Editing W. C. Handy

{{short description|American blues composer and musician (1873–1958)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name            = W. C. Handy
| image           = W. C. Handy (1941 Van Vechten portrait).jpg
| alt             =
| caption         = Handy in July 1941, photographed by<br />[[Carl Van&nbsp;Vechten]]
| birth_name      = William Christopher Handy
| birth_date      = {{birth date|1873|11|16}}
| birth_place     = [[Florence, Alabama]], U.S.
| origin          = [[Memphis, Tennessee]], U.S.
| death_date      = {{death date and age|1958|3|28|1873|11|16}}
| death_place     = [[New York City]], U.S.
| genre           = {{Hlist|[[Blues]]|[[jazz]]}}
| alias           = Father of the Blues
| occupation      = {{flatlist|
* Composer
* musician
* bandleader
}}
| instrument      = Trumpet
| years_active    = 1893–1948
}}

'''William Christopher Handy''' (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was an American composer and musician who referred to himself as the '''Father of the Blues'''.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1116.html "On This Day"], ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved July 3, 2015.</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000012322|title=Handy, W(illiam) C(hristopher)|last=Evans|first=David|date=2001|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.12322|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0|access-date=September 13, 2019}}</ref> He was one of the most influential songwriters in the United States.<ref name="BBC">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20769518|title=WC Handy's Memphis Blues: The Song of 1912|website=BBC News – Magazine |date=December 30, 2012|author=Robin Banerji|access-date=May 30, 2018}}</ref> One of many musicians who played the distinctively American [[blues]] music, Handy did not create the blues genre but was one of the first to publish music in the blues form, thereby taking the blues from a regional music style ([[Delta blues]]) with a limited audience to a new level of popularity.<ref name="BBC" />

Handy used elements of [[folk music]] in his compositions. He was scrupulous in documenting the sources of his works, which frequently combined stylistic influences from various performers.<ref name=":0" />

== Early life ==
[[File:WC-Handy-Birthplace-al.jpg|left|thumb|Handy's birthplace in [[Florence, Alabama]]]]
Handy was born on November 16, 1873, in [[Florence, Alabama]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/wc-handy-mn0000195430/biography | title=W.C. Handy Biography, Songs, & Albums | website=[[AllMusic]] }}</ref> the son of Elizabeth Brewer and Charles Barnard Handy. His father was the pastor of a small church in [[Guntersville, Alabama|Guntersville]], a town in northern Alabama's [[Marshall County, Alabama|Marshall County]]. Handy wrote in his 1941 autobiography ''Father of the Blues'' that he was born in a log cabin built by his grandfather William Wise Handy, who became an [[African Methodist Episcopal]] minister after the [[Emancipation Proclamation]]. The log cabin of Handy's birth has been preserved near downtown Florence.

Handy's father believed that musical instruments were tools of the devil.<ref name="chernow">{{cite book |last1=Chernow |first1=Fred |last2=Chernow |first2=Carol |title=Reading Exercises in Black History Vol. 1 |date=1979 |publisher=Continental Press |location=Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania |isbn=0-8454-2107-7 |page=32}}</ref> Without his parents' permission, Handy bought his first guitar, which he had seen in a local shop window and secretly saved for by picking berries and nuts and making lye soap. Upon seeing the guitar, his father asked him, "What possessed you to bring a sinful thing like that into our Christian home?" and ordered him to "take it back where it came from", but he also arranged for his son to take organ lessons.<ref name="Handy" /> The organ lessons did not last long, but Handy moved on to learn to play the [[cornet]]. He joined a local band as a teenager, but he kept this fact a secret from his parents. He purchased a cornet from a fellow band member and spent every free minute practicing it.<ref name="Handy" />

While growing up, he apprenticed in carpentry, shoemaking, and plastering. He was deeply religious. His musical style was influenced by the church music he sang and played in his youth and by the sounds of nature. He cited as inspiration the "whippoorwills, bats and hoot owls and their outlandish noises", Cypress Creek washing on the fringes of the woodland, and "the music of every songbird and all the symphonies of their unpremeditated art".<ref name="Gaillard2010">{{cite book|last1=Gaillard|first1=Frye |last2=Lindsay|first2=Jennifer |last3=DeNeefe |first3=Jane |title=Alabama's Civil Rights Trail: An Illustrated Guide to the Cradle of Freedom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gKeZBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA311|access-date=November 20, 2018 |year=2010 |publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=978-0-8173-5581-4|pages=311–}}</ref>

He worked on a "shovel brigade" at the McNabb furnace, where he learned to use his shovel to make music with the other workers to pass the time. The workers would beat their shovels against hard surfaces in complex rhythms that Handy said were "better to us than the music of a martial drum corps."<ref name="Handy">{{cite book |last1=Handy |first1=William Christoper |title=Father of the Blues: An Autobiography |url=https://archive.org/details/fatherofbluesaut00wcha_0 |date=1941 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0-306-80421-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fatherofbluesaut00wcha_0/page/140 140]}}</ref> Handy would later recall this improvisational spirit as being a formative experience for him, musically: "Southern Negroes sang about everything....They accompany themselves on anything from which they can extract a musical sound or rhythmical effect."<ref name="Handy" /> He reflected, "In this way, and from these materials, they set the mood for what we now call Blues."<ref name="William Christopher Handy page 74" />

== Career ==

=== Early years ===
[[File:WC Handy age 19 handyphoto10.jpg|thumb|Handy at age 19]]In September 1892, Handy traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, to take a teaching exam. He passed it easily and gained a teaching job at the Teachers Agriculture and Mechanical College (the current-day [[Alabama A&M University]]) in [[Normal, Alabama|Normal]], then an independent community near [[Huntsville, Alabama|Huntsville]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://blackamericaweb.com/2018/11/16/little-known-black-history-fact-w-c-handy/|title=Little Known Black History Fact: W.C. Handy|date=November 16, 2018|work=Black America Web |access-date=November 16, 2018}}</ref> Learning that it paid poorly, he quit the position and found employment at a pipe works plant in nearby [[Bessemer, Alabama|Bessemer]].

In his time off from his job, he organized a small string orchestra and taught musicians how to read music. He later organized the Lauzetta Quartet. When the group read about the upcoming [[World's Columbian Exposition|World's Fair in Chicago]], they decided to attend. To pay their way, they performed odd jobs along the way. They arrived in Chicago and then learned that the World's Fair had been postponed for a year. Next they headed to St. Louis, Missouri, but found no work.<ref name=":0" />[[File:WCHandy w A&M College band 1900.jpg|thumb|Handy, ca. 1900, director of the Alabama Agriculture & Mechanical College Band]]

After the quartet disbanded, Handy went to [[Evansville, Indiana]]. He played the cornet in the [[World's Columbian Exposition|Chicago World's Fair]] in 1893. In Evansville, he joined a successful band that performed throughout neighboring cities and states. His musical endeavors were varied: he sang first tenor in a minstrel show, worked as a band director, choral director, cornetist, and trumpeter. At the age of 23, he became the bandmaster of Mahara's Colored Minstrels.

In a three-year tour they traveled to Chicago, throughout Texas and Oklahoma to Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, and on to Cuba, Mexico and Canada.<ref name=":0" /> Handy was paid a salary of $6 per week. Returning from Cuba the band traveled north through Alabama, where they stopped to perform in Huntsville. Weary of life on the road, he and his wife, Elizabeth, stayed with relatives in his nearby hometown of Florence.

In 1896, while performing at a barbecue in [[Henderson, Kentucky]], Handy met Elizabeth Price. They married on July 19, 1896. She gave birth to Lucille, the first of their six children, on June 29, 1900, after they had settled in Florence.

Around that time, [[William Hooper Councill]], the president of State Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes in Huntsville (which became Alabama A&M University), the same college Handy had refused to teach at in 1892 due to low pay, hired Handy to teach music. He became a faculty member in September 1900 and taught through much of 1902. He was disheartened to discover that the college emphasized teaching European music considered to be "classical". He felt he was underpaid and could make more money touring with a minstrel group.

=== Development of the blues style ===
In 1902, Handy traveled throughout Mississippi, listening to various styles of popular black music. The state was mostly rural and music was part of the culture, especially in cotton [[plantations in the American South|plantations]] in the Mississippi Delta. Musicians usually played guitar or banjo or, to a much lesser extent, piano. Handy's remarkable memory enabled him to recall and transcribe the music he heard in his travels.

After a dispute with AAMC President Councill, Handy resigned his teaching position to return to the Mahara Minstrels and tour the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. In 1903, he became the director of a black band organized by the [[Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia]] in [[Clarksdale, Mississippi]].<ref name=":0" /> Handy and his family lived there for six years. During this time, he had several formative experiences that he later recalled as influential in his developing musical style. In 1903, while waiting for a train in Tutwiler, Mississippi in the Mississippi Delta, Handy overheard a black man playing a [[steel guitar]] using a knife as a [[Steel bar|slide]].<ref name="William Christopher Handy page 74">Handy (1941), p. 74.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110604093840/http://www.triplethreatbluesband.com/wchandy.htm "Waiting for the Train at Tutwiler"], Triple Threat Blues Band. Archived June 4, 2011.</ref>

About 1905, while playing a dance in [[Cleveland, Mississippi]], Handy was given a note asking for "our native music".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3633|title=Delta Blues Inspires W.C. Handy – Cleveland, Mississippi – Mississippi Historical Markers on Waymarking.com|website=Waymarking.com|date=February 16, 2008|access-date=January 22, 2018}}</ref> He played an old-time Southern melody but was asked if a local colored band could play a few numbers. Handy assented, and three young men with well-worn instruments began to play.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |last1=Handy |first1=W. C. |title=Father of the Blues: An Autobiography |date=1991|publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-80421-2 |pages=76–77}}</ref><ref name="Scarborough">{{cite book |last1=Scarborough |first1=Dorothy |last2=Gulledge |first2=Ola Lee |title=On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs |url=https://archive.org/details/ontrailofnegrofo00scar |date=1925 |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/ontrailofnegrofo00scar/page/269 269] |quote=In recounting the same story to Dorothy Scarborough about 1925, Handy remembered a banjo, guitar, and fiddle.}}</ref> Research by Elliott Hurwitt for the [[Mississippi Blues Trail]] identified the leader of the band in Cleveland as [[Prince McCoy]].<ref name="trail">[http://www.msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/prince-mccoy "Prince McCoy", ''Mississippi Blues Trail'']. Retrieved May 21, 2019</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gurrow|first=Adam|date=Winter 2018|title=W. C. Handy and the "birth" of the Blues|journal=Southern Cultures|volume=24|issue=4|pages=42–68|doi=10.1353/scu.2018.0045|s2cid=150008950}}</ref> In his autobiography, Handy described the music they played:

{{blockquote|They struck up one of those over and over strains that seem to have no beginning and certainly no ending at all. The strumming attained a disturbing monotony, but on and on it went, a kind of stuff associated with [sugar] cane rows and levee camps. Thump-thump-thump went their feet on the floor. It was not really annoying or unpleasant. Perhaps "haunting" is the better word.<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref>Crawford, Richard (2001). ''America's Musical Life: A History''. New York: W. W. Norton. pp. 536, 537.</ref>}}

Handy also took influence from the square dances held by Mississippi blacks, which typically had music in the [[G major]] key. In particular, he picked the same key for his 1914 hit, "[[Saint Louis Blues (song)|Saint Louis Blues]]".<ref>Handy (1941). p. 85.</ref><ref>Handy (1941). p. 119.</ref>

=== First hit: "The Memphis Blues" ===
[[File:Memphis-Blues-1913.jpg|right|thumb|259x259px|"[[The Memphis Blues]]" sheet music cover, 1913]]
In 1909 Handy and his band moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where they played in clubs on Beale Street. "[[The Memphis Blues]]" was a campaign song written for [[E.H. Crump|Edward Crump]], the successful Democratic Memphis mayoral candidate in the 1909 election<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://blackamericaweb.com/2018/11/16/little-known-black-history-fact-w-c-handy/|title=Little Known Black History Fact: W.C. Handy |date=November 16, 2018 |work=Black America Web|access-date=November 16, 2018}}</ref> and [[machine politics|political boss]]. The other candidates also employed Black musicians for their campaigns.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Mark A.|date=Summer 2014|title="The best notes make the best votes": W. C. Handy, E. H. Crump, and Black music as politics|journal=Southern Cultures|volume=20|issue=2|pages=52–68|doi=10.1353/scu.2014.0017|s2cid=144909496|via=RILM}}</ref> Handy later rewrote the tune and changed its name from "Mr. Crump" to "Memphis Blues." The 1912 publication of the sheet music of "The Memphis Blues" introduced his style of 12-bar blues; it was credited as the inspiration for the [[Foxtrot (dance)|foxtrot]] by [[Vernon and Irene Castle]], a New York dance team. Handy sold the rights to the song for $100. By 1914, when he was 40, he had established his musical style, his popularity had greatly increased, and he was a prolific composer.

In his autobiography, Handy described how he incorporated elements of black folk music into his musical style. The basic three-chord harmonic structure of blues music and the use of [[Flat (music)|flat]] [[Third (chord)|third]] and [[Seventh (chord)|seventh]] chords in songs played in the [[major key]] all originated in vernacular music created for and by impoverished southern blacks.<ref name="Handy, Father 1941, p. 99" /> Those notes are now referred to in jazz and blues as [[blue note]]s.<ref name="Handy, Father 1941, p. 99">Handy (1941). p. 99.</ref> His customary three-line lyrical structure came from a song he heard Phil Jones perform. Finding the structure too repetitive, he adapted it: "Consequently I adopted the style of making a statement, repeating the statement in the second line, and then telling in the third line why the statement was made."<ref>Handy (1941). pp. 142–143.</ref> He also made sure to leave gaps in the lyrics for the singer to provide improvisational filler, which was common in folk blues.<ref>Handy (1941). p. 120.</ref>

[[File:Victor Military Band-The Memphis Blues.ogg|right|thumb|Handy's first popular success, "Memphis Blues", recorded by Victor Military Band, July 15, 1914]]

Writing about the first time "Saint Louis Blues" was played, in 1914, Handy said,
{{blockquote|The one-step and other dances had been done to the tempo of Memphis Blues.&nbsp;... When St Louis Blues was written the tango was in vogue. I tricked the dancers by arranging a [[tango (dance)|tango]] introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels.<ref>Handy (1941). pp. 99–100.</ref>}}

His published musical works were groundbreaking because of his race. In 1912, he met [[Harry Pace]] at the [[Solvent Savings Bank]] in Memphis. Pace was the valedictorian of his graduating class at Atlanta University and a student of [[W. E. B. Du Bois]]. By the time of their meeting, Pace had demonstrated a strong understanding of business. He earned his reputation by saving failing businesses. Handy liked him, and Pace later became the manager of Pace and Handy Sheet Music.

In 1916, American composer [[William Grant Still]], early in his career, worked in Memphis for W.C. Handy's band.<ref name="whayne">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ThTBc-E85agC&pg=PA262 |title=Arkansas Biography: A Collection of Notable Lives |last=Whayne |first=Jeannie M. |date=2000 |publisher=University of Arkansas Press |isbn=978-1-55728-587-4 |pages=262, 276–278 |language=en}}</ref> In 1918, Still joined the United States Navy to serve in World War I. After the war, he went to [[Harlem]], where he continued to work for Handy.<ref name="whayne" />

=== Move to New York ===
[[File:YellowDogRagCover.jpeg|left|thumb|1914 sheet music cover of "[[Yellow Dog Rag]]"]]
In 1917, Handy and his publishing business moved to New York City, where he had offices in the [[Embassy Five Theatre|Gaiety Theatre office building]] in Times Square.<ref name="broadway">[https://books.google.com/books?id=rqi3d1925IcC&pg=PA180 Bloom, Ken (2003). ''Broadway: An Encyclopedia''. 2nd ed. Routledge.] {{ISBN|0415937043}}.</ref> By the end of that year, his most successful songs had been published: "Memphis Blues", "[[Beale Street Blues]]", and "[[Saint Louis Blues (song)|Saint Louis Blues]]". That year, the [[Original Dixieland Jazz Band]], a white New Orleans jazz ensemble, had recorded the first jazz record, introducing the style to a wide segment of the American public. Handy had little fondness for jazz, but bands dove into his repertoire with enthusiasm, making many of these songs jazz standards.

Handy encouraged performers such as [[Al Bernard]], a soft-spoken white man who nonetheless was a powerful blues singer. He sent Bernard to [[Thomas Edison]] to be recorded, which resulted in a series of successful recordings. Handy also published music written by other writers, such as Bernard's "Shake Rattle and Roll" and "Saxophone Blues", and "Pickaninny Rose" and "O Saroo", two black traditional tunes contributed by a pair of white women from [[Selma, Alabama]]. Publication of these hits, along with Handy's blues songs, gave his business a reputation as a publisher of black music.<ref>Handy (1941). pp. 196–197.</ref>

In 1919, Handy signed a contract with [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] for a third recording of his unsuccessful 1915 song "[[Yellow Dog Blues]]".<ref>[[Elijah Wald|Wald, Elijah]]. ''Escaping the Delta: Standing at the Crossroads of the Blues''. HarperCollins. p. 283. {{ISBN|0060524235}}.</ref> The resulting [[Joseph C. Smith|Joe Smith]] recording of the song was a strong seller, with orders numbering in the hundreds of thousands of copies.<ref>{{cite web|title=Joseph C. Smith: America's First Famous Dance Band Recording Artist|url=http://www.phonostalgia.com/smith/|access-date=January 22, 2018|website=Phonostalgia.com}}</ref><ref>Handy (1941). p. 198</ref>

Handy tried to interest black singers in his music but was unsuccessful; many musicians chose to play only the current hits, and did not want to take risks with new music.<ref name=":1">Handy (1941). p. 195.</ref> According to Handy, he had better luck with white bandleaders, who "were on the alert for novelties. They were therefore the ones most ready to introduce our numbers."<ref name=":1" /> Handy also had little success selling his songs to black women singers, but in 1920, [[Perry Bradford]] convinced [[Mamie Smith]] to record two non-blues songs ("That Thing Called Love" and "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down") that were published by Handy and accompanied by a white band. When Bradford's "Crazy Blues" became a hit as recorded by Smith, black blues singers became popular. Handy's business began to decrease because of the competition.<ref>Handy (1941). pp. 200–202.</ref>

In 1920, Pace amicably dissolved his partnership with Handy, with whom he also collaborated as lyricist. Pace formed [[Pace Phonograph Company]] and [[Black Swan Records]], and many of the employees went with him.<ref>Handy (1941). p. 202.</ref> Handy continued to operate the publishing company as a family-owned business. He published works of other black composers as well as his own, which included more than 150 sacred compositions and folk song arrangements and about 60 blues compositions. In the 1920s, he founded the Handy Record Company in New York City; while this label released no records, Handy organized recording sessions with it, and some of those recordings were eventually released on [[Paramount Records]] and [[Black Swan Records]].<ref>"Handy Record Co.". ''[[The New Grove]] Dictionary of Jazz''. St. Martin's Press, 1994, p. 480.</ref> So successful was "Saint Louis Blues" that, in 1929, he and director [[Dudley Murphy]] collaborated on a [[RCA]] motion picture of the same name, which was to be shown before the main attraction. Handy suggested blues singer [[Bessie Smith]] for the starring role because the song had made her popular. The movie was filmed in June and was shown in movie houses throughout the United States from 1929 to 1932.

The importance of Handy's work as a musician and musicologist crossed the boundaries of genre, coming to influence European composers such as [[Maurice Ravel]], who was inspired during a stay in Paris of Handy and his orchestra for the composition of the famous [[Violin Sonata No. 2 (Ravel)|sonata nr 2 for violin and piano]] known not by chance as the Blues sonata.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

In 1926 Handy wrote ''Blues: An Anthology—Complete Words and Music of 53 Great Songs''. It is an early attempt to record, analyze, and describe the blues as an integral part of the South and the history of the United States. To celebrate the publication of the book and to honor Handy, Small's Paradise in Harlem hosted a party, "Handy Night", on Tuesday October 5, which contained the best of jazz and blues selections provided by [[Adelaide Hall]], [[Lottie Gee]], Maude White, and Chic Collins.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/40138126/|title=The Pittsburgh Courier from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |date=October 16, 1926 |page=10|website=Newspapers.com|access-date=January 22, 2018}}</ref>

=== Later career and death ===
[[File:W. C. Handy (1949 portrait with trumpet).jpg|thumb|W. C. Handy in November 1949, playing trumpet in his music publishing office overlooking Times Square]]

In a 1938 radio episode of Ripley's ''Believe It or Not!'' Handy was described as "the father of jazz as well as the blues." Fellow blues performer [[Jelly Roll Morton]] wrote an open letter to ''Downbeat'' magazine fuming that he had invented jazz.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gussow|first=Adam|date=Fall 2002|title=Racial Violence, "Primitive" Music, and the Blues Entrepreneur: W. C. Handy's Mississippi Problem|journal=Southern Cultures|volume=8|issue=3|pages=56–77|doi=10.1353/scu.2002.0029|s2cid=145798645|via=RILM}}</ref>

After the publication of his autobiography, Handy published a book on African-American musicians, titled ''Unsung Americans Sung'' (1944). He wrote three other books: ''Blues: An Anthology: Complete Words and Music of 53 Great Songs'', ''Book of Negro Spirituals'', and ''Negro Authors and Composers of the United States''. He lived on [[Strivers' Row]] in [[Harlem]]. He became blind after an accidental fall from a subway platform in 1943.

From 1943 until his death, he lived in Yonkers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/07/nyregion/father-of-the-blues-is-remembered-in-mt-vernon-show.html|work=The New York Times|date=April 7, 1996|author=Lynn Ames|title=Father of the Blues Is Remembered In Mt. Vernon Show|accessdate=December 27, 2021}}</ref> His grandson is the physicist [[Carlos Handy]] (born 1950), who now leads the Handy Brothers Music Company.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Writer |first=Monica Collier Staff |date=2017-07-28 |title=Carlos Handy: Carrying on his grandfather's legacy |url=https://www.timesdaily.com/life/arts_theater/carlos-handy-carrying-on-his-grandfathers-legacy/article_b8610a73-20c4-556e-86f4-a42fc5967e2c.html |access-date=2023-10-09 |website=TimesDaily |language=en}}</ref> After the death of his first wife, he remarried in 1954 when he was 80. His bride was his secretary Irma Louise Logan, who he frequently said had become his eyes. In 1955, he had a stroke, and he began to use a wheelchair. More than 800 people attended his 84th birthday party at the [[Waldorf-Astoria Hotel]].

On March 28, 1958, Handy died of bronchial pneumonia at Sydenham Hospital in New York City.<ref name="king">{{cite news |title=W. C. Handy, Blues King, Dies at 84 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2nEgAAAAIBAJ&pg=2363%2C2701864 |access-date=November 21, 2018 |work=Lewiston Evening Journal |date=March 28, 1958 |page=A1}}</ref> Over 25,000 people attended his funeral in Harlem's [[Abyssinian Baptist Church]]. Over 150,000 people gathered in the streets near the church to pay their respects. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

== Compositions ==
Handy's music does not always follow the classic [[twelve bar blues|12-bar pattern]], often having [[eight bar blues|8- or 16-bar]] bridges between 12-bar verses.
* "Memphis Blues", written 1909, published 1912. Although usually subtitled "Boss Crump", it is a distinct song from Handy's campaign satire, "Boss Crump don't 'low no easy riders around here", which was based on the good-time song "Mamma Don't Allow It."
* "Yellow Dog Blues" (1912), "Your easy rider's gone where the Southern cross the Yellow Dog." The reference is to the crossing at Moorhead, Mississippi, of the [[Southern Railway (US)|Southern Railway]] and the local [[Yellow Dog Railroad|Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad]], called the Yellow Dog. By Handy's telling locals assigned the words "Yellow Dog" to the letters Y.D. (for Yazoo Delta) on the freight trains that they saw.<ref>Handy (1991). ''Father of the Blues: An Autobiography''. Arna Wendell Bontemps, ed. [[Da Capo Press]]. p. 267. {{ISBN|978-0306804212}}</ref>
* "[[Saint Louis Blues (song)|Saint Louis Blues]]" (1914), "the jazzman's ''[[Hamlet]]''."
* "Loveless Love", based in part on the classic "[[Careless Love]]". Possibly the first song to complain of modern [[synthetic polymer|synthetics]], "with milkless milk and silkless silk, we're growing used to soulless soul."
* "Aunt Hagar's Blues", the biblical [[Hagar (Bible)|Hagar]], handmaiden to [[Abraham]] and Sarah, was considered the "mother" of African Americans
* "[[Beale Street Blues]]" (1916), written as a farewell to Beale Street of Memphis, which was named Beale Avenue until the song's popularity caused it to be changed
* "Long Gone John (from Bowling Green)", about a famous bank robber
* "Chantez-Les-Bas (Sing 'Em Low)", a tribute to the [[Louisiana Creole people|Creole]] culture of New Orleans
* "Atlanta Blues", which includes the song "Make Me a Pallet on your Floor" as its chorus.
* "Ole Miss Rag" (1917), a ragtime composition, recorded by Handy's Orchestra of Memphis<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.redhotjazz.com/handy.html|title=Handy's Orchestra Of Memphis|website=Redhotjazz.com|access-date=January 22, 2018}}</ref>

== Awards and honors ==
[[File:Bronze statue of W.C. Handy in Handy Park, Memphis, TN.jpg|thumb|100px|Bronze statue of Handy in Handy Park, [[Beale Street]], Memphis, Tennessee]]
* In 1931, Handy Park, public park with a stage for live musical performances, was opened by the City of Memphis at 200 Beale St.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Handy Park|url=http://www.bealestreet.com/handy-park|access-date=August 7, 2020|website=Beale Street|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Semien|first=John|date=January 16, 2020|title=Handy Park makeover signals more than an updated venue|url=https://tri-statedefender.com/handy-park-makeover-signals-more-than-an-updated-venue/01/16/|access-date=August 7, 2020|website=TSDMemphis.com|language=en-US}}</ref> The statue in the park honoring him was erected in 1960.<ref name="memphismusichalloffame.com">{{Cite web|title=W.C. Handy {{!}} Memphis Music Hall of Fame|url=https://memphismusichalloffame.com/inductee/wchandy/|access-date=August 7, 2020|website=memphismusichalloffame.com|date=November 10, 2014 }}</ref>
* In 1947, the [[W.C. Handy Theatre]] was opened in Memphis.<ref name=":2">{{Cite magazine |date=April 19, 1947 |title=200G W. C. Handy Theater, Memphis, To Light May 11 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1947/BB-1947-04-19.pdf |magazine=Billboard |pages=37}}</ref> The building was demolished in 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-11-19 |title=Historic W.C. Handy Theater Will Be Demolished |url=https://wreg.com/news/historic-w-c-handy-theater-will-be-demolished/ |access-date=2023-10-23 |website=WREG.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
* The mayor of Yonkers, New York designated December 8-14, 1957 as W.C. Handy Week.<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 11, 1957 |title=New Yonkers Will Celebrate W.C. Handy's 84th Birthday |pages=18 |work=The Commercial Appeal}}</ref>
* Handy was the subject of ''[[St. Louis Blues (1958 film)|St. Louis Blues]]'' (1958), a heavily fictionalized biographical film starring [[Nat King Cole]] with [[Eartha Kitt]] and [[Ruby Dee]].
* After Handy's death in 1958, the Domino Lounge in Memphis was renamed [[Club Handy]].<ref name=":22">{{Cite news |last=Donahue |first=Michael |date=March 15, 1985 |title=Yes, 'Sunbeam' is still down at the Paradise |pages=3 |work=The Commercial Appeal}}</ref>
* W.C. Handy Place in New York City is the honorary name for 52nd Street between [[Avenue of the Americas]] and Seventh Avenue.
* On May 17, 1969, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in his honor.
* Handy was inducted in the National Academy of Popular Music [[Songwriters Hall of Fame]] in 1970.
* He was inducted into the [[Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame]] in 1983.
* He was inducted into the [[Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame]] in 1985, and was a 1993 inductee into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, with the Lifework Award for Performing Achievement.
* He received a [[Grammy Trustees Award]] for lifetime achievement in 1993.
* Citing 2003 as "the centennial anniversary of when W.C. Handy composed the first blues music" the United States Senate in 2002 passed a resolution declaring the year beginning February 1, 2003, as the "Year of the Blues".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yearoftheblues.org/officialProclamation.asp |title=Year of the Blues 2003 |date=September 5, 2002 |work=107th Congress of the United States, Senate Resolution 316 |access-date=January 31, 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050207000551/http://www.yearoftheblues.org/officialProclamation.asp |archive-date=February 7, 2005  }}</ref>
* Handy was honored with two markers on the [[Mississippi Blues Trail]], the "Enlightenment of W.C. Handy" in Clarksdale, Mississippi and a marker at his birthplace in Florence, Alabama.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanbluesscene.com/mississippi-blues-trail-recognized-enlightenment-of-w-c-handy/|title=Mississippi Blues Trail Recognized "Enlightenment of W.C. Handy"|last=Marshall|first=Matt|date=December 2, 2013|website=American Blues Scene|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/w-c-handy-florence|title=W.C. Handy Birthplace|website=Mississippi Blues Trail}}</ref>
* [[Blues Music Award]] was known as the W. C. Handy Award until the name change in 2006.
* [[W. C. Handy Music Festival]] is held annually in Florence, Alabama.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wchandymusicfestival.org/ |title=July 18th – 27th, 2014 – Florence, AL – The Shoals |publisher=W.C. Handy Music Festival |access-date=June 27, 2014}}</ref>
* Another [[W.C. Handy Music Festival (Henderson, Kentucky)|W.C. Handy Music Festival]] is held annually in [[Henderson, Kentucky]] in June.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://handyblues.org/2023-schedule/ | title=2023 Schedule – W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival }}</ref>
* In 2017, his autobiography ''Father of the Blues'' was inducted in to the [[Blues Hall of Fame]] in the category of Classics of Blues Literature.<ref name="HOF">{{cite web|url=https://blues.org/hall/|title=Blues Hall of Fame – About/Inductions – Blues Foundation|website=Blues.org|access-date=January 21, 2018}}</ref>

== Discography ==
{{Div col}}

=== Handy's Orchestra of Memphis ===
* The Old Town Pump/Sweet Child Introducing Pallet on the Floor (Columbia #2417) (1917)
* A Bunch of Blues/Moonlight Blues (Columbia #2418) (1917)
* Livery Stable Blues/That Jazz Dance Everyone Is Crazy About (Columbia #2419) (1917)
* The Hooking Cow Blues/Ole Miss Rag (Columbia #2420) (1917)
* The Snaky Blues/Fuzzy Wuzzy Rag (Columbia #2421) (1917)
* Preparedness Blues (Columbia) (unreleased) (recorded September 21, 1917)
* The Coburn Blues (Columbia) (unreleased) (recorded September 24, 1917)
* Those Draftin' Blues (Columbia) (unreleased) (recorded September 24, 1917)
* The Storybook Ball (Columbia) (unreleased) (recorded September 25, 1917)
* Sweet Cookie Mine (Columbia) (unreleased) (recorded September 25, 1917)<ref name="discography">{{cite book| first1=Brian| last1=Rust| first2=Malcolm| last2=Shaw| year=2002| title= Jazz and Ragtime Records (1897–1942)| publisher=Mainspring Press| location=Littleton, CO| page=723| isbn= 978-0-9671819-2-9 }}</ref>

=== Handy's Memphis Blues Band ===
* Beale Street Blues/Joe Turner Blues (Lyric #4211) (9/1919) (never released)
* Hesitating Blues/Yellow Dog Blues (Lyric #4212) (9/1919) (never released)<ref name="discography" />
* Early Every Morn/Loveless Love (Paramount #12011) (1922)
* St. Louis Blues/Yellow Dog Blues (Paramount #20098) (1922)
* St. Louis Blues/Beale Street Blues (Banner #1036) (1922)
* She's No Mean Job/Muscle Shoals Blues (Banner #1053) (1922)
* She's a Mean Job/Muscle Shoals Blues (Puritan #11112) (1922)
* Muscle Shoals Blues/She's a Mean Job (Regal #9313) (1922)
* St. Louis Blues/Yellow Dog Blues (Black Swan #2053) (1922)
* Muscle Shoals Blues/She's a Mean Job (Black Swan #2054) (1922)

=== Handy's Orchestra ===
* Yellow Dog Blues/St. Louis Blues (Puritan #11098) (1922)
* Louisville Blues/Aunt Hagar's Blues (Okeh #8046) (1923)
* Panama/Down Hearted Blues (Okeh #8059) (1923)
* Mama's Got the Blues/My Pillow and Me (Okeh #8066) (1923)
* Gulf Coast Blues/Farewell Blues (Okeh #4880) (1923)
* Sundown Blues/Florida Blues (Okeh #4886) (1923)
* Darktown Reveille/Ole Miss Blues (Okeh #8110) (1923)
* I Walked All the Way From East St. Louis (Library of Congress) (1938)
* Your Clothes Look Lonesome Hanging on the Line (Library of Congress) (1938)
* Got No More Home Than a Dog (Library of Congress) (1938)
* Joe Turner (Library of Congress) (1938)
* Careless Love (Library of Congress) (1938)
* Getting' Up Holler (Library of Congress) (1938)
* Oh De Kate's Up De River, Stackerlee's in de Ben (Library of Congress) (1938)
* Roll On, Buddy (Library of Congress) (1938)
* Olius Brown (Library of Congress) (1938)
* Sounding the Lead on the Ohio River (Library of Congress) (1938)<ref name="discography" />

=== Handy's Sacred Singers ===
* Aframerican Hymn/Let's Cheer the Weary Traveler (Paramount #12719) (1929)

=== W. C. Handy's Orchestra ===
* Loveless Love/Way Down South Where the Blues Begin (Varsity #8162) (1939)
* St. Louis Blues/Beale Street Blues (Varsity #8163) (1939)
{{Div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last=Brooks |first=Tim |title=Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890–1919 |url=https://archive.org/details/lostsoundsblacks00broo |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lostsoundsblacks00broo/page/410 410–436] |location=Urbana, Illinois |isbn=978-0-252-07307-6|publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2004 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Dunkel |first=Mario |year=2015 |title=W. C. Handy, Abbe Niles, and (Auto)biographical Positioning in the Whiteman Era |journal=Popular Music and Society |volume=38 |number=2 |pages=122–139 |doi=10.1080/03007766.2014.994320 |s2cid=191480580|doi-access=free }}
* {{cite book |last=Robertson |first=David |year=2009 |title=W. C. Handy: The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues |url=https://archive.org/details/wchandylifetimes00robe |location=New York |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-307-26609-5}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://www.una.edu/library/collections/w.c.-handy---father-of-the-blues.html W.C. Handy website at the University of North Alabama] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121120040/https://www.una.edu/library/collections/w.c.-handy---father-of-the-blues.html |date=November 21, 2018 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041217094813/http://www.alamhof.org/handywc.htm W.C. Handy's 1993 Lifework Award for Performing Achievement; Induction into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041204015428/http://www.blues.org/handys/index.php4 The Blues Foundation's W.C. Handy Blues Awards]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20020607100413/http://bluesnet.hub.org/readings/wc.handy.html Book excerpt on Handy by Tom Morgan]
* [https://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm/?keyword=W.C.&keyword=Handy Rare American Sheet Music Collection at Duke University]
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/ame/cig/cig12.htm Interview with W. C. Handy by folklorist]
* [http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0004/0000003/0000047/0001/?page=1&limit=40 Sheet music for "Joe Turner Blues"]
* [http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0004/0000003/0000066/0001/?page=1&limit=40 Sheet music for "The Memphis Blues: A Southern Rag"]
* [http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0004/0000003/0000064/0001/?page=1&limit=40 Sheet music for "Saint Louis Blues"]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=40688}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=William Christopher Handy |sopt=tight}}
* {{IMSLP|id=Handy, W. C.|cname=William Christopher Handy}}
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/101964 W. C. Handy recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]]
* Part of his life is retold in the 1948 radio drama "[https://archive.org/details/Destination.Freedom/Destination_Freedom_48-09-12_012_The_Father_of_the_Blues.mp3 The Father of the Blues]", a presentation from ''[[Destination Freedom]]'', written by [[Richard Durham]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Handy, W. C.}}
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