Saturday Night Fish Fry
Encyclopedia
Saturday Night Fish Fry is a popular song, written by Louis Jordan and Ellis Lawrence Walsh , best known through the version recorded by Louis Jordan
and His Tympany Five
.
The single was a big hit, topping the R&B chart for twelve non consecutive weeks in late 1949. It also reached number twenty-one on the national chart, a rare accomplishment for a "race record
" at that time (although the very popular Jordan had already had earlier crossover hits). Jordan's jump blues
combo was one of the most successful acts of its time, and its loose and streamlined style of play was highly influential.
Saturday Night Fish Fry was first recorded by Eddie Williams
and His Brown Buddies, which featured the talk-singing vocals of Ellis Walsh. The act had recently had a #2 R&B hit with the song Broken Hearted, and Fish Fry was intended to be the band's followup. However, the acetate for the Williams band version found its way to Louis Jordan's agent, and as Williams later recalled, "They got theirs out there first."
However, Jordan also reconfigured the song, taking a refrain that had been intermittent in Wiliams' version-- "And it was rockin', it was rocking, you never seen such scuffling and shuffling 'til the break of dawn"-- and refocusing it as the recording's hook, singing it twice after every other verse. The Jordan band also dropped the shuffling rhythm of the Eddie Williams original, accelerating the pace into a raucous, rowdy jump boogie-woogie
arrangement.
The recording, which at 5:21 ran longer than a standard side of a 78 record, was broken into two halves, one on either side of the release. The song's lyrics are in the first person, and describe two itinerant musicians going to a fish fry on Rampart Street
in New Orleans, Louisiana
. The scene becomes a wild party that is raided by the police, and the narrator ends up spending the night in jail.
Jordan's Saturday Night Fish Fry has been called one of the first rock and roll records. Chuck Berry
was quoted as saying, "To my recollection, Louis Jordan was the first one that I hear play rock and roll." The number has since been covered by many other artists, including Pinetop Perkins
and B.B. King. Jordan
himself re-recorded the song in 1973 for an album entitled I Believe In Music.
BBC comedy-show host Stephen Fry
adapted the song's title into a play on his own name and used the result for his six-part 1988 programme Saturday Night Fry
. American radio station WHRV, broadcasting from Norfolk, Virginia, uses the song's name for its Saturday night early-jazz program hosted by Neal Murray.
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...
.
Race record
Race records were 78 rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans during the early 20th century, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s. They primarily contained race music, comprising a variety of African American musical genres including blues, jazz, and gospel music, though comedy...
" at that time (although the very popular Jordan had already had earlier crossover hits). Jordan's jump blues
Jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...
combo was one of the most successful acts of its time, and its loose and streamlined style of play was highly influential.
Saturday Night Fish Fry was first recorded by Eddie Williams
Eddie Williams
Edward Laquan Williams is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and third baseman....
and His Brown Buddies, which featured the talk-singing vocals of Ellis Walsh. The act had recently had a #2 R&B hit with the song Broken Hearted, and Fish Fry was intended to be the band's followup. However, the acetate for the Williams band version found its way to Louis Jordan's agent, and as Williams later recalled, "They got theirs out there first."
However, Jordan also reconfigured the song, taking a refrain that had been intermittent in Wiliams' version-- "And it was rockin', it was rocking, you never seen such scuffling and shuffling 'til the break of dawn"-- and refocusing it as the recording's hook, singing it twice after every other verse. The Jordan band also dropped the shuffling rhythm of the Eddie Williams original, accelerating the pace into a raucous, rowdy jump boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie has the following meanings:*Boogie-woogie, a piano-based music style*Boogie-woogie , a swing dance or a dance that imitates the rock-n-roll dance of the 1950s*"Boogie Woogie" , a song by EuroGroove and Dannii Minogue...
arrangement.
The recording, which at 5:21 ran longer than a standard side of a 78 record, was broken into two halves, one on either side of the release. The song's lyrics are in the first person, and describe two itinerant musicians going to a fish fry on Rampart Street
Rampart Street
Rampart Street is a historic avenue located in New Orleans, Louisiana.The upper end of the street is in the New Orleans Central Business District...
in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. The scene becomes a wild party that is raided by the police, and the narrator ends up spending the night in jail.
Jordan's Saturday Night Fish Fry has been called one of the first rock and roll records. Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
was quoted as saying, "To my recollection, Louis Jordan was the first one that I hear play rock and roll." The number has since been covered by many other artists, including Pinetop Perkins
Pinetop Perkins
Joseph William Perkins , known by the stage name Pinetop Perkins, was an American blues musician, specializing in piano music...
and B.B. King. 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...
himself re-recorded the song in 1973 for an album entitled I Believe In Music.
BBC comedy-show host Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
adapted the song's title into a play on his own name and used the result for his six-part 1988 programme Saturday Night Fry
Saturday Night Fry
Saturday Night Fry was a six-part comedy series on BBC Radio 4, first broadcast between the 30th of April and the 4th of June 1988. Episode One had previously been broadcast as a pilot on 19 December 1987, under the title 'Fry on Saturday'....
. American radio station WHRV, broadcasting from Norfolk, Virginia, uses the song's name for its Saturday night early-jazz program hosted by Neal Murray.