Spencer Williams

Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs "Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "I've Found a New Baby", "Everybody Loves My Baby", "Tishomingo Blues", "Careless Love", and many others.

Biography

Spencer Williams was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was educated at St. Charles University in New Orleans.^[1][2]

Williams was performing in Chicago by 1907, and moved to New York City about 1916. After arriving in New York, he co-wrote several songs with Anton Lada of the Louisiana Five. Among those songs was "Basin Street Blues" which would become one of his most popular songs and is still recorded by musicians to this day.^[2]

Around the time of World War One he co-composed the song "Squeeze Me" with Fats Waller.^[1]

Williams toured Europe with bands from 1925 to 1928; during this time he wrote for Josephine Baker at the Folies Bergères in Paris. Williams then returned to New York for a few years. In 1932, he moved to Europe for good, spending many years in London before moving to Stockholm in 1951 where he spent most of the rest of his life. Williams returned to New York shortly before his death in Flushing, New York on July 14, 1965.^[2]

His hit songs include "Basin Street Blues", "She'll Be Comin Around That Mountain", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "Mahogany Hall Stomp", "I've Found a New Baby", "Everybody Loves My Baby", "Squeeze Me", "Shimmy-Sha-Wobble", "Boodle Am Shake", "Tishomingo Blues", "Fireworks", "I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None of My Jelly Roll", "Careless Love", "Arkansas Blues", "Paradise Blues", "When Lights Are Low","Dallas Blues", and "My Man o’ War".

Williams was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.^[3]

References