Tom Delaney

Thomas Henry Delaney (September 14, 1889 – December 16, 1963) was an American blues and jazz songwriter, pianist and singer, who wrote a number of popular songs, mainly in the 1920s. He spent his childhood in orphanages, including the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, where he got his first experience of music and formed the Springfield Minstrels. He later toured the East Coast in a song and dance duo billed as Mitchell and Delaney.

One of Delaney's earliest compositions, "Jazz Me Blues", published in 1921, became one of his more durable works. Lucille Hegamin recorded it that year and it went on to become a jazz standard. Delaney also became Waters's manager. A number of Delaney's songs were not published at all, such as "Goopher Dust Blues" (with the deliberate or unintended error in spelling) and "Grievin' Mama." His "All the Girls Like Big Dick" was too risque a title for release in the 1920s, despite a loosening of morals in that period, but was published by Davis in the 1950s.

In 1929, Delaney composed "Down on Pennsylvania Avenue", with the lyrics "Now if you want good lovin' and want it cheap, just drop around about the middle of the week, when the broad is broke and can't pay rent, get good lovin' boys, for 15 cents." It was one of only four songs recorded by Bertha Idaho.

Delaney's version of his song "Georgia Stockade Blues" is included on the 1999 compilation album Broke, Black and Blue: An Anthology of Blues Classics and Rarities.

Death Delaney died of atherosclerosis in December 1963, at the age of 74, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Selected songs Date Song title Songwriter Recorded by 1921 "Jazz Me Blues" Tom Delaney Lillyn Brown, Lucille Hegamin, ODJB, Art Pepper, Bert Lown, Earl Hines, Woody Herman, Claude Bolling, Charlie Shavers, Count Basie, Toots Thielemans, Bix Biederbecke, Rex Stewart, Roy Eldridge, Pete Fountain, Boris Vian, John Serry, Sr., Tony Mottola Tom Delaney Clara Smith, Margaret Johnson, David Bromberg, Sidney Bechet, Aretha Franklin, Big Joe Williams, Dinah Washington, Alberta Hunter 1925 "Follow the Deal on Down" Tom Delaney Bessie Smith 1925 "If I Lose, Let Me Lose (Mamma Don't Mind)" Tom Delaney Maggie Jones 1925 "You May Go but You'll Come Back Some Day" Tom Delaney Maggie Jones 1925 "I'm a Back Bitin' Mama" Tom Delaney Maggie Jones 1925 "Never Drive a Beggar from Your Door" Tom Delaney Maggie Jones 1927 "Police Blues" Tom Delaney Martha Copeland 1927 "Troublesome Blues" Tom Delaney Clara Smith 1928 "Graveyard Love" Tom Delaney Bertha Idaho 1928 "Walk That Broad" Tom Delaney, Warren Frisino Clarence Williams 1928 "Somethin' Goin' On Wrong" Tom Delaney, James P. Johnson Martha Copeland 1928 "Slow and Steady" Tom Delaney, King Oliver King Oliver 1929 "Move It On Out of Here" Tom Delaney Bertha Idaho 1929 "Down on Pennsylvania Avenue" Tom Delaney Bertha Idaho 1934 "Jazz It Blues" Tom Delaney Clarence Williams, Bob Crosby, Joe Venuti, Les Paul 1950 "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven (But Nobody Wants to Die)" Al Fields, Tom Delaney, Timmie Rogers Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra, Timmie Rogers, Ellen McIlwaine