Bessie Smith

3rd set with new pictures 168 — my father and mother 1945

The book I have written (yay!) on my father, Eddie Green includes a chapter donated specifically to my mom, Norma Anne Amato Green Beasley Washington. As this blog is basically about inspiring folks through the life story of my father’s success in the early 1900s in the entertainment industry I haven’t written a lot about my mom. For instance, Norma is not just “my” mom. As a Beasley she had four more children, Lance, Brad, Donna and Brian. Lancie-pants is no longer with us. Mom died in 2010. She was 87. If Eddie had lived until 2010 he would have been 119 years old. Yea, he was a lot older than Norma when they married.

When I was about ten or twelve, Mom told me that Eddie had written a song titled, A Good Man Is Hard To Find. She also told me that he said he had written it for her. I always thought that was really sweet, until I grew up and found out that the song was written in 1917 and Mom wasn’t even born until 1923. I guess Mom knew that Eddie hadn’t really written that song for her as they didn’t meet until 1939 or so, but the fact that he told her it was written for her shows us that how we want to be treated as significant others never really changes.

Lately, it seems to me that a lot of comments have been placed on a certain social media site regarding how men need to learn how to treat their women. Appreciation is a big deal. Well, these types of issues were relevant back in 1917 also. Only in Eddie’s case it was about how women need to treat their men. Eddie’s song was a major hit and was recorded many times by well-known and little-known artists, check out Bessie Smith’s version.

Thanks, for stopping by.

Elva D. Green

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, written by Eddie Green and popularized by the singer Bessie Smith in 1927.

Hi there! I missed out. I wanted to watch “Bessie” with Queen Latifah on HBO, May 16th, but my landlady cancelled our cable, boo hoo. I received a comment today about “Bessie”, so of course I had to see if I could find it on the net. For this post, however, I decided to post a video of Bessie Smith singing the song my father wrote way back in 1917.

There were also a few other people who recorded the song, for instance:

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND
By Eddie Green
Marion Harris – 1919
Wilbur C. Sweatman’s Jazz Orchestra – 1919
Viola McCoy – 1927
Eddie Condon & His Band – 1940
Butch Stone – 1942
Frank Sinatra – 1951
George Lewis – 1953
Big Maybelle – 1956
Brenda Lee – 1959
Also recorded by: Trinity; Di Anne Price; Bix Beiderbecke; Fats Waller; Rosemary Clooney; Les Brown;
Champion Jack Dupree; Barbra Streisand; Frances Faye; Hank Thompson; Lizzie Miles; Louis Prima;
Carol Channing; Nancy Wilson; Ralph Sutton; Juanita Hall; Kid Ory; Judith Durham; Dorothy Loudon;
Bob Wills, to name a few.

I should be finished with the first draft of my book about Eddie at the beginning of June. I have the feeling that this year will be a good time for this book to become available. To my knowledge, Eddie’s song has been performed in two recent movies, “Bessie” and “Blue Jasmin” (a Woody Allen movie). I love the fact that this song has endured and remained relevant all these years. Eddie died in 1950, so he was only aware of a few of these people performing the song. While he was alive he knew a few of the people on the above list, like Fats Waller and Frank Sinatra. Oh yeah, and Sophie Tucker, he knew Sophie, she used Eddie’s song as her “torch” song (if you are too young to remember Sophie Tucker, look her up, she was what they called a “real hot mama” back in the day.

My father continues to provide the inspiration that helps me stay focused on this book-writing process, as do those who read my posts and those who comment. Eddie has shown me that there are obstacles in life, Eddie had them as a Black man living his life in the early 20th century through 1950, but he never stopped moving forward, he went on to write 29 more songs, to perform on Broadway and radio, and even to write, produce and star in his own movies, as I have mentioned in previous posts and will elaborate on in future posts. I am experiencing a sense of optimism through tracing Eddie’s life and I hope I am able to pass this feeling on. Thanks so much for stopping by.