''Shine'' (originally titled ''That's Why They Call Me Shine'') is a

popular song Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

with lyrics by Cecil Mack and

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally ...

songwriter

Lew Brown Lew Brown (born Louis Brownstein; December 10, 1893 – February 5, 1958) was a lyricist for popular songs in the United States. During World War I and the Roaring Twenties, he wrote lyrics for several of the top Tin Pan Alley composers, espec ...

and music by Ford Dabney. It was published in 1910 by the Gotham-Attucks Music Publishing Company and used by

Aida Overton Walker Aida Overton Walker (February 14, 1880 – October 11, 1914), also billed as Ada Overton Walker and as "The Queen of the Cakewalk", was an American vaudeville performer, actress, singer, dancer, choreographer, and wife of vaudevillian George ...

in ''His Honor the Barber'', an African-American road show. According to

Perry Bradford Perry Bradford (February 14, 1893, Montgomery, Alabama – April 20, 1970, New York City) was an African American composer, songwriter, and vaudeville performer. His most notable songs included "Crazy Blues," "That Thing Called Love," and "You C ...

, himself a songster and publisher, the song was written about an actual man named Shine who was with George Walker when they were badly beaten during the New York City

race riot This is a list of ethnic riots by country, and includes riots based on Ethnic conflict, ethnic, Sectarian violence, sectarian, xenophobic, and Racial conflict, racial conflict. Some of these riots can also be classified as pogroms. Africa A ...

of 1900. It was later recorded by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and jazz influenced artists such as The California Ramblers (their version was very popular in 1924),

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

(recorded March 9, 1931 for Okeh Records, catalog No. 41486),

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...

(recorded November 19, 1936 for Decca Records - catalog. No. 1062),

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band to great commercial success from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947, but ...

, and

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performa ...

(1947 and 1957 - the 1947 version reached No. 9 in the Billboard charts), usually without the sectional verse that introduces the song's narrator.

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...

The Mills Brothers The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed The Four Mills Brothers and originally known as Four Boys and a Guitar, were an American jazz and traditional pop vocal quartet who made more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies and g ...

recorded the song on February 29, 1932 with studio orchestra conducted by

Victor Young Albert Victor Young (August 8, 1899– November 10, 1956)"Victor Young, Composer, Dies of Heart Attack", ''Oakland Tribune'', November 12, 1956. was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. Young was posthumously awarded the ...

. It was issued on

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History 1916–1929 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing ...

11376-A, a

78 rpm record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The gr ...

and it is assessed by

Joel Whitburn Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and music historian, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on record chart placings. Early life Joel Carver Whitburn was born in W ...

as reaching the No. 7 position in the charts of the day. As a member of the Hoboken Four,

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

sang this song in 1935 on the '' Major Bowes Amateur Hour''.

Albert Nicholas Albert Nicholas (May 27, 1900 – September 3, 1973) was an American jazz clarinet player, who was mostly based in Europe after 1953. Career Nicholas's primary instrument was the clarinet, which he studied with Lorenzo Tio in his hometown ...

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

, with ''The Big Chief Jazz Band'' recorded it in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

on August 29, 1955. It was released on the

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

P 53037 H. Joe Brown and The Bruvvers recorded the song in 1961 and reached the British charts with a peak position of No. 33.

Anne Murray Morna Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a retired Canadian country, pop and adult contemporary music singer who has sold over 55 million album copies worldwide during her over 40-year career. Murray has won four Grammys including the Grammy ...

included this song on her 1976 Capitol Records album, '' Keeping in Touch''.

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and h ...

recorded the song complete with introduction in 1978 (see below). Spanish vocal quartet Los Rosillo, recorded a Spanish version, with the original spoken intro, in their debut album in 1988.

Louis Armstrong version

The song was performed in a film short ''

A Rhapsody in Black and Blue ''Rhapsody in Black and Blue'' is a short ten-minute film that was created and released in 1932, starring Sidney Easton"A Rhapsody in Black and Blue." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. March 8, 2013. and Fanny Belle DeKnight. It is an early example of ...

'' by Armstrong. The 1931 recording by Armstrong with his Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra is a subset of the complete lyric of the 1910 version and the expanded later version, with added

scat singing Originating in vocal jazz, scat singing or scatting is vocal Musical improvisation, improvisation with Non-lexical vocables in music, wordless vocables, Pseudoword#Nonsense syllables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, t ...

and long

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

ending: :: nstrumental opening ~35 sec. ::''Oh chocolate drop, that’s me'' ::''’Cause, my hair is curly'' ::''Just because my teeth are pearly'' ::''Just because I always wear a smile'' ::''Like to dress up in the latest style'' ::''’Cause I’m glad I’m livin’'' ::''Take troubles all with a smile'' ::''Just because my color's shady'' ::''Makes no difference, baby'' ::''That’s why they call me "Shine"'' :: epeat words with scat and straight jazz instrumental ~2 min. SHINE (That's Why They Call Me Shine) (Cecil Mack, Lew Brown)

Ry Cooder version with original introduction

On his 1978 album ''

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

'',

performed the song in a "52nd Street" small band setting, with the introductory verse that explains what the song is all about. He noted that it had been written in 1910 near the end of the "

Coon song Coon songs were a genre of music that presented a stereotype of black people. They were popular in the United States and Australia from around 1880 to 1920, though the earliest such songs date from minstrel shows as far back as 1848, when they we ...

era", and described it as a unique comment on the

black face Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...

sensibilities of that genre. *INTRODUCTION: ::''When I was born they christened me plain Samuel Johnson Brown'' ::''But I hadn't grown so very big, 'fore some folks in this town'' ::''Had changed it 'round to "Sambo"; I was "Rastus" to a few'' ::''Then "Chocolate Drop" was added by some others that I knew'' ::''And then to cap the climax, I was strolling down the line'' ::''When someone shouted, "Fellas, hey! Come on and pipe the shine!"'' ::''But I don't care a bit. Here's how I figure it:'' ::''Well, just because my hair is curly'' ::''And just because my teeth are pearly'' ::''Just because I always wear a smile'' ::''Likes to dress up in the latest style*'' ::''Just because I'm glad I'm livin' '' ::''Take trouble smilin', never whine'' ::''Just because my color's shady'' ::''Slightly different maybe'' ::''That's why they call me shine.'' *ALTERNATIVE LINE: :''Wear my jeans like a man of means (he always dresses in the latest style).'' Also included in Ken Burns: A Jazz Collection Documentary and three disc related collection music album

Film appearances

*1931 ''

'' - performed by Louis Armstrong and band *1941 '' Birth of the Blues'' - sung by Bing Crosby *1942 ''

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

'' - the song is sung by Sam (

Dooley Wilson Arthur "Dooley" Wilson (April 3, 1886 – May 30, 1953) was an American actor, singer and musician who is best remembered for his portrayal of Sam in the 1942 film ''Casablanca (film), Casablanca''. In that romantic drama, he performs its theme ...

) and the band at Rick's Café in the movie. *1943 '' Cabin in the Sky'' John William Sublett (aka John W. Bubbles) animates "Shine" brilliantly in a song-and-dance number in the movie. *1955 ''

The Benny Goodman Story ''The Benny Goodman Story'' is a 1956 American musical film, musical biographical film starring Steve Allen and Donna Reed, written and directed by Valentine Davies, and released by Universal-International. The film was intended as a follow-up t ...

'' - performed on trumpet by

. *1956 ''

The Eddy Duchin Story ''The Eddy Duchin Story'' is a 1956 American biopic film of band leader and pianist Eddy Duchin starring Tyrone Power and Kim Novak. Filmed in CinemaScope, the Technicolor production was directed by George Sidney and written by Samuel A. T ...

'' - performed by

Tyrone Power Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include ''Jesse James (193 ...

Eddy Duchin Edwin Frank Duchin (April 1, 1909 – February 9, 1951), commonly known as Eddy Duchin or alternatively Eddie Duchin, was an American popular music pianist and bandleader during the 1930s and 1940s. Early career Duchin was born on April 1, 1909, ...

and Rex Thompson as Peter Duchin with accompaniment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shine (1910 Song) 1910 songs Jazz songs Songs with lyrics by Cecil Mack Louis Armstrong songs Frankie Laine songs Songs with lyrics by Lew Brown Okeh Records singles