Yesterday I posted 10 audio clips by tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest. Among them was Night Train, a blues Forrest recorded in 1951 that became a big jukebox hit in '52 and beyond as others covered the song. After my post went up, I heard from Bill Kirchner, who educated me on the song's origins and drama.
Bill noted that Forrest's famous Night Train actually dates back to Happy Go Lucky Local by Duke Ellington in 1946 from The Deep South Suite. As Bill writes, “Forrest probably learned this song while he was on Duke’s band in the late '40s. Rumor has it that Duke later sued him but settled out of court." [Photo above of Duke Ellington by William P. Gottlieb]
As New England Public Radio jazz host Tom Reney noted in a 2017 post, Ellington never forgave Forrest, especially after the song became a bump-and-grind striptease anthem in the 1950s:
Ellington displayed a rare fit of pique over “Night Train” in Stanley Dance's “The World of Duke Ellington." In a passage about rock ’n’ roll, which Duke describes as a “brand name” that has no “musical mark of identification [besides] two or three little devices,” Dance asks if Ellington is “worried” that rock ’n’ roll players “may take some of your material?” Duke says, “They [took something] with 'Night Train.' They took 'Happy Go Lucky Local.' It hurts and it's offensive. You threaten to sue and you postpone until it’s too late, and then you get real mad. You do nothing but spoil your disposition.”
Given how popular Night Train became, one wonders whether Ellington's bitterness was partly the realization that he took too long on the song to get to the best part and that Forrest merely ditched the throat-clearing and cut to the chase. On the other hand, it stinks when someone “borrows" or takes something you created without giving you credit.
Which makes me think that Forrest was likely in a jam as that recording session neared and simply used the juicy part from Happy Go Lucky Local to get the date done, never imagining it would be more than a quick payday and forgotten. Ironic, of course, since the “kidnapped" track would become a high-profile hit and that the song title he threw out to the A&R guy to put on the song, Night Train, wound up being more popular and memorable than Ellington's 78.
Here's Ellington's 1946 recording of Happy Go Lucky Local, with solos by Ellington (p), Oscar Pettiford (b), Russell Procope (as), Jimmy Hamilton (cl) and Cat Anderson (tp)...
Here's Jimmy Forrest's Night Train recorded in late 1951...
Here's Forrest soloing with Count Basie in the 1970s from the documentary The Last of the Blue Devils...
And finally, here's James Brown on The T.A.M.I. Show in 1964 performing his own rendition of the song...
Bill noted that Forrest's famous Night Train actually dates back to Happy Go Lucky Local by Duke Ellington in 1946 from The Deep South Suite. As Bill writes, “Forrest probably learned this song while he was on Duke’s band in the late '40s. Rumor has it that Duke later sued him but settled out of court." [Photo above of Duke Ellington by William P. Gottlieb]
As New England Public Radio jazz host Tom Reney noted in a 2017 post, Ellington never forgave Forrest, especially after the song became a bump-and-grind striptease anthem in the 1950s:
Ellington displayed a rare fit of pique over “Night Train” in Stanley Dance's “The World of Duke Ellington." In a passage about rock ’n’ roll, which Duke describes as a “brand name” that has no “musical mark of identification [besides] two or three little devices,” Dance asks if Ellington is “worried” that rock ’n’ roll players “may take some of your material?” Duke says, “They [took something] with 'Night Train.' They took 'Happy Go Lucky Local.' It hurts and it's offensive. You threaten to sue and you postpone until it’s too late, and then you get real mad. You do nothing but spoil your disposition.”
Given how popular Night Train became, one wonders whether Ellington's bitterness was partly the realization that he took too long on the song to get to the best part and that Forrest merely ditched the throat-clearing and cut to the chase. On the other hand, it stinks when someone “borrows" or takes something you created without giving you credit.
Which makes me think that Forrest was likely in a jam as that recording session neared and simply used the juicy part from Happy Go Lucky Local to get the date done, never imagining it would be more than a quick payday and forgotten. Ironic, of course, since the “kidnapped" track would become a high-profile hit and that the song title he threw out to the A&R guy to put on the song, Night Train, wound up being more popular and memorable than Ellington's 78.
Here's Ellington's 1946 recording of Happy Go Lucky Local, with solos by Ellington (p), Oscar Pettiford (b), Russell Procope (as), Jimmy Hamilton (cl) and Cat Anderson (tp)...
Here's Jimmy Forrest's Night Train recorded in late 1951...
Here's Forrest soloing with Count Basie in the 1970s from the documentary The Last of the Blue Devils...
And finally, here's James Brown on The T.A.M.I. Show in 1964 performing his own rendition of the song...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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