A Glug from the Little Brown Jug at the End Quiz

Answer: Instrumental

No singer was needed, as it is an instrumental.

"Rhapsody in Blue" premiered on Tuesday, February 12, 1924, as part of a concert entitled "An Experiment in Modern Music". The audience was underwhelmed until the first clarinet glissando released from Ross Gorman filled the air, and Gershwin's piano was heard. The audience loved it, the critics were often negative.

Well, Gershwin's piece is still heard and loved nearly 100 years later. The critics might have been wrong!

Answer: Sweet Georgia Brown

"Well let me tell you well no chick made
Could be the same
As Sweet Georgia Brown
Crazy feet that dance so neat
Has sweet Georgia Brown"

Ben Bernie met with George Thaddeus Brown- a member of the Georgia State House of Representatives- who talked about his young daughter named Georgia. Together with Maceo Pinkard and the future member of the three Stooges, Kenneth Casey, they wrote this song.

It was first recorded on March 19 by Ben Bernie and his Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra and stayed at number one for five weeks.

The Harlem Globetrotters made it their theme song years later.

Answer: Blue Skies

"Never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you're in love, my how they fly"

"Blue skies" was an Irving Berlin song for the Rodgers and Hammerstein show "Betsy" in 1926. It was the cat's meow, that tune. So in 1927 it was available from Bell Baker, different orchestras, Vaughn De Leath, the Giersdorf Sisters and most successful: The Knickerbockers, vocals done by Charles Kaley. No wonder that Al Jolson sung it in the first Talkie "The Jazz Singer".

Answer: My Blue Heaven

"Whippoorwills call, evenin' is nigh
Hurry to my Blue Heaven
Turn to the right, there's a little white light
Will lead you to my Blue Heaven"

"My Blue Heaven" was recorded on September 14, 1927 by Gene Austin and also by Paul Whiteman, plus his orchestra. It was written by Walter Donaldson and George A. Whiting.

Gene Austin and Paul Whiteman had a hit with that song in 1928, Gene Austin having the bigger one.

The Eastern whip-poor-will is a nightjar, a bird. So now you know it, Betty.

Answer: Am I Blue

"Am I blue?
Am I blue?
Ain't these tears
In these eyes tellin' you?"

While the song was about love, I strongly suspect people who lost everything in the Wall street crash felt certainly that way.

The song was by Harry Akst (music) and Grant Clarke (lyrics), and it was featured in four movies that year. Ethel Waters performed it in "On with the Show!" carrying a basket with cotton on a stage, dressed a bit too good for that kind of work. I only saw this black and white, but at the time the movie was the first all color, all talking feature-length movie.

Answer: Yellow Dog Blues

In 1913, a Jockey ran away with the money:

"When she found out "Jockey" was not there
Miss Susie cried out in despair "

The song "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone" was a 1913 Shelton Brooks song. It was blessed with an answer song by W.C. Handy two years later. First under the title "Yellow Dog Rag", which didn't get enough response, so in 1919 Handy jumped on the popular Blues wagon and renamed it in "Yellow Dog Blues".
As mentioned in the question: in 1930, Ted Lewis & His Band recorded it and made it into the charts.

"So he had to vamp it but the hike ain't far
He's gone where the Southern cross' the Yellow Dog"

"Southern Cross" was the Southern Railway, the "Yellow Dog" was the "Yazoo Delta Railroad". So he run away not with a colorful canine but using the train.
Poor little Susie.

Answer: Blue Yodel #9 (Standing on the Corner)

"Standin' on the corner, I didn't mean no harm
Along come a police, he took me by the arm
It was down in Memphis, corner of Beale and Main
He says, "Big boy, you'll have to tell me your name""

Jimmie Rodgers released quite a lot of yodels in his lifetime. Which wasn't that long, as he died aged 35 from a pulmonary hemorrhage. He had suffered from tuberculosis for a long time.

Rodgers was a former railroad worker. "Blue Yodel # 9" is a blues/country song and features in the Rock and roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and roll". Louis Armstrong played the trumpet and Armstrong's wife Lil the piano on his recording.

So Betty chose a nice present, still recognized today, didn't she?

Answer: Red Sails In The Sunset

"Red sails in the sunset
Way out on the sea
Oh, carry my loved one
Home safely to me"

Irish Songwriter Jimmy Kennedy was inspired by a yacht he often saw. Together with Hugh Williams - a pseudonym for Austrian Wilhelm Grosz - a hit came alive. Grosz had to leave Europe, he was Jewish. Fun fact: a German version of the song was released in Germany, because of his pseudonym.

Bing Crosby was one of many who sung, sorry crooned, that song in 1935. Another one was Al Bowly and in the 1950s Nat King Cole.

Answer: yes

"When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
And the stars begin to flicker in the sky
Through the mist of a memory you wander back to me
Breathing my name with a sigh
In the still of the night once again I hold you tight"

"Deep Purple" was the biggest hit written by Peter DeRose in 1933, and quite a seller as an example of the then popular sheet music. In 1938 Mitchell Parish added lyrics to the up 'til that moment instrumental piece.

End of 1938, Larry Clinton and his orchestra together with singer Bea Wain recorded it. In the begin of 1939 the song was number one on the U.S. popular music charts for nine weeks.

Ritchie Blackmore's (guitarist and songwriter of Deep Purple) grandmother loved this song and she did play it on piano. Who would have thought that a hard rock band would choose the name after granny's favourite song? Especially as "in the still of the night" does not quite harmonize with that genre!


About the picture: hard rocks and a deep purple filling the rest of the picture.

Answer: alcohol

"Me and my wife live all alone
In a little log hut we're all our own;
She loves gin and I love rum,
And don't we have a lot of fun!
Ha, ha, ha, you and me,
Little brown jug, don't I love thee!"

Glenn Miller's version was instrumental, but it was already published in 1869 by Joseph Eastburn Winner and was a drinking song. It is about a married couple who gets all their fun by getting drunk. It was again popular while Prohibition was around. Miller and his orchestra had an early chart hit in 1939.

Cheers!