"Shrimp Boats" was a popular song in the 1950s. It was written by

Paul Mason Howard Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

and Paul Weston and published in 1951. The original sheet music was arranged by

Hawley Ades Hawley Ades was an American choral arranger, born in Wichita, Kansas on June 25, 1908. He died March 26, 2008, at the age of 99, three months shy of his 100th birthday. He was the son of two professional musicians; choral director Lucius Ades, a ...

. Charting versions were recorded by Jo Stafford (Weston's wife) and Dolores Gray. It was also recorded by Claude Gray (a country music singer) in 1963, and by Pete Fountain, Abdullah Ibrahim, The Orioles, and Buddy Tate. The recording by Jo Stafford was made in July 1951 and released by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

as catalog number 39581, with the flip side "Love, Mystery, and Adventure". It first reached the ''Billboard'' chart on November 9, 1951 and lasted for 17 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 2. The recording by Dolores Gray was released by

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

as catalog number 27832, with the flip side "More! More! More!" It first reached the ''Billboard'' chart on November 30, 1951 and lasted 6 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 25. A British version was recorded by Billy Cotton and his band, also in 1951. A Yiddish parody by Mickey Katz, entitled "Herring Boats", was also recorded.

Court case

In 1952, bandleader Ben Pollack filed a suit against Paul Weston, Mason Howard, and the publishers,

Disney Music Disney Music Group (DMG) is the music recording arm of Disney Platform Distribution, a division of The Walt Disney Company. It is located at the studio's headquarters in Burbank, California. The division's subsidiaries consist of two owned record ...

, alleging that the words of "Shrimp Boats" infringed his rights in relation to a non-copyrighted song, "The Cajun Song", which he claimed Weston had heard in 1945. A later case was brought against Disney Music by Harold Spina and Bob Russell, who claimed to have given the partial lyric to Fred Raphael at Disney Music. The suit was dismissed in January 1953.

References

1951 songs Songs written by Paul Weston Jo Stafford songs {{1950s-pop-song-stub