St. Louis Blues, The (1914)
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(wm) W(illiam) C(hristopher) Handy (P) 1925 Bessie Smith & Louis Armstrong Grammy Hall of Fame. (R) 1929 film short St. Louis Blues by Bessie Smith. (RR). 1943 Glenn Miller. (RR) 1958 film biography St. Louis Blues by Pearl Bailey then Nat King Cole. (RR) 1998 Stevie Wonder. (CR) The Mills Brothers These partial lyrics from the original sheet.
I hate to see de ev’nin’ sun go down.
Hate to see de ev’nin’ sun go down,
‘Cause my baby, he done lef’ dis town.
Feelin’ tomorrow like I feel today,
Feel tomorrow like I feel today,
I’ll pack my trunk, make my getaway.

St. Louis woman wid her diamond rings
Pulls that man ’round by her apron strings.
‘T’wernt for powder an’ for store-bought hair
De man I love would not have gone nowhere.

[Chorus] Got de St. Louis blues jes’ as blue as I can be!
Dat man got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
Or else he wouldn’t have gone so far from me.
I loves that man like a schoolboy loves his pie,
Like a Kentucky Col’nel loves his mint and rye.
I’ll love my baby till the day I die.