Amos Milburn was one of the major rhythm & blues stars of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
"Bad, Bad Whiskey" was a #1 R&B hit for Milburn in 1950. Credited to the profilic arranger/producer Maxwell Davis, it was the first in a series of drinking songs recorded by him. Many of these were hits, including "Thinking and Drinking", "Let Me Go Home, Whiskey", "Good Good Whiskey" and the original version of "One Scotch, One Bourbon and One Beer".
There is a wonderful video of Milburn playing the song in 1954, backed by an orchestra led by saxophonist Paul Williams. As you can see in the video, Milburn was an excellent singer and pianist, and obviously a charismatic performer as well:
Amos Milburn: "Bad, Bad Whiskey" (1954)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCX--0wJQkQ
This is only one of several very nice live video performances by Milburn captured around this time.These were apparently filmed by a company called Studio Films in New York (although not at the Apollo Theater as was claimed). Together with other similar three-minute videos, they were shown on TV channels and included in low-budget movies.
There is an extensive review of these videos (with lots of impressive background information) in these two blog posts:
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-amos-milburn.html
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-rhythm-blues-review.html
#music #rhythmblues #amosmilburn #soundies #drinkingsongs #piano #1950s #maxwelldavis #aladdinrecords
That Other Place
Ed Wilk antifascist