Editing Stick McGhee (section)

==Entertainment career==
In the military, McGhee often played his guitar. One of the songs he performed was "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee", one of the earliest [[first rock and roll song|prototypical rock-and-roll songs]]. [[Cover version]]s were recorded by [[Wynonie Harris]], [[Lionel Hampton]], [[Big John Greer]], [[Johnny Burnette]], [[Jerry Lee Lewis]], and [[Mike Bloomfield]]'s [[The Electric Flag|Electric Flag]] (as "Wine").<ref name="AMG"/> The song lent its name to the alcoholic fruit drink [[spodi]]. In 1946 Granville and Brownie McGhee wrote a version of the song that didn't use profanity.<ref name="Toshes"/> Harlem Records released the new version in January 1947. It sold for 49 cents. It did not get much [[airplay]] until two years later, when Stick re-created the song for [[Atlantic Records]].<ref name="AMG"/> It was on the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|R&B]] [[record chart|chart]] for almost half a year, rising to number 2, where it stayed for four weeks.<ref name="Toshes"/>

Numerous cover versions of his songs were recorded over the years. The first cover was by [[Lionel Hampton]], featuring [[Sonny Parker (musician)|Sonny Parker]]; next was a cover by [[Wynonie Harris]], followed by a hillbilly-bop version by Loy Gordon & His Pleasant Valley Boys. "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" continued to be popular throughout the 1950s in cover versions by various artists, including [[Malcolm Yelvington]] in 1954, [[Johnny Burnette]] in 1957, and [[Jerry Lee Lewis]] in 1959.<ref name="Toshes"/>

McGhee continued to make records for Atlantic and created popular songs such as "Tennessee Waltz Blues",<ref name="AMG"/> "Drank Up All the Wine Last Night", "Venus Blues", "Let's Do It", and "[[One Monkey Don't Stop No Show (song)|One Monkey Don't Stop No Show]]", but his music career overall was not successful.<ref name="Toshes"/> McGhee moved from Atlantic to [[Essex Records]], for which he recorded "My Little Rose".  The [[gramophone record|record]] was not commercially successful, so he moved to [[King Records (USA)|King Records]] in 1953.<ref name="AMG"/> There he recorded a number of [[rock-and-roll]] songs, such a "Whiskey, Women and Loaded Dice", "Head Happy with Wine", "Jungle Juice", "Six to Eight", "Double Crossin' Liquor", "Dealin' from the Bottom", and "Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter". However, he was unable to make money from his records, so he left King for [[Savoy Records]] in 1955. He retired from the [[music industry]] in 1960.<ref name="Toshes"/> In the late '50s McGhee recorded LP album tracks with Sonny Terry for the Folkways and Prestige-Bluesville labels. In 1960 he cut the songs "Sleep in Job" and "Money Fever" in New York with Sonny Terry. The tracks were released on Herald Records. This was McGhee's last recording session. He became ill shortly afterward and died in August 1961.<ref name="jaymar"/>