Mississippi Mud
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/Mississippi_Mud_20783_Victor_1927.jpg/220px-Mississippi_Mud_20783_Victor_1927.jpg)
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"Mississippi Mud" is a 1927 song written by Harry Barris,[1] first sung by Bing Crosby as a member of Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys.[2] Its musical composition entered the public domain on January 1, 2023.[3]
Background
The Rhythm Boys originally recorded the song on June 20, 1927[4] in New York for Victor as a medley with "I Left My Sugar Standing in the Rain."[5][6] It was recorded by Paul Whiteman's orchestra on February 18, 1928 with vocals by Irene Taylor and The Rhythm Boys, featuring Bing Crosby, and with Bix Beiderbecke on cornet.[7] Two takes from the June 20, 1927 session were released on Victor.
Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra recorded the song in New York City on January 20, 1928 for Okeh Records featuring Bing Crosby on vocals, Bix Beiderbecke cornet, Charlie Margulis on trumpet, Bill Rank on trombone, Frank Trumbauer on c-melody and alto sax, and vocals, Jimmy Dorsey and Chester Hazlett on alto sax, Matty Malneck on violin, Lennie Hayton on piano, Carl Kress on guitar, Min Leibrook on bass sax, and Hal McDonald on drums.
In a 1950s radio interview, Trumbauer stated that this recording featured Bix Beiderbecke's greatest recorded solo.
Paul Tremaine's Orchestra performed "Mississippi Mud" in a 1929 film short. Later, it was also sung briefly by the Rhythm Boys in the 1930 film King of Jazz. The song was also sung in the 1931 Toby the Pup cartoon Down South. The Rhythm Boys, Bing Crosby, Harry Barris, and Al Rinker, performed the song when they reunited on radio in 1943 on the Paul Whiteman Presents radio program. Paul Whiteman re-recorded the song on December 7, 1954 for Coral Records.
Other recordings
The song has been recorded by a number of artists since its first publication, including Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra with Bix Beiderbecke and Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Si Zentner and his Orchestra and the Johnny Mann Singers, the Charleston Chasers, the Louisiana Rhythm Kings, Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin and Johnny Mercer with Billy May and His Orchestra, Edyie Gorme, Connie Haines. The Lennon Sisters, Harry Reser's band under the name the Seven Little Polar Bears, Dick Cathcart, the Classic Jazz Quartet (aka The Bourgeois Scum, including Dick Wellstood and Marty Grosz),[8] Joan Shaw, and Ray Charles, and has become one of the standards of the American songbook.
The lyrics were revised because of the derogatory racial term "darkies" in the original.[9] The original lyrics featured a line in the refrain: "When the 'darkies' beat their feet on the Mississippi Mud". This has since been changed to: "When the 'people' beat their feet on the Mississippi Mud."
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Mississippi_Mud_%281927%29_sheet_music.pdf/page1-220px-Mississippi_Mud_%281927%29_sheet_music.pdf.jpg)
Television performances
Dean Martin and Louis Armstrong performed the song on The Dean Martin Show on NBC on December 9, 1965 as part of a Dixie medley of songs.[10]
The song was performed on the 1958 TV series Father Knows Best starring Robert Young and Jane Wyatt.
The song was performed on the 1963 The Jimmy Dean Show.
The song was featured in the M*A*S*H* Season 3 episode "The General Flipped at Dawn," being sung and danced to by Harry Morgan playing Major General Steele.
The song was also featured as the opening number for episode 18 of The Muppet Show (the guest star was Phyllis Diller). It was included on the 1977 The Muppet Show soundtrack album.
Movie appearances
The song was performed in the 1930 Universal Pictures musical film The King of Jazz starring Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra and Walter Brennan.
The song appeared in the 1999 film Wild Wild West starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline.
References
- ^ ASCAP entry for the song. The sheet music and record labels list only Harry Barris as the composer, but ASCAP lists James Cavanaugh as a co-writer. Archived 2010-01-07 at archive.today
- ^ Rhythm Boys Time, July 19, 1943.
- ^ Public Domain Day 2023
- ^ "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
- ^ Paul Whiteman's Original Rhythm Boys. Red Hot Jazz.
- ^ Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys – Sweet L'il / Ain't She Sweet / Mississippi Mud / I Left My Sugar Standing In The Rain. Discogs.
- ^ "Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra". Archived from the original on 2012-01-05. Retrieved 2016-07-04.
- ^ recorded Sept 1984, released on Jazzology J-139
- ^ "Mississippi Mud", Second Hand Songs website
- ^ The Dean Martin Show. IMDB.
- v
- t
- e
- "My Blue Heaven" (with Paul Whiteman)
- "Ol' Man River" (with Paul Whiteman)
- "Mississippi Mud" (with Paul Whiteman)
- "Silent Night, Holy Night" (with Paul Whiteman)
- "Makin' Whoopee" (with Paul Whiteman)
- "Let's Do It" (with Dorsey Brothers)
- "Louise"
- "Three Little Words" (with Duke Ellington)
- "I Surrender Dear" (with Gus Arnheim)
- "Just a Gigolo"
- "At Your Command"
- "Stardust"
- "Goodnight, Sweetheart"
- "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" (Bing's Theme Song)
- "Waltzing in a Dream"
- "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
- "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You"
- "Temptation"
- "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?"
- "June in January"
- "Love Is Just Around the Corner"
- "I Wished on the Moon"
- "It Ain't Necessarily So"
- "I Can't Escape from You"
- "Pennies from Heaven"
- "Silent Night"
- "Adeste Fideles"
- "Sweet Leilani"
- "Blue Hawaii"
- "Never in a Million Years"
- "Sail Along, Silv'ry Moon"
- "My Reverie"
- "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby"
- "God Bless America"
- "Ciribiribin (They're So in Love)" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"
- "Only Forever"
- "It's Always You"
- "New San Antonio Rose" (with Bob Crosby)
- "Dolores"
- "Deep in the Heart of Texas" (with Woody Herman)
- "Easter Parade"
- "White Christmas"
- "Moonlight Becomes You"
- "Sunday, Monday, or Always"
- "People Will Say We're in Love" (with Trudy Erwin)
- "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" (with Trudy Erwin)
- "Pistol Packin' Mama" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "I'll Be Home for Christmas"
- "Jingle Bells" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Poinciana"
- "I Love You"
- "I'll Be Seeing You"
- "Swinging on a Star"
- "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Hot Time in the Town of Berlin" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That's an Irish Lullaby)"
- "Amor"
- "Long Ago (and Far Away)"
- "Don't Fence Me In" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "You Belong to My Heart"
- "Along the Navajo Trail (with Andrews Sisters)
- "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"
- "If I Loved You"
- "It's Been a Long, Long Time" (with Les Paul Trio)
- "I Can't Begin to Tell You"
- "Symphony"
- "The Bells of St. Mary's"
- "McNamara's Band"
- "Sioux City Sue"
- "South America, Take It Away"
- "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Night and Day"
- "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Galway Bay
- "Ballerina"
- "Now Is the Hour"
- "But Beautiful"
- "Far Away Places"
- "Careless Hands"
- "Riders in the Sky"
- "Some Enchanted Evening"
- "Dear Hearts and Gentle People"
- "Mule Train"
- "Quicksilver" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy"
- "Play a Simple Melody" (with Gary Crosby)
- "Sam's Song " (with Gary Crosby)
- "La Vie en rose"
- "All My Love"
- "Beyond the Reef"
- "Harbor Lights"
- "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
- "A Marshmallow World"
- "Sparrow in the Treetop" (with Andrews Sisters)
- "Gone Fishin'" (with Louis Armstrong)
- "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (with Jane Wyman)
- "The Isle of Innisfree"
- "Zing a Little Zong" (with Jane Wyman)
- "Silver Bells" (with Carol Richards)
- "Down by the Riverside" (with Gary Crosby)
- "Young at Heart"
- "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep"
- "Stranger in Paradise"
- "In a Little Spanish Town" (with Buddy Cole Trio)
- "True Love" (with Grace Kelly)
- "Now You Has Jazz" (with Louis Armstrong)
- "Well, Did You Evah!" (with Frank Sinatra)