Shelton Brooks

Shelton Brooks (May 4, 1886 – September 6, 1975) was a Canadian-born African American composer of popular music and jazz.[1] He wrote some of the biggest hits of the first third of the 20th century.[2]

Shelton Brooks
Born(1886-05-04)May 4, 1886
Amherstburg, Dominion of Canada
DiedSeptember 6, 1975(1975-09-06) (aged 89)
Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
OccupationPopular music and jazz composer

Early life and education

Brooks was born in Amherstburg, Canada. His family moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1901.

Career

Brooks sang, played piano, and performed on the vaudeville circuit (notably, as a Bert Williams imitator) as well as having a successful songwriting career. His first hit song was "Some of These Days", which he was able to get to headliner Sophie Tucker in 1909.[3] Tucker adopted it as her theme song, and performed it regularly for the next 55 years.

He starred in several 1920s musical comedies. He appeared in the cast of Lew Leslie's Plantation Revue, which was opened in 1922.[3] After the sudden death of his partner Florence Mills in 1927, he stopped appearing in stage shows and pursued a nightclub act. He had a radio show on the CBS network in the 1930s, and he is also credited as a contributor to the music featured in the 1932 film Harlem Is Heaven. In the 1940s he became a regular in Ken Murray's "Blackouts", a long-running salute to burlesque that played in both New York and Los Angeles, California.

Brooks sang and provided piano accompaniments on records with vocalists Ethel Waters and Sara Martin.[3]

Discography

Brooks' works include "Some of These Days", "At the Darktown Strutters' Ball",[4] "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone", "Every Day", "Somewhere in France", "Swing That Thing", "That Man of Mine", and "There'll Come a Time".

He also composed "Honey Gal, You Aint Talkin' to Me" and "If I Were a Bee and You Were a Red, Red Rose".[3]

Partial list of songs

See also

References
  1. "Jazz Roots: Shelton Brooks Discography". Jass.com. 1975-09-06. Retrieved 2014-08-22.
  2. "Brooks, Shelton: standards and selected hits, 1909 to 1918 | Songbook". Songbook1.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  3. "Shelton Brooks | Biography & History | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
  4. Free scores by Shelton Brooks in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
  5. Parker, Bernard S. (2007). World War I Sheet Music - Volume 2. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 608, 644. ISBN 0-7864-2799-X.
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