Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby

"Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby"
Single by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five
A-side "G.I. Jive"
Released 1944 (1944)
Format 10"
Genre Rhythm and blues
Label Decca
Writer(s) Billy Austin, Louis Jordan

"Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" is a 1944 Louis Jordan song, released as the B-side of a single with "G.I. Jive". "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" reached No. 1 on the US folk/country charts.[1] The Louis Jordan recording also peaked at number two for three weeks on the pop chart and peaked at number three on the R&B charts.[2] This was Jordan's second and last country chart No. 1, and the last No. 1 country chart topper for an African American artist until Charley Pride scored his first No.1, All I Have to Offer You (Is Me) on August 9, 1969.

It was co-written by Jordan and Billy Austin. Austin (March 6, 1896 – July 24, 1964) was a songwriter and author, born in Denver, Colorado. The phrase "is you is or is you ain't" is dialect, apparently first recorded in a 1921 story by Octavus Roy Cohen, a Jewish writer from South Carolina who wrote humorous black dialect fiction. Glenn Miller recorded this song on a radio broadcast from Europe during World War II.

Cover versions

References

  1. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 184.
  2. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 309.
Preceded by
"Straighten Up and Fly Right" by King Cole Trio
Most Played Juke Box Folk Records
number one single by Louis Jordan

July 29, 1944 - August 26, 1944
(five weeks)
Succeeded by
"Soldier's Last Letter" by Ernest Tubb
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