"(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue" is a 1929 jazz standard protest song, composed by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks, with lyrics by Andy Razaf.Copyright of Catalog Entires 1956, Archive.org - retrieved on 10 June 2024 It was originally published by Mills Music.
Composition and debut
"Black and Blue" debuted in the Broadway musical Hot Chocolates (1929), sung by Edith Wilson. Razaf biographer Barry Singer recounts that the lyricist was coerced into writing the song (with music by Waller) by the show's financier, New York mobster Dutch Schultz, though Razaf subverted Schultz's directive that it be a comedic number:
In the show, Wilson originally sang the song from a bed with white sheets, but the bed was removed after the first show due to the judgement that it was too suggestive.
The show also included Waller and Razaf's hit songs "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose".David Tenenholz: Fats Waller (Thomas Wright) at jazz.com - retrieved on 20 May 2009
Recordings
Louis Armstrong was the first to record the song, in 1929. Ethel Waters (1930) Frankie Laine (1946)
Mentions in other works
The song is featured in the prologue of Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man (1952) as its protagonist, while hiding underground in a basement with 1369 light bulbs, listens to the song being played by Armstrong and contemplates the "horrors of slavery" while smoking a reefer. In June 2026, CBS News included the song in its list of the 250 essential American songs of the past 250 years.
See also List of 1920s jazz standards
References