Phil Baxter was an American songwriter, singer and band leader. Born on September 5, 1896 in Navarro County, Texas, he graduated from Daniel Baker College

Daniel Baker College

Daniel Baker College was founded April 5, 1889 in Brownwood, Texas and was named in memory of the Rev. Dr. Daniel Baker, a Presbyterian circuit-riding minister, who helped organize the first presbytery in Texas in 1840 and Austin College in 1849....

. He is perhaps best known for his novelty song, "Piccolo Pete", a notable hit for Ted Weems

Ted Weems

Wilfred Theodore Weems was an American bandleader and musician. Weems' work in music was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.- Biography :...

 and His Orchestra. Another song, "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas" was successfully recorded by many artists, including Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...

, Bennie Moten

Bennie Moten

Bennie Moten was a noted American jazz pianist and band leader born in Kansas City, Missouri.He led the Kansas City Orchestra, the most important of the itinerant, blues-based orchestras active in the Midwest in the 1920s, and helped to develop the riffing style that would come to define many of...

 and Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

.

Baxter led his own orchestra in the 1920s through the mid-1930s, leading two recording sessions, the first in October 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, and the second in October 1929, in Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

. In June 1927, "Phil Baxter and His Texas Tommies" performed at the just-opened El Torreon Ballroom in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, becoming, as "Phil Baxter and His El Torreon Orchestra", the ballroom's houseband from 1927 to 1933. Baxter would open and close each night with the band's theme song, "El Torreon", and their nightly performances were frequently broadcast by KMBC. He ultimately suspended much of his musical activities due to difficulties stemming from arthritis. Baxter died in 1972.

Notable Compositions

• Piccolo Pete
• Going, Going, Gone
• The One Man Band
• 'Leven Miles from Leavenworth
• Smile For Me
• A Faded Summer Love
• Five Piece Band
• Let's Have a Party
• Harmonica Harry
• You're the Sweetest Girl
• Have a Little Dream on Me
• I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas

External links

• Phil Baxter and His Orchestra at RedHotJazz.com