Though technically not a blues performer, Mamie Smith notched her place in American music as the first black female singer to record a vocal blues. That record was "Crazy Blues" (recorded August 10, 1920), which sold a million copies in its first six months and made record labels aware of the huge potential market for "race records"; thus paving the way for Bessie Smith (no relation) and other blues and jazz performers. An entertainer who sported a powerful, penetrating, feminine voice with belting vaudeville qualities, as opposed to blues inflections, Smith toured as a dancer with Tutt-Whitney's Smart Set Company in her early teens, and sang in Harlem clubs before World War I. Apparently, Smith's pioneering recording session was an accident, since she was filling in for Sophie Tucker, but the success of the record made her wealthy.
Soon thereafter, Smith began touring and recording with a band called the Jazz Hounds, which featured such jazz notables as Coleman Hawkins, Bubber Miley, Johnny Dunn, and more, and she toured with the bands of Andy Kirk and Fats Pichon in the 1930s. She also appeared in several films, including Paradise in Harlem late in her life (1939). She recorded several sides for OKeh during her heyday; one unissued take of "My Sportin' Man" is included on Columbia's Roots N' Blues Retrospective 1925-1950 box set. In the 1980s, all of her recordings were reissued on LP by the imported Document label.
Vol. 1
01 - That thing called love (7275)
02 - You can`t keep a good man down
03 - Crazy blues
04 - It`s right here for you
05 - Fare thee honey blues
06 - The road is rocky
07 - Mem`ries of you mammy
08 - If you don`t want me blues
09 - Don`t care blues
10 - Lovin` Sam from Alabam
11 - Royal garden blues
12 - Shim-me king`s blues
13 - Jazzbo ball
14 - What have I done?
15 - That thing called love (7790)
16 - Old time blues
17 - Baby, you made me fall for you
18 - You can`t keep a good man down
19 - Frankie blues
20 - U need some lovin` blues
21 - Dangerous blues
22 - Daddy, your mama is lonesome for you
23 - I want a jazzy kiss
24 - Sax-o-phoney blues
Vol. 2
01 - Sweet man o` mine
02 - Mama whip! Mama spank!
03 - I`m free, single, disengaged, looking for someone to love
04 - Weepin`
05 - A wearin` away the blues
06 - Down home blues
07 - Get hot
08 - Oh, joe (please don`t go)
09 - A little kind treatment
10 - Arkansas blues (a down home chant)
11 - The wang, wang blues
12 - Stop! Rest a while
13 - Sweet cookie
14 - Let`s agree to disagree
15 - Rambling blues
16 - Cubanita
17 - The Decatur Street blues
18 - Carolina blues
19 - Doo-dah blues
20 - There`s only one man (that satisfies me)
21 - Wabash blues
22 - Mean daddy blues
23 - Dem knock-out-blues
24 - Lonesome mama blues
Vol. 3
01 - New Orleans
02 - Mamie Smith blues
03 - Alabama blues
04 - Stuttering
05 - Those longing for you blues
06 - Got to cool my doggies now
07 - You can have him, I don`t want him, didn`t love him anyhow blues
08 - Strut your material
09 - Wish that I could but I can`t forgive you blues
10 - Sighin` around with the blues
11 - That da da strain
12 - I ain`t gonna give nobody none o` this jelly roll
13 - Don`t mess with me
14 - Mean man
15 - The darktown flappers ball
16 - I`m gonna get you
17 - You`ve got to see mamma ev`ry night
18 - You can`t do what my last man did
19 - Good looking papa
20 - Lady luck blues
21 - Kansas City man blues
22 - Plain old blues
23 - Mistreatin` daddy blues
24 - Do it, Mr. So-and-So
Vol. 4
01 - My mammy`s blues
02 - My sweet man
03 - What you need is me
04 - Just like you took my man away from me
05 - Remorseful blues
06 - Lost opportunity blues
07 - Good time ball
08 - Goin` crazy with the blues (tak 1)
09 - Goin` crazy with the blues (take 2)
10 - Sweet Virginia blues
11 - What have you done to make me feel this way? (take 2)
12 - What have you done to make me feel this way? (take 3)
13 - I once was your I`m somebody else`s now
14 - Wonderful mammy
15 - My sportin` man
16 - The lure of the south
17 - The jail house blues
18 - Golfing papa
19 - Jenny`s ball
20 - Keep a song in your soul
21 - Don`t you advertise your man
22 - Harlem blues
23 - Lord! Lord!
