Don't Care Blues

New York: Perry Bradford Music Co. Inc, 1921. First Edition. Slim quarto (31cm); original pictorial wrappers; 6pp. Some wear to extremities, short splits to upper and lower spine fold, shallow loss to upper right corners, with light finger-soil to margins; Very Good.

Early piece of blues sheet music by African American composer, songwriter, and vaudeville performer Perry Bradford (1893-1970), whose hit song "Crazy Blues" broke a significant color barrier when he convinced Fred Hager of Okeh Records to record Mamie Smith singing it in 1920. "Don't Care Blues" is a story of love, loss, and longing, told from the perspective of a woman scorned (truncated) by her lover. Like "Crazy Blues," it was most famously sung by Mamie Smith, backed by her Jazz Hounds, with Bradford on the keys, recorded in 1921 as Okeh Records 4253, along with "Lovin' Sam From Alabam" (a portion of which appears here on p.2). Uncommon; while the recording is held in OCLC, we find no separate listing there for the sheet music. 84111. (Inventory #: 84111)