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“I’m Going Back to My Used to Be” by Bessie Smith and Clara Smith [1923]

Random Music History Song of the Day

Bessie Smith and Clara Smith recorded only three songs together. A month ago I posted “Far Away Blues,” which was recorded October 4, 1923. During that same session the duo also recorded “I’m Going Back to My Used to Be.” In order to save time, here is the relevant part of what I already wrote about these duets:

“Bessie” and “Clara” sound like the names of cows on a dairy farm (yes, I spent a significant amount of time in Wisconsin, thank you very much). In this case, Bessie and Clara were arguably the two best female blues singers of the 20s. Bessie’s name survived the passage of time because of her (slightly overstated) influence on both blues and jazz singing styles. Clara Smith’s name didn’t fare as well, being generally overlooked by the general public of the Rock and Roll era and beyond. In the 20s and 30s Clara was known as the Queen of the Moaners. I would write further details, but Red Hot Jazz gives a very concise and amusing biography of Clara Smith, so I’ll let them say it:

Bessie Smith and Clara Smith were not related, but they were close personal friends until Bessie got drunk one evening in 1925 and beat up Clara. An interesting bit of trivia was that Clara gave Josephine Baker her first taste of show business in 1920 when she gave the thirteen year old Baker a job as her dresser in her touring company. They also briefly became lovers. Clara Smith continued to record until 1932 and performed live until she died of a heart attack in Detroit in 1935.” (source - a great website!)

In 1923 Bessie and Clara recorded two songs together, “Far Away Blues” being the better of the two. Really, though, the results are never terrible when two great musicians get together.

I was surprised when this song came up. With all the music in my collection, I did not expect both songs from the same recording date to show up on this blog in such rapid succession. So I did the some simple math to satisfy myself… The odds of these two songs coming up within a month (well, 28 days in this case) of each other is something along the lines of 1/739, or possible but still rather improbable.

“So I did the some simple math to satisfy myself… The odds of these two songs coming up within a month (well, 28 days in this case) of each other is something along the lines of 1/739, or possible but still rather improbable.”

—— Vanek, you might have lost your mind.

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