Bessie Smith, one of the most popular and talented blues singers of all time, paired with a very young Louis Armstrong on cornet, sings what is considered to be one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song. I don't think there is any question as to why this tune found its way onto the list. This version of the song has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
"I hate to see the evening sun go down" Smith belts out at the start of this emotional lament of heart break. (Bessie Smith's own story is one of sorrow, dying in a car accident at the young age of 33 near Clarksdale, Mississippi). William Christopher Handy, the song's original creator, claims that he was inspired to write the song after a St. Louis woman mourned to him about her husband disappearing and leaving her.
I can recommend this classic as one worth hearing for Bessie's brilliant voice alone...Armstrong's cornet playing is simply icing on the cake.
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