Rosetta Howard & the Harlem Hamfats - The Candy Man 1938

Flashbacks 1920's - 1940's Novelty Songs Of An Era Long Gone Bye. Drug Songs. Rosetta Howard (1914 - 1974) was an American blues singer, who recorded in the 1930s and 1940s. Little is known of her life. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and moved into singing by joining in with jukebox selections at the club where she worked. Around 1932 she began singing professionally with Jimmy Noone and other bandleaders. From 1937 she made a number of recordings with The Harlem Hamfats, including her paean to marijuana, "If You're a Viper", and the ribald "Let Your Linen Hang Low". The latter was noted by one music journalist as "Howard engaging Kansas Joe McCoy in sexy banter". She also recorded with Herb Morand and Odell Rand who were both members of the group. In 1939 she recorded with the Harlem Blues Serenaders, who included Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Lil Armstrong, Henry "Red" Allen and Barney Bigard. She continued to perform in Chicago in the 1940s, and in 1947 featured on recordings with the Big Three, including Willie Dixon, and Big Bill Broonzy. However, the records were unsuccessful and she did not record again. In the 1950s she sang with Thomas A. Dorsey at the Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago. Howard died in Chicago in 1974. The Harlem Hamfats was a Chicago jazz band formed in 1936. Initially, they mainly provided backup music for jazz and blues singers, such as Johnny Temple, Rosetta Howard, and Frankie Jaxon for Decca Records, but when their first record "Oh Red" became a hit, it secured them a Decca contract for fifty titles. They launched a successful recording career performing danceable music.