Stack O'Lee Blues

Number 7.

Stagger Lee Written by Ray Lopez, the first recorded version was in 1923 as Stack-O-Lee Blues by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians.

The song has gone through many titles, Stagger-Lee, Stag-O-Lee, Stack-O-Lee, etc.

Who hasn't sung this song? Mississippi John Hurt, James Brown, Ike and Tina, Dave Van Ronk, Doc Watson, Elvis, Bob Dylan, heck, even Neil Diamond did a version.

Lloyd Price, however, was probably the one that made it famous in 1952.

A woman from Texas once wrote to the folk song collectors John and Alan Lomax that she had heard it there, on the Memphis levee, in the years just after the turn of the century, sung by the men working the boats, who made up the words as they went.

From there it spread in every direction, under a dozen names, Stack-O-Lee, Stag-O-Lee, Stack-O-Lee.

The details shifted, but the heart stayed the same.

A man named Billy Lyons takes Stagger Lee's Stetson hat, and Stagger Lee kills him for it, and the people telling it seem half frightened of Stagger Lee, and half in awe of him, When the first records of black music were cut in the 20s, Stagger Lee was there almost at once, Ma Rainey recorded a version, so did Furry Lewis, and Mississippi John Hurt.