Kansas Joe McCoy

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Kansas Joe McCoy, in full Wilbur Joe McCoy, was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter in the Delta blues. He was born in 1905 in Raymond, Mississippi, and was the older brother of the blues accompanist Papa Charlie McCoy. As a young man he was drawn by the music scene of Memphis, where in the 1920s he played guitar and sang. There he formed a duo with his later wife, the guitarist Lizzie Douglas, better known as Memphis Minnie. Their 1930 recording of Bumble Bee for Columbia Records became a hit. That same year they moved to Chicago, where they were an important part of the emerging blues scene.

Music and breakthrough

After their divorce he formed the Harlem Hamfats together with his brother. In 1936 that band recorded The Weed Smoker's Dream. McCoy later reworked the song, changed the lyrics and gave it the title Why Don't You Do Right?. Lil Green recorded it in 1941, and a year later Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee made a version of it, with which Lee scored her first hit. It remains a jazz standard and is his most enduring composition. In the 1940s he led the band Big Joe and his Rhythm, with Robert Nighthawk on harmonica, among others. He died in 1950 in Chicago, aged 44.

Influence

His influence extends to rock. Robert Plant played Jimmy Page a recording of When the Levee Breaks by McCoy and Memphis Minnie, after which Led Zeppelin recorded the song for Led Zeppelin IV (1971). Neither of them was credited on the first release, though Minnie later received recognition.

Listening