Romanticizing the American Negro was an old established business when this song was written in 1928 - even Louis Armstrong recorded it, probably much to his own chagrin - and it was a runaway hit in giddy pre-Depression
America. Andy Razaf, otherwise known as the collaborator with Thomas "Fats" Waller (they wrote "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Ain't Misbehavin'" together), and J.C. Johnson (a bandleader who co-wrote "Dip Your Brush In the Sunshine"
and "She Belongs To Me") wrote this song, and it was recorded for Victor twice: the first by Nat Shilkret's band in June of '28, then this version on November 6. This is the more fun of the two versions, though Nat's full
band recording is certainly vital in its own right. These guys made a sound heard around the world and down through time - in Germany, where the "Comedian Harmonists" took their inspiration from Revelers' records, and in the
early 30s when the Mills Brothers early innovative sides had a definite Revelers' influence. This particular recording has not been reissued on CD yet as far as I know, though its flip side "Blue Shadows" has been (that
reissue CD, very nicely done, is obtainable here). The record this was sampled from had some crackle issues, and those have been
tamed with some carefully applied noise reduction.
