Bill Doggett
Encyclopedia
Bill Doggett was an American
jazz
and rhythm and blues
pianist
and organist
. He is best known for his tracks, "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", and variously working with The Ink Spots
, Johnny Otis
, Wynonie Harris
, Ella Fitzgerald
, and Louis Jordan
.
, United States
. His mother, a church pianist, introduced him to music when he was nine years old. By the time he was fifteen, he had joined a Philadelphia area combo, playing local theaters and clubs while attending high school.
Doggett later sold his band to Lucky Millinder
, and worked during the 1930s and early 1940s for both Millinder and arranger Jimmy Mundy
. In 1942 he was hired as The Ink Spots
' pianist and arranger.
Toward the end of 1947, he replaced Wild Bill Davis
as the pianist for Louis Jordan
's Tympany Five
. It was in Jordan's group that he first achieved success playing the Hammond organ
. In 1950 he is reputed to have written one of Jordan's biggest hits, "Saturday Night Fish Fry", for which Jordan claimed the writing credit.
In 1951, Doggett organized his own trio and began recording for King Records
. His best known recording is "Honky Tonk
", a rhythm and blues
hit of 1956 which sold four million copies (reaching #1 R&B and #2 Pop), and which he co-wrote with Billy Butler
. The track topped the US
Billboard
R&B
chart
for over two months. He won the Cash Box award for best rhythm and blues performer in 1957, 1958, and 1959. He also arranged for many bandleader
s and performers, including Louis Armstrong
, Count Basie
, Ella Fitzgerald
, and Lionel Hampton
.
As a jazz player Doggett started in swing music and later played soul jazz
. His bands included saxophonists Red Holloway
, Clifford Scott, Percy France, David "Bubba" Brooks
, Clifford Davis, and Floyd "Candy" Johnson; guitarists Floyd Smith
, Billy Butler
, Sam Lackey and Pete Mayes
; and singers Edwin Starr
, Toni Williams and Betty Saint-Clair. His biggest hits, "Honky Tonk" (the Part 2 side of the record) and "Slow Walk" featured saxophonist Clifford Scott.
He continued to play and arrange until he died, aged 80, of a heart attack
in New York
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
. He is best known for his tracks, "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", and variously working with The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots were a popular vocal group in the 1930s and 1940s that helped define the musical genre that led to rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and the subgenre doo-wop...
, Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
, Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris , born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American blues shouter and rhythm and blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. With fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952, Harris is generally considered one of rock and roll's forerunners, influencing Elvis Presley...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, and Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
.
Biography
William Ballard Doggett was born in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His mother, a church pianist, introduced him to music when he was nine years old. By the time he was fifteen, he had joined a Philadelphia area combo, playing local theaters and clubs while attending high school.
Doggett later sold his band to Lucky Millinder
Lucky Millinder
Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder was an American rhythm and blues and swing bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful...
, and worked during the 1930s and early 1940s for both Millinder and arranger Jimmy Mundy
Jimmy Mundy
Jimmy Mundy was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, arranger, and composer, best known for his arrangements for Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Earl Hines....
. In 1942 he was hired as The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots were a popular vocal group in the 1930s and 1940s that helped define the musical genre that led to rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and the subgenre doo-wop...
' pianist and arranger.
Toward the end of 1947, he replaced Wild Bill Davis
Wild Bill Davis
Wild Bill Davis was the stage name of American jazz pianist, organist, and arranger William Strethen Davis.Davis was born in Glasgow, Missouri...
as the pianist for Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
's Tympany Five
Tympany Five
Tympany Five was a successful rhythm and blues and jazz dance band founded by Louis Jordan in 1938. The group was composed of a horn section of three to five different pieces and also drums, double bass, guitar and piano. After playing in Chicago at the Capitol Lounge in 1941, Jordan and his band...
. It was in Jordan's group that he first achieved success playing the Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
. In 1950 he is reputed to have written one of Jordan's biggest hits, "Saturday Night Fish Fry", for which Jordan claimed the writing credit.
In 1951, Doggett organized his own trio and began recording for King Records
King Records (USA)
King Records is an American record label, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan and originally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.-History:At first it specialized in country music, at the time still known as "hillbilly music." King advertised, "If it's a King, It's a Hillbilly -- If it's a Hillbilly, it's a...
. His best known recording is "Honky Tonk
Honky Tonk (song)
Honky Tonk is an instrumental written by Billy Butler, Bill Doggett, Clifford Scott and Shep Shepherd. In 1956, Doggett released it on a two-part single. On the Billboard pop charts, it peaked at number two for three weeks....
", a rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
hit of 1956 which sold four million copies (reaching #1 R&B and #2 Pop), and which he co-wrote with Billy Butler
Billy Butler (guitarist)
Billy Butler was an American soul jazz guitarist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.He played with The Harlemaires, Tommy Flanagan, tenor saxophonist Floyd "Candy" Johnson, Houston Person, organist Harry "Doc" Bagby, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Smith, David "Fathead" Newman, Eddie ...
. The track topped the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
R&B
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
for over two months. He won the Cash Box award for best rhythm and blues performer in 1957, 1958, and 1959. He also arranged for many bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
s and performers, including Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, and Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
.
As a jazz player Doggett started in swing music and later played soul jazz
Soul jazz
Soul jazz is a development of jazz incorporating strong influences from blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often an organ trio featuring a Hammond organ.- Overview :Soul jazz is often associated with hard bop. Mark C...
. His bands included saxophonists Red Holloway
Red Holloway
James W. "Red" Holloway is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Holloway started playing banjo and harmonica, switching to tenor sax when he was twelve years old...
, Clifford Scott, Percy France, David "Bubba" Brooks
Bubba Brooks
David Kenneth Brooks, Jr., better known as Bubba Brooks or Bubber Brooks was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He was the brother of Tina Brooks....
, Clifford Davis, and Floyd "Candy" Johnson; guitarists Floyd Smith
Floyd Smith
Ronald Floyd Smith was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres and who coached for 4 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Buffalo Sabres...
, Billy Butler
Billy Butler
William Butler was an English professional footballer who was most famously a winger for Bolton Wanderers in the 1920s....
, Sam Lackey and Pete Mayes
Pete Mayes
Pete Mayes was an American Texas blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. He was variously known as Texas Pete Mayes and T-Bone Man; the latter a reference to his guitar playing resembling his hero, T-Bone Walker.Mayes' made few recordings but For Pete's Sake was released in 1998, nearly fifty...
; and singers Edwin Starr
Edwin Starr
Edwin Starr was an American soul music singer. Starr is most famous for his Norman Whitfield produced singles of the 1970s, most notably the number one hit "War".-Biography:...
, Toni Williams and Betty Saint-Clair. His biggest hits, "Honky Tonk" (the Part 2 side of the record) and "Slow Walk" featured saxophonist Clifford Scott.
He continued to play and arrange until he died, aged 80, of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Chart singles
- "Bee-Baba-Leba" (vocal), Helen HumesHelen HumesHelen Humes was an American jazz and blues singer.Humes was successively a teenaged blues singer, band vocalist with Count Basie, saucy R&B diva and a mature interpreter of the classy popular song.-Career:...
(Philo 106) 1945 (#3 R&B) - "Honky Tonk" (King 4950) 1956 (#1 R&B/#2 Pop)
- "Slow Walk" (King 5000) 1956 (#4 R&B/#26 Pop)
- "Ram-Bank-Shush" (King 5020) 1957 (#10 R&B/#67 Pop)
- "Leaps and Bounds" (King 5101) 1958 (#13 R&B)
- "Hold It" (King 5149) 1958 (#3 R&B/#92 Pop)
- "Rainbow Riot" (King 5159) 1959 (#15 R&B)
- "Monster Party" (King 5176) 1959 (#27 R&B)
- "Yocky Dock" (King 5256) 1959 (#30 R&B)
Albums
- Honky Tonk (1956)
- Dame Dreaming with Bill Doggett (1956)
- Salute To Ellington (1956)
- As You Desire Me (1958)
- Dance Awhile with Doggett (1958)
- Doggett Beat for Dancing Feet (1958)
- The Many Moods of Bill Doggett (1961)
- 3,046 People Danced 'Til 4 A.M. to Bill Doggett (1961)
- Rhythm is My Business (Ella Fitzgerald with Bill Doggett) (1962)
- Prelude to the blues (1962)
- Fingertips (1963)
- Wow!Wow! (Bill Doggett album)Wow! is 1956 album by Bill Doggett. - Track listing :#"Wow!" – 2:36#"Oo-Da" – 3:52#"Or Mose Blues" – 8:06#"Happy Soul Time" – 2:48#"The Kicker" – 2:42#"Mudeat" – 2:36#"Ram-Bunk-Shush" – 3:12...
(1965) - Mister Honky Tonk (1980)
- The Right Choice (1991)