Pinetop Smith

{{Short description|American boogie-woogie pianist (1904-1929)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}} {{Use American English|date=February 2024}} {{Infobox musical artist |  | name = Pinetop Smith | image = | caption = | image_size = | background = solo_singer | birth_name = Clarence Smith | alias = | birth_date = {{birth date|1904|6|11}} | birth_place = Pike County, Alabama, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1929|3|15|1904|6|11}} | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | instrument = {{hlist|Piano|vocals}} | genre = {{hlist|Boogie-woogie|blues}} | occupation = {{hlist|Musician|comedian}} | years_active = {{circa}} 1920–1929 | label = Vocalion }}

'''Clarence "Pinetop" Smith''' (June 11, 1904 – March 15, 1929) was an American boogie-woogie style blues pianist. His hit tune "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" featured rhythmic "breaks" that were an essential ingredient of ragtime music, but also a fundamental foreshadowing of rock and roll.<ref name="Music"/> The song was also the first known use of the term "boogie woogie" on a record, and cemented that term as the moniker for the genre.

==Life and career== The son of Sam and Molly Smith,<ref name="EA"/> Clarence "Pinetop" Smith was born on June 11, 1904, in Pike County, Alabama.<ref name="TF">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=The Blues Encyclopedia|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hwk3AgAAQBAJ&dq=Pinetop+Smith+%22March+15,+1929%22&pg=PA897|entry=Smith, Clarence "Pine Top"|first=Bob|last=Hall|title=Encyclopedia of the Blues 2-Volume Set |page=897|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781135958312|editor-first1=Edward|editor-last1= Komara|editor-first2= Peter|editor-last2= Lee}}</ref><ref name="BIGBOOK">{{cite book|title=The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia|first= Robert|last= Santelli|year= 1993|chapter=Smith, Pine Top|page=374|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=9780140159394}}</ref> Sources disagree on the exact place of his birth with some stating he was born in Troy, Alabama<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-cBdIjRU08IC&dq=Pinetop+Smith+%22March+15,+1929%22+%22Troy,+Alabama%22&pg=PA72|title=Jazz and Death: Medical Profiles of Jazz Greats|first=Frederick J.|last= Spencer|year=2002|isbn=9781578064533|publisher=University Press of Mississippi}}</ref><ref name="BIGBOOK"/> and others stating he was born in Orion, Alabama just north of Troy.<ref name="TF"/><ref name="EA">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/clarence-pine-top-smith/|entry=Clarence "Pine Top" Smith|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Alabama|author=Wiregrass Blues Society|title=Smith, Clarence "Pine Top" |date=January 31, 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref name="EA"/> He received his nickname of "Pinetop" as a child from his liking for climbing trees.<ref name="silvester">{{cite book |first=Peter J. |last=Silvester |title=The Story of Boogie-Woogie: A Left Hand Like God |url=https://archive.org/details/storyboogiewoogi00silv |url-access=limited |year=1989 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyboogiewoogi00silv/page/n80 66]–73 |isbn=978-0810869240}}</ref> As a teenager he moved with his family to Birmingham, Alabama.<ref name="TF"/>

In 1920 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,<ref name="edwards">{{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=James |title=Innovators: Pine Top Smith |journal=Western Pennsylvania History |volume=90 |issue=3 |pages=6–7 |publisher=Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania |date= Fall 2007 |issn=1525-4755}}</ref> 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<ref name="Trail"/> 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.<ref name="Trail"/> For a time he, Albert Ammons, and Meade Lux Lewis lived in the same rooming house.<ref name="Devil">{{cite book|title=The Devil's Music|author=Giles Oakley|publisher=Da Capo Press|page=159/160|isbn=978-0-306-80743-5|date=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0|url-access=limited}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Devil"/> It was also the first recording to have the phrase 'boogie woogie' in the song's title.<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981|authorlink=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=Penguin Books|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/131 131]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/131}}</ref> Smith talks over the recording, telling how to dance to the number.<ref name="Music">{{cite book | first= Paul | last= Du Noyer | year= 2003 | title= The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music | edition= 1st | publisher= Flame Tree Publishing | location= Fulham, London | isbn= 1-904041-96-5 | page= 165}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Trail">{{cite web |url=http://www.thebluestrail.com/artists/mus_cs.htm |title=Clarence Pinetop Smith |website=The Blues Trail |access-date=August 22, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Devil"/> 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.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=I Saw Pinetop Spit Blood and Fall: The Life and Death of Clarence Smith, Creator of Boogie-Woogie |first=Sharon |last=Pease |magazine=Down Beat |volume=6 |number=10 |page=4 |date=October 1, 1939 |issn=0012-5768}}</ref>

Smith died in Chicago on March 15, 1929.<ref name="TF"/> In 2014 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for him at Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Headstones Placed|url=https://killerblues.net/headstones/|access-date=2025-11-23|website=Killerblues.net|language=en-US}}</ref>

==78 rpm singles - Vocalion Records== {| class="wikitable" |1245 |"Pinetop's Blues" |December 29, 1928 |- |1245 |"Pinetop's Boogie Woogie"<ref name=Vocalion>{{Cite web |title=Vocalion 78rpm numerical listing discography: 1000 - 1499 race series |url=https://www.78discography.com/VOC1000.htm |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=78discography.com}}</ref> |December 29, 1928 |- |1256 |"Big Boy They Can't Do That"<ref name=Vocalion/> |January 15, 1929 |- |1256 |"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"<ref name=Vocalion/> |January 15, 1929 |- |1266 |"I'm Sober Now"<ref name=Vocalion/> |January 14, 1929 |- |1266 |"I Got More Sense Than That"<ref name=Vocalion/> |January 14, 1929 |- |1298 |"Jump Steady Blues"<ref name=Vocalion/> |January 15, 1929 |- |1298 |"Now I Ain't Got Nothing At All"<ref name=Vocalion/> |January 15, 1929 |}

==Influence== Smith was acknowledged by other boogie-woogie pianists such as Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson as a key influence, and he gained posthumous fame when "Boogie Woogie" was arranged for big band and recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra in 1938.<ref name="Music"/> Although not immediately successful, "Boogie Woogie" was so popular during and after World War II<ref name=pc2a>{{Pop Chronicles 40s|2|A}}</ref> that it became Dorsey's best-selling record, with over five million copies sold. Bing Crosby (recorded January 21, 1946, with Lionel Hampton's Orchestra)<ref>{{cite web|title=A Bing Crosby Discography|url=http://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/bingmagazine/crosby1bDecca.html|website=BING magazine|publisher=International Club Crosby|access-date=September 11, 2017}}</ref> and Count Basie also issued their versions of the song.<ref name="Music"/>

From the 1950s, Joe Willie Perkins became universally known as "Pinetop Perkins" for his recording of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/Heritage00/Perkins.html |title=2000 NEA National Heritage Fellowships |website=National Endowment for the Arts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927194948/http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/Heritage00/Perkins.html |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |url-status=unfit |access-date=August 22, 2017}}</ref> Perkins later became Muddy Waters's pianist. When he was in his nineties, he recorded a song on his 2004 album ''Ladies' Man'', which played on the by-then common misconception that he had written "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie".

Ray Charles adapted "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" for his song "Mess Around", for which the authorship was credited to "A. Nugetre", Ahmet Ertegun.

In 1975, the Bob Thiele Orchestra recorded a modern jazz album called ''I Saw Pinetop Spit Blood'', which included a treatment of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" as well as the title song.

Gene Taylor recorded a version of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" on his eponymous 2003 album.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/gene-taylor-2003-album-by-gene-taylor?cat=entertainment|title=Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions|work=Answers.com|access-date=19 January 2015}}</ref>

Claes Oldenburg, the pop artist, proposed a Pinetop Smith Monument in his book ''Proposals for Monuments and Buildings 1965–69''. Oldenburg described the monument as "a wire extending the length of North Avenue, west from Clark Street, along which at intervals runs an electric impulse colored blue so that there's one blue line as far as the eye can see. Pinetop Smith invented boogie woogie blues at the corner of North and Larrabee, where he finally was murdered: the electric wire is 'blue' and dangerous."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publicaddress.us/downloads/oldenburg.pdf|title=The Poetry of Scale|publisher=Publicaddress.us|access-date=19 January 2015}}</ref>

==Awards and honors== Smith was a posthumous 1991 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jazzhall.com/inductees/index.htm |title=Inductees |website=Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame |access-date=August 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130403082241/http://www.jazzhall.com/inductees/index.htm |archive-date=April 3, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{AllMusic |class=artist |id=pinetop-smith-mn0000289045}} *{{Discogs artist|613401-Clarence-Pinetop-Smith}} *[https://syncopatedtimes.com/pine-top-smith-1904-1929/ Pinetop Smith] solo discography on Red Hot Jazz Archive *[https://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/blues/pine-top-smith Pinetop Smith] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926004710/https://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/blues/pine-top-smith |date=September 26, 2013 }} at Pittsburgh Music History

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Pinetop}} Category:1904 births Category:1929 deaths Category:People from Troy, Alabama Category:African-American pianists Category:Boogie-woogie pianists Category:American blues pianists Category:American street performers Category:American vaudeville performers Category:Musicians from Pittsburgh Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:Deaths by firearm in Illinois Category:Murdered African-American people Category:American murder victims Category:20th-century American pianists Category:20th-century African-American musicians Category:Burials at Restvale Cemetery Category:20th-century American male pianists