St. Louis Blues" is an American popular song composed by William Christopher Handy in the blues style. It remains a fundamental part of jazz musicians' repertoire. It was also one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song; it has been performed by numerous musicians of all styles from Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith to Glenn Miller and the Boston Pops Orchestra. It has been called "the jazzman's Hamlet". Published in September of 1914 by Handy's own company, it later gained such popularity that it inspired the dance step the "Foxtrot".
The version with Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong on cornet was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993. The 1929 version by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra (with Henry "Red" Allen) was inducted there in 2008.
Though the name of the song may imply that it is about events in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, it instead refers to a sophisticated woman from that city who has stolen the affection of the singer's lover.
The opening line, "I hate to see that evenin' sun go down" may be one of the more recognizable lyrics in pop music, and set the tone for many subsequent blues songs.
Handy said he had been inspired by a chance meeting with a black woman on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri distraught over her husband's absence, who lamented: "Ma man's got a heart like a rock cast in de sea", a key line of the song.[1] Details of the story vary but agree on the meeting and the phrase.
~ from Wikipedia
Lyrics:
I hate to see that evening sun go down
I hate to see that evening sun go down
'Cause, my baby, he's gone left this town
Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
If I'm feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
I'll pack my truck and make my give-a-way
St. Louis woman with her diamond ring
Pulls that man around by her
If it wasn't for her and her
That man I love would have gone nowhere, nowhere
I got the St. Louis Blues
Blues as I can be
That man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me
I love my baby like a school boy loves his pie
Like a Kentucky colonel loves his mint'n rye
I love my man till the day I die
by W.C. Handy
~ from Blues for Peace website (
visit link)
Coordinates taken at Scottrade Center, current home of the NHL's St. Louis Blues