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Also in 1946, a novelty rhythm and blues song when to # 2 on the R&B chart and # 2 on the pop chart. Novelty songs would become a staple of 1950s rock 'n roll, and this song's tag line soon became well know across the country. This song also demonstrated early tensions between middle class blacks who looked down on rhythm 'n' blues and the working class population that enjoyed it. The NAACP attacked this song for depicting unwholesome, stereotyplical views of drunken black men. The artist is Los Angeles born Jack McVea and His All Stars. McVea, like many others of his generation, moved easiy between rhythms 'n' blues and jazz, and appeared at the 1944 jazz concert we heard first, playing saxophone behind Illinois Jacquet. Here is:

Open The Door, Richard -1. 12
In January, 1948, Cincinnatti's King Records released a country blues song by a New Orleans born guitarist named Lonnie Johnson. This record - "Tommorrow Night" - was # 7 on the R&B chart for seven weeks, and rose to # 19 on the pop chart. Johnson played a style of guitar that influenced both the French Gypsy Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, who reinvented jazz guitar. Lonnie Johnson also influnced Elvis Presley, who recorded "Tomorrow Night" for Sun Records in 1954, mimcking Johnson's voice and interpretation. The record company, King, played an important roll in the development of black music too.

It was started in 1943 by Syd Nathan as a hillbilly label, catering to Cincinnatti's white migrants from the South, but soon added rhythm 'n' blues artists to its roster. Here is: