Sitting on Top of the World
| Sitting on the Top of the World | |
|---|---|
| Mississippi Sheiks | |
| publication | 1930 |
| length | 3:10 |
| Genre (s) | blues |
| Author (s) | Walter Vinson , Lonnie Chatmon |
| Label | Okeh Records |
Sitting on Top of the World is the title of a popular blues songs , that of Walter Vinson was written and Lonnie Chatmon and the first time of her band, the Mississippi Sheiks was added. Over the years it has become a blues standard that many well-known musicians of the genre have interpreted.
Creation and first recordings
Walter Vinson said he wrote the piece for a white audience after performing in Greenwood, Mississippi in the early hours of the morning. To what extent the bandmate Lonnie Chatmon was involved in the composition is not fully known. Later publications by other artists often only resulted in Vinson being the composer, if at all. Often times, authorship was either assigned to the performing artist (see, for example, the version of Howlin 'Wolf ) or the piece was referred to as traditional with no known authors (see, for example, the version by Bob Dylan ).
The first known recording of Sitting on Top of the World comes from the Mississippi Sheiks, the band around Walter Vinson. They recorded the number for Okeh Records . The single was so successful that it became a crossover hit for the band, making both song and band very popular. It is also the original version by the Mississippi Sheiks, which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.
Cover versions
In May 1930, the first musician recorded a cover version of the song. The Delta blues musician Charley Patton played up its own version with some custom text, however, used as the title One Summer Day . In the next few years the song was covered by many blues musicians, including The Two Poor Boys, Big Bill Broonzy and Sam Collins. Bob Wills and Milton Brown also recorded the piece, which also landed it in the repertoire of some western swing bands.
Sitting on Top of the World became a standard of the American blues and folk music scene, which was often referred to as traditional. Even Ray Charles , Howlin 'Wolf, Grateful Dead , Cream , Bob Dylan, BB King , the Shelton Brothers , Curtis Gordon and Willie Nelson have the piece - in different genres - played.
The blues song is not to be confused with I'm Sitting on Top of the World (Just Rolling Along) , which was written by Ray Henderson (music) and Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young (lyrics), published in 1925, and most importantly through the versions by Al Jolson and Les Paul / Mary Ford .
Text and structure
The high number of cover versions produced many variations of the original lyrics over the years. Howlin 'Wolf kept only two of the five stanzas of the original text in his very popular version of the song from 1957 and added a new one. Other musicians dealt with the text in a similar way.
Musically speaking, Sitting on Top of the World is a blues song, the key of which can vary from artist to artist. A common chord progression of the song is EEEEAAEEBBA E.
The content of the lyrics deals with being abandoned by one's loved one. The title line most likely comes from the then very famous piece I'm Sitting on the Top of the World, which was made famous by Al Jolson around 1926 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Cary Ginell, Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing, University of Illinois Press, 1994, pp. 284, ISBN 0-252-02041-3 .