Saturday Night Fish Fry

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An origin story, of sorts:



The lyrics are indicative of the motivating sensibility (so to speak) behind this copyrighted Fifty50 feature.

I think my first two Fish Frys featured Louis Jordan with his Tympany Five, but not this song. The reason, oddly enough, was that up until a few months ago no one had uploaded the original version of the it to YouTube. I say odd because this is one of Jordan's most well known and beloved hits. As with many of the most popular race music recordings, there appear to be a zillion versions out there --- some sounding similar to one another, and others from much later years sounding very different.

Such as this horrible thing, which was the only version available on YouTube when I launched this feature. The YouTube poster says this one is from 1958, and the special bonus lyrics in it refer to "bobby socks." Sheeeeit. One year earlier, Mercury Records assigned Quincy Jones to help re-energize Jordan's career as a rock performer, possibly because black rock pioneers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard were doing so well, chartwise. The result of that collaboration, which you can listen to here (but labeled with the wrong date), might not be bad in its own right if (1) you didn't know that it was being performed by a well known veteran jump R&B artist of the highest caliber, and (2) the lyrics weren't so obviously out of sync with the everyday world of the white teen audience the record was intended for. Not Jordan's fault. Maybe not even Jones' fault, although he obviously didn't know rock from shinola in 1956 - 57. Listen to that prominent roller rink organ trying to propel things along in the Mercury version. Sounds more like Henry Mancini than anything Alan Freed would be caught playing, even with a truckolad of payola. Jones, purely a jazzman and orchestrator up to that point, was just the wrong man for the job. And it also sounds like Jordan's heart wasn't really into the project anyway.

So listen to this one --- it's the big one with the bullet!

Saturday Night Fish Fry, Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five (1949, Decca 24725), via YouTube.

Addendum: the performance dates for this side are all over the place, and not even the discography at LouisJordan.com is definitive. Best guess is 1949, but my ear and gut tend to agree with the YouTuber who dates it at 1946. Maybe there was a second version in '49. Whatever, it's the classic performance. And if you ever want a fist in your eye, just mention... a Saturday Night Fish Fry!