Freddie Slack

If you'd like to learn more about the show, uh, you can find me over at jacknortonmusic.com. And if you have a song or artist request, well, just email me, hello@jacknortonmusic.com. Coming up, I've got one of the greatest blues shouters of all time, Mamie Smith.

She's gonna be doing a tune called The Lure of the South, and then after that we're gonna hear Ella Mae Morse with Freddie Slack and his Orchestra, Get on Board Little Children.

See that steamboat coming, coming round the bend.

All you brothers and sisters, shout amen.

And in 1940, he took inspiration from Southern barrel house piano players, boogie-woogie players from the 20s and 30s to write Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar.

Now, when Bradley's band cut it for Columbia in May of 1940, Freddie Slack's boogie-woogie piano and Ray McKinley's effortless vocal that you're about to hear turned it into an instant million-selling boogie-woogie classic, and here it is.

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In a little honky-tonky village in Texas, there's a guy who plays the best piano by far.

Oh, Venus, Freddie, 8 to the 5. . . . . . . ¶¶ so so ¶¶ ¶¶

That was Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar, cut back in May of 1940 on Columbia Records by Will Bradley and his orchestra.

Unmistakable piano work there by Freddie Slack.

with Ray McKinley pulling double duty on the drums and vocals.

So why don't I drop the needle on the 1942 classic that had the whole country jumping.

Here's Freddie Slack and Ella Mae Morse with Mr. 5x5.

Mr. 5x5 THE END

twirl my turban man alive here come mr five by five he's one of those big fat bouncing boys solid avenue boys mr five by five he's five feet tall and he's five feet wide he don't measure no More from head to toe than he do from side to side.

fat man can really jump it for a fat man boys the trouble is there's no way of knowing

whether he's coming on or going he's five feet tall and he's five feet wide he don't measure no more from head to toe than it From side to side, Mr. 5x5.

On Capitol Records, Mr. 5x5 by Freddie Slack and his orchestra, vocal by Ella Mae Morse.

with a vocal cameo by the great lyricist and vocalist Johnny Mercer.