399. Frankie and Johnny (Traditional American) Video

The origins of this song, also known as "Frankie and Albert", are unclear. It has been suggested that it was inspired by an incident in 1899 in St Louis. Missouri, when a 22-year-old mulatto dancer, Frankie, murdered her 17-year-old black lover, Al Britt, who was two-timing her with a woman named Alice Pryor. Others say the song was adapted to fit this story and that it is much older. The melody normally used today is thought to have been written by Nat D. Ayer and first published in 1912 as the chorus to a song called "You're My Baby". The first published version of lyrics similar to those known today was in 1925 in "On the Trail of Negro Folksongs" by Dorothy Scarborough, under the title "Frankie and Albert," followed two years later by a similar version using the name "Frankie and Johnny" in Carl Sandburg's "The American Songbag". Sandburg himself said the song was common along the Mississippi River and among railroad men as early as 1888, while John Jacob Niles dated it as early as the late 1820s. Others suggest it is much more recent, saying that it is unlikely that there would be no published versions until the 1920s if the song were really as old as claimed. Among the hundreds who have recorded this song are Lead Belly, Johnny Cash, Josh White, Sam Cooke, Lonnie Donegan, Mississippi John Hurt, Elvis Presley (from his 1966 film of that name), Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Taj Mahal, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmie Rodgers, Gene ...