbean island of Cuba has developed a wide range of creolized musical styles, based on its cultural origins in Europe and Africa. Since the 19th century its music has been hugely popular and influential throughout the world...

 rhythms and percussive instruments. "Early in the Mornin'" became a hit, reaching number three in Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

magazine's race records chart and has been recorded by many different artists.

Original song

"Early in the Mornin'" has the structure of a twelve-bar blues with a strong rhythmic element. It is credited to Jordan, Tympany Five bassist Dallas Bartley, and Leo Hickman and has been variously described as a rumba

Rumba

Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...

, a samba

Samba

Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...

,, a calypso

Calypso music

Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...

-influenced song, and a "Caribbean-flavoured number". As with many Jordan songs, it also has a comic element. The song begins with Latin-style percussion

Latin percussion

The term Latin percussion refers to any number of a large family of musical percussion instruments used in Latin music, which in turn is a very loosely related group of musical styles, mainly from the Latin American region, and ultimately having roots or influences in African tribal...

 and Jordan calls out "Hey Pedro!...Where is Lolito?" After a twelve-bar piano solo intro, Jordan's vocal begins:

It's early in the mornin' and I can't get right

'Cause I had a date with my baby last night

Now it's early in the morning ... and I ain't got nothin' but the blues

Backing Jordan (vocal and alto sax) are Wild Bill Davis

Wild Bill Davis

Wild Bill Davis was the stage name of American jazz pianist, organist, and arranger William Strethen Davis.Davis was born in Glasgow, Missouri...

 (piano), Bartley (bass), and Christopher Columbus

Chris Columbus (musician)

Joseph Morris Christopher "Chris" Columbus was an American jazz drummer...

 (drums). Percussion is provided by band members Aaron Isenhall, Eddie Johnson

Eddie Johnson (musician)

Edwin Lawrence "Eddie" Johnson was an American jazz and blues tenor saxophonist. He was born in Napoleonville, Louisiana, United States....

, and Carl Hogan.

Look Out Sister

Louis Jordan recorded a second version of "Early in the Mornin'" in 1949 for Look Out Sister "a sixty-seven minute picture that featured Louis as a musical cowboy". His performance of the song was filmed in front of a U.S. southwestern

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

-style ranch house with the band dressed in 1940s Hollywood cowboy garb. In his autobiography, James Brown

James Brown

James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...

 recalled seeing Jordan's films when he was young and was inspired by the showmanship of performances such as "Early in the Mornin'" and especially "Caldonia

Caldonia

"Caldonia" is a jump blues song, first recorded in 1945 by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. A version by Erskine Hawkins, also in 1945, was described by Billboard magazine as "rock and roll", the first time that phrase was used in print to describe any style of music.-Louis Jordan recording:In...

".

Other versions

Artists who have recorded "Early in the Mornin'" (usually spelled "Early in the Morning") include Ray Charles

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

 from the album The Genius Sings the Blues

The Genius Sings the Blues

The Genius Sings the Blues is an album by Ray Charles, released in October 1961 on Atlantic Records. The album was his last release for Atlantic, but one of his most memorable, compiling twelve blues songs from various sessions during his tenure for the label. The album showcases Charles's...

(1961); Harry Nilsson

Harry Nilsson

Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...

 from Nilsson Schmilsson

Nilsson Schmilsson

-Personnel:* Harry Nilsson – piano on 1 5 8 10, vocals, Mellotrons on 2 4, organ on 3, harmonica on 8, electric piano on 9* Jim Gordon – drums on 1 2 5 8 9, percussion on 7 9* Klaus Voormann – bass on 1 5 6 8, rhythm guitar on 2 9, acoustic guitar on 4...

(1971); Joe Cocker

Joe Cocker

John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...

 from Live in LA

Live in LA (Joe Cocker album)

Live in L.A. is a selection of the best live recordings of concerts performed by Joe Cocker in 1972 with The Chris Stainton Band. It includes several live versions of Cocker's classics such as "High Time We Went" and "Hitchcock Railway", as well as new tracks like "Love the One You're With" and...

(1972, released 1976); Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...

 from Damn Right, I've Got the Blues

Damn Right, I've Got the Blues

Damn Right, I've Got the Blues is a studio album by Blues guitarist Buddy Guy. The album has been described as Guy's commercial comeback album after limited recording for 10 years.- Track listing :# "Damn Right, I've Got the Blues" 4:29...

(1991); B.B. King from Let the Good Times Roll

Let the Good Times Roll (album)

Let the Good Times Roll: The Music of Louis Jordan is a tribute album by blues musician B. B. King. The album is made up entirely of covers of songs by the jazz saxophonist and singer Louis Jordan. It was released in 1999 on MCA Records....

(1999); and Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...

 with B.B. King and Allen Toussaint

Allen Toussaint

Allen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...

 from Memphis Blues

Memphis Blues (album)

Memphis Blues is the eleventh studio album by American singer Cyndi Lauper, nominee for the Grammy Awards 2010, was released on June 22, 2010. The album sold over 600,000 copies worldwide...

(2010). "Early in the Mornin'" is included in the 1990 musical production of Five Guys Named Moe

Five Guys Named Moe

Five Guys Named Moe is a musical with a book by Clarke Peters and lyrics and music by Louis Jordan and others. The musical originated in the UK in 1990 at Theatre Royal Stratford East, running for over four years in the West End, and then premiering on Broadway in 1992...

.