YouTube Gold: Caldonia

One of Louis Jordan’s most enduring hits

Louis Jordan is mostly overlooked now, but he was a huge star in the 1930s and 40s, with great songs like Choo Choo Ch’ Boogie, Texas and Pacific and Azure Te.

Although he developed a comedic style on stage and in shorties (sort an early form of music videos), he was an incredibly talented singer who could keep pace with the great Ella Fitzgerald, which not many people could do. In songs like Ain’t Nobody’s Business But My Own or Baby It’s Cold Outside, he matches her step for step.

And he never lost his gift: relatively late in life he did a cover of Mac Davis’s song I Believe In Music which was phenomenal. He completely overhauled that song and made it something completely different and as smooth as 100 year old single malt whiskey.

Yet his most influential song may have been the 1945 hit Caldonia. It was later covered by James Brown, Muddy Waters, BB King, Sugar Chile Robinson and Willie Nelson.

He himself recorded it more than once but this version is really notable for the video: look at how they highlight the instruments. It’s a really neat effect, especially for that era. Look too at how effortless all of this is to him. He’s singing, dancing, and playing the sax and you never see him take a deep breath.

Also worth noting: he was a major influence on Chuck Berry, who originally wanted to have his own big band. You can listen to almost any Berry song, alter the rhythm slightly and mentally add some horns, and it could be a Louis Jordan song. The intro to Johnny B. Goode, for instance, bears a close resemblance to the intro to Jordan’s Ain’t That Just Like A Woman, and South Of The Border could easily have fit into Jordan’s humorous repertoire although it would have been a bit more risqué than, say, A Chicken Ain’t Nothin’ But A Bird.