Ain't Nobody's Business-

Bessie Smith

Ain't Nobody's Business is one of the earliest blues songs, making its entrance into the world of music sometime in the early 1920's.  Most sources cite Porter Grange as the author of the song.

The song, in its older forms, sounds like those vaudeville tunes, but one can hear the rumblings of new music, as the blues was a way to challenge some of the standard music of the day.  Many of the early blues singers were African Americans, who had limited opportunities to work and make money, so they became entertainers or worked in the fields.

The blues began in the belly of gospel but soon was making it on its own, as the rhythms and the wailing were similar but not the words.  Bessie Smith's rendition of Ain't Nobody's Business with her other songs about women and men doing what comes naturally described in the most vivid way underlined how blues matched the 1920's "let the good times roll."  And Ain't Nobody's Business had a little "attitude" that seemed to describe the elements of the era in which the song was created.  Some of that attitude was particularly explicit about women with early verses narrating how "Poppa" beats the errant gal.

Some of those music artists who have performed this song include Dinah Washington, Diana Ross, Otis Spann, Hank Williams Jr., Freddie King, Frank Stokes, Mississippi John Hurt, Eric Clapton, Wingnut Dishwasher's Union, Willie Nelson and Shirley Witherspoon.

The blues the way it was done in those early days had that distinctive sound we find today in the threads of modern music, especially the blues, that is now popular around the world.

The song is here, done with ukulele and vocal and a solo with the ukulele to demonstrate the popularity of the uke with the songs of the 1920's.