Pinetop Smith

• Name — Pinetop Smith • Birth Name — Clarence Smith • Born — 11 June 1904 • Birthplace — Pike County, Alabama, U.S. • Died — 15 March 1929 • Place of death — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Instrument — * Piano • vocals • Genre — * Boogie-woogie • blues • Occupation — * Musician • comedian • Years Active — c. 1920–1929 • Label — Vocalion

The son of Sam and Molly Smith, Clarence "Pinetop" Smith was born on June 11, 1904, in Pike County, Alabama. Sources disagree on the exact place of his birth with some stating he was born in Troy, Alabama and others stating he was born in Orion, Alabama just north of Troy. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama the Smith family lived in Orion at the time of Clarence's birth and they moved to Troy not long after he was born. He received his nickname of "Pinetop" as a child from his liking for climbing trees. As a teenager he moved with his family to Birmingham, Alabama. In 1920 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked as an entertainer before touring on the Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuit, performing as a singer and comedian as well as a pianist. For a time, he worked as accompanist for blues singer Ma Rainey and Butterbeans and Susie. In the mid-1920s, he was recommended by Cow Cow Davenport to J. Mayo Williams at Vocalion Records, and in 1928 he moved, with his wife and young son, to Chicago, Illinois to record. For a time he, Albert Ammons, and Meade Lux Lewis lived in the same rooming house. On December 29, 1928, he recorded his influential "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie", one of the first "boogie woogie" style recordings to make a hit, and which cemented the name for the style. It was also the first recording to have the phrase 'boogie woogie' in the song's title. Smith talks over the recording, telling how to dance to the number. He said he originated the number at a house-rent party in St. Louis, Missouri. Smith was the first ever to direct "the girl with the red dress on" to "not move a peg" until told to "shake that thing" and "mess around". Similar lyrics are heard in many later songs, including "Mess Around" and "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles. Smith was scheduled to make another recording session for Vocalion in 1929, but died from a gunshot wound in a dance-hall fight in Chicago the day before the session. Sources differ as to whether he was the intended recipient of the bullet. "I saw Pinetop spit blood" was a headline in DownBeat magazine in 1939. Smith died in Chicago on March 15, 1929. In 2014 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for him at Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

• 1245 — "Pinetop's Blues" — December 29, 1928 • 1245 — "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" — December 29, 1928 • 1256 — "Big Boy They Can't Do That" — January 15, 1929 • 1256 — "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" — January 15, 1929 • 1266 — "I'm Sober Now" — January 14, 1929 • 1266 — "I Got More Sense Than That" — January 14, 1929 • 1298 — "Jump Steady Blues" — January 15, 1929 • 1298 — "Now I Ain't Got Nothing At All" — January 15, 1929