St. Louis Blues

St. Louis Blues” was written by bandleader and composer W.C. Handy and published in 1914, right at the moment when blues was beginning to move from folk tradition into the popular music world. Handy had absorbed early blues sounds traveling through the South, and he transformed those ideas into a written composition that could be sold as sheet music and performed by dance bands and singers. The song quickly became a widespread hit, helping to earn Handy the nickname “Father of the Blues” and turning this tune into one of the foundational pieces of American popular and jazz repertoire.

Musically, it’s a fascinating bridge between older styles and what your students will recognize as jazz and blues. The song mixes a 12‑bar blues feel with more pop‑song elements and even a tango‑influenced section, so it doesn’t sit in a single, simple groove the whole time. Over the decades it’s been recorded by countless artists, from early vaudeville singers and dance bands to Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, and later jazz musicians, which is why it lives so strongly in the jazz tradition today. When your students learn “St. Louis Blues,” they’re not just learning a tune; they’re stepping into a piece of history that helped define what blues and jazz would become.