1923
The chart is getting wider than it has ever been — blues, country, jazz, novelty, Broadway, and orchestral sounds all coexisting. Two seismic arrivals: Bessie Smith records her debut for Columbia, and “Down Hearted Blues” sells 780,000 copies in six months, making her the biggest-selling Black artist in the country and crowning her the Empress of the Blues. And Ralph Peer records Fiddlin’ John Carson in Atlanta — the first commercially successful country recording, the moment rural Southern music enters the commercial record industry. “Yes! We Have No Bananas” becomes the “Baby Shark” of 1923, charting in four different versions; the public appetite for silly songs is bottomless. Paul Whiteman still dominates at #1, but the orchestra market is crowded now — Isham Jones, Vincent Lopez, Ben Bernie, Ted Lewis all competing. Al Jolson hits with “Toot Toot Tootsie (Goo’bye),” four years before he’ll sing it in The Jazz Singer. Marion Harris keeps bridging Tin Pan Alley and the blues.
Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra — “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” (#1) — Archive.org
Isham Jones & His Orchestra — “Swingin’ Down the Lane” (#2) — Archive.org
Billy Jones — “Yes! We Have No Bananas” (#4) — Archive.org
Bessie Smith — “Down Hearted Blues” (#5) — Archive.org
Marion Harris — “Aggravatin’ Papa” (#26) — Archive.org
Al Jolson — “Toot Toot Tootsie (Goo’bye)” (#6) — Archive.org
Virginians — “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” (#23) — Archive.org
Fiddlin’ John Carson — “The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane” (#97) — Archive.org
Bessie Smith — “T’ain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do” (#108) — Archive.org
Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra — “Wonderful One” (#31) — Archive.org