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"Frankie and Johnny" (sometimes spelled "Frankie and Johnnie"; also known as "Frankie and Albert", "Frankie's Man", "Johnny", or just "Frankie") is amurder ballad, a traditionalAmerican popular song. It tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds her man Johnny making love to another woman and shoots him dead. Frankie is then arrested; in some versions of the song she is also executed.
The song was inspired by one or more actual murders. One of these took place in an apartment building located at 212 Targee Street in St. Louis, Missouri, at 2:00 on the morning of October 15, 1899.Frankie Baker (1876–1952),[1] a 22-year-old Black woman, shot her 17-year-old lover Allen (also known as "Albert") Britt in the abdomen. Britt had just returned from acakewalk at a local dance hall, where he and another woman, Nelly Bly (also known as "Alice Pryor" and no relation to the pioneering reporter who adopted the pseudonymNellie Bly or the "Nelly Bly" who was the subject of an 1850 song byStephen Foster), had won a prize in a slow-dancing contest. Britt died of his wounds four days later at the City Hospital.[2][3][4] On trial, Baker claimed that Britt had attacked her with a knife and that she acted in self-defense; she was acquitted and died in aPortland, Oregon mental institution in 1952.[citation needed]
In 1899, popular St Louis balladeer Bill Dooley composed "Frankie Killed Allen" shortly after the Baker murder case.[5] The first published version of the music to "Frankie and Johnny" appeared in 1904, credited to and copyrighted byHughie Cannon, the composer of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey"; the piece, a variant version of whose melody is sung today, was titled "He Done Me Wrong" and subtitled "Death of Bill Bailey".[6]
The song has also been linked toFrances "Frankie" Stewart Silver, convicted in 1832 of murdering her husband Charles Silver in Burke County, North Carolina. Unlike Frankie Baker, Silver was executed.[3][7]
Another variant of the melody, with words and music credited toFrank and Bert Leighton, appeared in 1908 under the title "Bill You Done Me Wrong"; this song was republished in 1912 as "Frankie and Johnny", this time with the words that appear in modern folk variations:
Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts
They had a quarrel one day
Johnny he vowed that he would leave her
Said he was going away
He's never coming home
Also:
Frankie took aim with her forty-four
Three times with a rooty-toot-toot
The 1912 "Frankie and Johnny" by the Leighton Brothers andRen Shields also identifies "Nellie Bly" as the new girl to whom Johnny has given his heart. What has come to be the traditional version of the melody was also published in 1912, as the verse to the song "You're My Baby", with music is attributed to Nat. D. Ayer.[8]
The familiar "Frankie and Johnny were lovers" lyrics first appeared (as "Frankie and Albert") inOn the Trail of Negro Folksongs by Dorothy Scarborough, published in 1925; a similar version with the "Frankie and Johnny" names appeared in 1927 inCarl Sandburg'sThe American Songbag.[9]
Several students offolk music have asserted that the song long predates the earliest published versions; according toLeonard Feather in hisBiographical Encyclopedia of Jazz[10] it was sung at theSiege of Vicksburg (1863) during theAmerican Civil War[11] and Sandburg said it was widespread before 1888, whileJohn Jacob Niles reported that it emerged before 1830.[3] The fact, however, that the familiar version did not appear in print before 1925 is "strange indeed for such an allegedly old and well-known song", according to music historian James J. Fuld, who suggests that it "is not so ancient as some of the folk-song writers would have one believe."[12]
| "Frankie and Johnny" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single byBrook Benton | ||||
| from the albumThe Boll Weevil Song and 11 Other Great Hits | ||||
| B-side | "It's Just a House Without You" | |||
| Released | August 1961 (1961-08) | |||
| Recorded | July 1961 | |||
| Genre | Pop,R&B | |||
| Length | 2:27 | |||
| Label | Mercury | |||
| Songwriters | Traditional, arranged by Brook Benton | |||
| Producer | Shelby Singleton | |||
| Brook Benton singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| "Frankie and Johnny" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single bySam Cooke | ||||
| B-side | "Cool Train" | |||
| Released | July 1963 | |||
| Recorded | 1963 | |||
| Genre | R&B | |||
| Length | 2:38 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Songwriters | Traditional, arranged by Brook Benton | |||
| Producer | Hugo & Luigi | |||
| Sam Cooke singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
At least 256 recordings of "Frankie and Johnny" have been made since the early 20th century. The very first recording was made in London in 1912 by American singerGene Greene.[13] Later singers include:
A 1966 recording byElvis Presley became agold record as the title song of a Presley movie. It reached number 14 inCanada.[15]
The earliest country recording of a Frankie song is Ernest Thompson's 1924 Columbia recording of "Frankie Baker", which is listed in Tony Russell'sCountry Music Records A Discography, 1921-1942,Oxford University Press, 2004,ISBN 978-0195366211. Thompson was a blind street singer fromWinston-Salem, North Carolina.
As ajazz standard it has also been recorded by numerous bands and instrumentalists includingLouis Armstrong,Sidney Bechet,Count Basie,Bunny Berigan,Dave Brubeck,Duke Ellington,Ray Brown (musician), andBenny Goodman.Champion Jack Dupree set his version in New Orleans, retitling it "Rampart and Dumaine".
Ace Cannon recorded an instrumental version for his 1994 albumEntertainer.
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The story of Frankie and Johnny has been the inspiration for several films, includingHer Man (1930, starringHelen Twelvetrees),Frankie and Johnny (1936, starringHelen Morgan), andFrankie and Johnny (1966, starringElvis Presley).Terrence McNally's 1987 play,Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, was adapted for a 1991 film titledFrankie and Johnny starringAl Pacino andMichelle Pfeiffer.
In 1930, director and actorJohn Huston wrote and produced a puppet play titledFrankie and Johnnie based on the Frankie Baker case. One of Huston's main sources was his interview with Baker and Britt's neighbor Richard Clay.[16][17]
ComedianHarry Langdon performed the song in his 1930 shortThe Fighting Parson, in a variant on hisvaudeville routine originally performed inblackface.Mae West inserted her ballad into her successful Broadway playDiamond Lil. West sang the ballad again in her 1933Paramount filmShe Done Him Wrong, which takes its title from the refrain, substituting genders. She also sang it many years later (1978) on theCBS television specialBack Lot U.S.A. The song was used in the 1932 filmRed-Headed Woman, in a scene where actressJean Harlow's character is drinking and lamenting having been jilted by her married lover. It is also sung by a river boat crew inBed of Roses, a film released the following year. Yvonne De Carlo sings the song while masquerading as an opera singer in the 1949 filmThe Gal Who Took the West.Moira Kelly sings it in the 1996 filmEntertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story.
The 1933pre-Code filmArizona to Broadway features drag performerGene Malin singing this song as he portrays Ray Best, a female impersonator and Mae West type.[18] Malin's performance is considered one of the earliest performances, if not the earliest, of a female impersonator on film.[18][19]
A dazzling musical number from the 1956MGM filmMeet Me in Las Vegas featuredCyd Charisse and dancerJohn Brascia acting out the roles of Frankie and Johnny whileSammy Davis Jr. sang the song.Mia Farrow, in the role of Jacqueline De Bellefort, sang/hummed a drunken rendition of the song in the 1978 version ofAgatha Christie'sDeath on the Nile, just before she attempts to shoot her former lover, Simon Doyle, played bySimon MacCorkindale.
Noah Baumbach's 1997 filmHighball features a scene where this song is sung as a karaoke tune.
The climax ofRobert Altman's 2006 filmA Prairie Home Companion isLindsay Lohan's rendition of the song with quasi-improvisatory lyrics byGarrison Keillor.
The tune is often used for comic effect in animated cartoon shorts, such as the 1932 Disney cartoonThe Klondike Kid (starringMickey Mouse) and various ones produced byWarner Bros. orMGM in the 1940s and 1950s, as a theme or leitmotif for ameretricious orzaftig woman. The song was the basis of a 1951UPA cartoonRooty Toot Toot, directed byJohn Hubley. It was nominated for anAcademy Award forBest Short Subject. A comedic live action usage comes in theblaxploitation filmPetey Wheatstraw where a woman auditions by singing the songoff-key, prompting a crude reply from Petey.
The song's intro is featured in the 1929 filmWeary River. It is sung by the main character Jerry Larrabee played byRichard Barthelmess. The character is a gangster reformed by music.Weary River costarsBetty Compson, who played Alice Gray, the faithful sweetheart of Larrabee, who did not like him singingFrankie and Johnny. A remarkable feature of this film is part silent film and part talkie. The film which was directed by Frank Lloyd, who was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Directing.
"Frankie and Johnnie" is parodied in act two, scene five ofE. E. Cummings' 1927 playHim.[20]
InNever Kick a Woman, aPopeye the Sailor cartoon short released byFleischer Studios on August 30, 1936, the song plays in the background when a sexy female boxer, based on film starMae West, appears and attempts to steal Popeye away from Olive Oyl.
In Robert A. Heinlein's 1954 science fiction novelThe Star Beast, Mr Kiku sings lyrics from Frankie and Johnny in three instances, the final being in the penultimate paragraph, "This story has no moral, this story has no end. This story only goes to show that there ain't no good in men."
Chicago'sRedmoon Theater Company presented an adaptation of the Frankie and Johnny story atSteppenwolf Theater in 1997.[21] The soundtrack was composed by Michael Zerang and performed byFred Armisen,Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Jeremy Ruthrauff.[22]
The full text oftwo variations of "Frankie and Johnny" at Wikisource
