YouTube Gold: Caldonia

A classic jump blues hit, Caldonia’s influence is immense

Louis Jordan is a largely forgotten musical legend today, but he was immensely influential in the middle of the 20th century, with artists like Chuck Berry, James Brown, Bill Haley and others being hugely affected by Jordan’s prodigious output from the 1930’s through to the birth of rock and roll in the 1950’s.

He had immense appeal that exploded among all Americans. His song “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” lives on as a bit of American slang among older people.

Among his other hits were classics like Saturday Night Fish Fry, Five Guys Named Moe, Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby, which you may have seen in a Tom & Jerry cartoon and, perhaps most influential of all, Caldonia.

A comical story of love, Caldonia was covered or performed by, well, a lot of people: Brown, BB King, Muddy Waters, Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis, Sugar Chile Robinson, Woody Herman and even Mos Def in the movie Lackawanna Blues.

Almost all of them are solid - okay, Herman’s version strips the fun out of it, but the rest are good. However, none of them fully catch Jordan’s infectious energy and playfulness. He was truly an American original and his influence on the culture endures.