Pinetop Smith
American boogie-woogie pianist (1904-1929)

Pinetop Smith
Born
Clarence Smith

(1904-06-11)June 11, 1904
Pike County, Alabama, U.S.
DiedMarch 15, 1929(1929-03-15) (aged 24)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • comedian
Instruments
  • Piano
  • vocals
Years activec. 1920–1929
LabelsVocalion
Musical artist

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.[1] 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,[2] Clarence "Pinetop" Smith was born on June 11, 1904 in Pike County, Alabama.[3][4] Sources disagree on the exact place of his birth with some stating he was born in Troy, Alabama[5][4] and others stating he was born in Orion, Alabama just north of Troy.[3][2] 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.[2] He received his nickname of "Pinetop" as a child from his liking for climbing trees.[6] As a teenager he moved with his family to Birmingham, Alabama.[3]

In 1920 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,[7] 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[8] 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.[8] For a time he, Albert Ammons, and Meade Lux Lewis lived in the same rooming house.[9]

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.[9] It was also the first recording to have the phrase 'boogie woogie' in the song's title.[10] Smith talks over the recording, telling how to dance to the number.[1] 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.[8][9] 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.[11]

Smith died in Chicago on March 15, 1929.[3] In 2014 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for him at Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.[12]

78 rpm singles - Vocalion Records

1245 "Pinetop's Blues" December 29, 1928
1245 "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie"[13] December 29, 1928
1256 "Big Boy They Can't Do That"[13] January 15, 1929
1256 "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"[13] January 15, 1929
1266 "I'm Sober Now"[13] January 14, 1929
1266 "I Got More Sense Than That"[13] January 14, 1929
1298 "Jump Steady Blues"[13] January 15, 1929
1298 "Now I Ain't Got Nothing At All"[13] 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.[1] Although not immediately successful, "Boogie Woogie" was so popular during and after World War II[14] 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)[15] and Count Basie also issued their versions of the song.[1]

From the 1950s, Joe Willie Perkins became universally known as "Pinetop Perkins" for his recording of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie".[16] 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.[17]

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."[18]

Awards and honors

Smith was a posthumous 1991 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (1st ed.). Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. p. 165. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.
  2. ^ a b c Wiregrass Blues Society (January 31, 2022). "Clarence "Pine Top" Smith". Encyclopedia of Alabama.
  3. ^ a b c d Hall, Bob (2004). "Smith, Clarence "Pine Top"". In Komara, Edward; Lee, Peter (eds.). The Blues Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 897. ISBN 9781135958312.
  4. ^ a b Santelli, Robert (1993). "Smith, Pine Top". The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Penguin Books. p. 374. ISBN 9780140159394.
  5. ^ Spencer, Frederick J. (2002). Jazz and Death: Medical Profiles of Jazz Greats. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781578064533.
  6. ^ Silvester, Peter J. (1989). The Story of Boogie-Woogie: A Left Hand Like God. Scarecrow Press. pp. 66–73. ISBN 978-0810869240.
  7. ^ Edwards, James (Fall 2007). "Innovators: Pine Top Smith". Western Pennsylvania History. 90 (3). Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania: 6–7. ISSN 1525-4755.
  8. ^ a b c "Clarence Pinetop Smith". The Blues Trail. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  9. ^ a b c Giles Oakley (1997). The Devil's Music. Da Capo Press. p. 159/160. ISBN 978-0-306-80743-5.
  10. ^ Robert Palmer (1981). Deep Blues. Penguin Books. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6.
  11. ^ Pease, Sharon (October 1, 1939). "I Saw Pinetop Spit Blood and Fall: The Life and Death of Clarence Smith, Creator of Boogie-Woogie". Down Beat. Vol. 6, no. 10. p. 4. ISSN 0012-5768.
  12. ^ "Headstones Placed". Killerblues.net. Retrieved November 23, 2025.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g "Vocalion 78rpm numerical listing discography: 1000 - 1499 race series". 78discography.com. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  14. ^ Gilliland, John (1994). Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s (audiobook). ISBN 978-1-55935-147-8. OCLC 31611854. Tape 2, side A.
  15. ^ "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  16. ^ "2000 NEA National Heritage Fellowships". National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  17. ^ "Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions". Answers.com. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  18. ^ "The Poetry of Scale" (PDF). Publicaddress.us. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  19. ^ "Inductees". Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 3, 2013. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  • Pinetop Smith at AllMusic
  • Pinetop Smith discography at Discogs
  • Pinetop Smith solo discography on Red Hot Jazz Archive
  • Pinetop Smith Archived September 26, 2013, at the Wayback Machine at Pittsburgh Music History
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