Performers
Notable performers include James Booker, Duke Ellington, Kermit Ruffins, King Oliver, Jerry Reed, Artie Shaw, Lead Belly, Big Mama Thornton, Jack Teagarden, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Cassandra Wilson, Stan Kenton, Josh White, Lou Rawls, Bobby Bland, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Doc Watson, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Van Ronk, "Spider" John Koerner, Janis Joplin, The Doors, Paul Butterfield, The Animals, The Standells, and more recently The White Stripes, the Stray Cats, the Tarbox Ramblers, Snooks Eaglin, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, and Tom Jones with Jools Holland. Jazz guitarists Marc Ribot and Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones, and pianist Allen Toussaint have recorded instrumental versions.
Cab Calloway can be seen singing it and dancing a slide dance in the Betty Boop cartoon Snow White. His performance was filmed, then transferred using rotoscoping. The Bing Crosby musical Birth of the Blues featured the song in 1941.
Bob Dylan used the melody in his song "Blind Willie McTell" (released on Bootleg Series, Volumes 1–3), named for blues singer Blind Willie McTell (who had recorded a version under the title "Dying Crapshooter's Blues"); the song makes reference to the St. James Hotel in Minneapolis.
Live versions appear on Joe Cocker's albums Joe Cocker (1972), and Live in L.A. (1976). The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo performed the song regularly on their tours of the US in the early 1970s. In November 1975, Lily Tomlin performed the song with Howard Shore and His All-Nurse Band on NBC's Saturday Night. Paul Shaffer was the piano player. The White Stripes did a version of the song on their 1999 self-titled album. In 2002, the song appeared in Osamu Tezuka's anime film Metropolis as performed by Atsushi Kimura.
Van Morrison recorded a rendition on the 2003 Grammy-nominated album, What's Wrong with This Picture? and a live version on the limited edition album, Live at Austin City Limits Festival (2006). Eric Clapton and Dr. John performed the song during a 1996 concert. Arlo Guthrie performed it on NPR's Talk of the Nation on November 14, 2001. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band performed it at the 2010 Newport Folk Festival (recorded by NPR). Robert Crumb released a version on a CD included in the R. Crumb Handbook. Hugh Laurie recorded the song in 2011 on the album Let Them Talk adding an extended intro which sampled the songs "House of the Rising Sun" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want".
In February 2012, Trombone Shorty and Booker T. Jones performed an instrumental version as the opening number of the "Red, White, and Blues" concert at the White House.
The song, performed by the Spirit of New Orleans Brass Band, is featured in a New Orleans funeral scene in the 1999 film Double Jeopardy.
Read more about this topic: St. James Infirmary Blues
Famous quotes containing the word performers:
“The reason I’m in this business, I assume all performers are—it’s “Look at me, Ma!” It’s acceptance, you know—”Look at me, Ma, look at me, Ma, look at me, Ma.” And if your mother watches, you’ll show off till you’re exhausted; but if your mother goes, Ptshew!”
—Lenny Bruce (1925–1966)
“... we performers are monsters. We are a totally different, far-out race of people. I totally and completely admit, with no qualms at all, my egomania, my selfishness, coupled with a really magnificent voice.”
—Leontyne Price (b. 1927)