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“There’ll Be Some Changes Made” is a transfer ticket redeemable nearly anywhere in the 20th Century. Written by two African-American vaudevillians, its debut recording issued by the first black-owned record label, “Changes Made” became a favorite of blues singers and underwent the typical mutations at the hands of jazz players. By the mid-’30s, it was a hot Western swing number, played by everyone from Bob Wills to Milton Brown to the Ozark Ramblers, and it kept in motion after the war, played by Chet Atkins and Tennessee Ernie Ford even as the song became part of the Dixieland jazz revival scene. Billie Holiday and the rockabilly Collins Kids cut the track around the same time; one of its last good recordings was a bit of glorious fluff by Ann-Margret. “Changes Made” at last fell out of fashion sometime in the ’60s, and it has been brought out on only a few occasions since (the Atkins/Mark Knopfler 1990 version, refitted with new, self-mocking lyrics about getting old, is a fine epitaph). Still, why had it lasted so long? What did it keep telling us? (via Locust St.)

“There’ll Be Some Changes Made” is a transfer ticket redeemable nearly anywhere in the 20th Century. Written by two African-American vaudevillians, its debut recording issued by the first black-owned record label, “Changes Made” became a favorite of blues singers and underwent the typical mutations at the hands of jazz players. By the mid-’30s, it was a hot Western swing number, played by everyone from Bob Wills to Milton Brown to the Ozark Ramblers, and it kept in motion after the war, played by Chet Atkins and Tennessee Ernie Ford even as the song became part of the Dixieland jazz revival scene. Billie Holiday and the rockabilly Collins Kids cut the track around the same time; one of its last good recordings was a bit of glorious fluff by Ann-Margret. “Changes Made” at last fell out of fashion sometime in the ’60s, and it has been brought out on only a few occasions since (the Atkins/Mark Knopfler 1990 version, refitted with new, self-mocking lyrics about getting old, is a fine epitaph). Still, why had it lasted so long? What did it keep telling us? (via Locust St.)

  1. douglaswolk posted this