1921
Paul Whiteman is crowned king of the chart with sixteen entries including #1 — “The King of Jazz” (a title that has always been controversial) and whose polished dance-music version of the sound is what “jazz” means to most white Americans. The tension between Whiteman’s symphonic smoothness and actual hot jazz (the Original Dixieland Jazz Band still charting, and the Black jazz world increasingly audible) will define the decade. Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” charts in pop data this year and she follows with three more entries; the race records industry she launched is real and growing. Ethel Waters makes her first chart appearance (#56, on Black Swan — the first Black-owned record label) — a name that will matter for the next fifty years. Marion Harris continues as the white singer who most convincingly understands blues phrasing. Enrico Caruso’s final recordings chart — he dies August 2, and the most famous voice of the acoustic era is gone. Zez Confrey’s “Kitten on the Keys” does for novelty piano what Joplin did for ragtime two decades earlier, and Van & Schenck’s “Ain’t We Got Fun?” captures the giddy defiance of Prohibition America in one line: “not much money, oh but honey, ain’t we got fun?”
Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra — “Wang Wang Blues” (#1) — Archive.org
Isham Jones & His Orchestra — “Wabash Blues” (#2) — Archive.org
Eddie Cantor — “Margie” (#6) — Archive.org
Marion Harris — “I Ain’t Got Nobody” (#24) — Archive.org
Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds — “Crazy Blues” (#22) — Archive.org
Original Dixieland Jazz Band — “Royal Garden Blues” (#29) — Archive.org
Ted Lewis & His Band — “Second Hand Rose” (#17) — Archive.org
Van & Schenck — “Ain’t We Got Fun?” (#12) — Archive.org
Zez Confrey & His Orchestra — “Kitten on the Keys” (#43) — Archive.org
Marion Harris — “Look for the Silver Lining” (#11) — Archive.org