Lonesome Road

"The Lonesome Road" is a 1927 song with music by Nathaniel Shilkret and lyrics by Gene Austin, alternately titled "Lonesome Road", "Look Down that Lonesome Road" and "Lonesome Road Blues." It was written in the style of an African-American folk song.

The lyricist and composer were both extremely popular recording artists. Gene Austin estimated he sold 80 million records, and Nathaniel Shilkret's son estimated his father sold 50 million records. Joel Whitburn lists recordings by Austin, Bing Crosby, Ted Lewis, and Shilkret (see list of recordings below) as being "charted" at Numbers 10, 12, 3 and 10, respectively. There are no reliable sales figures that can be used to verify or dispute any of the estimates above.

The composition was notably used as a substitute for Ol' Man River in the finale of the part-talkie 1929 film version of Edna Ferber's novel Show Boat. It was performed onscreen by Stepin Fetchit as the deckhand Joe. Fetchit's singing voice was supplied by bass-baritone Jules Bledsoe, who had played Joe in the original stage version of the musical. The Shilkret autobiography contains a brief account of the motivation for using the song in the film.

The song was also used in the motion pictures Submarine Command (1951), Cha-Cha-Cha Boom! (1956), California Split (1974), Wild Man Blues (1997) and Crazy (2007). It was featured on two soundies, one with the Lucky Millinder orchestra, with vocal by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and another with the Al Donahue Orchestra. Both soundies could be viewed on YouTube at the time of this writing.

It was used in the television series Andy Griffith Show (Rafe Hollister Sings, Episode 83), Peter Gunn (The Dummy), Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. (Gomer Says `Hey', Episode 97), Matlock (Class), and The Odd Couple (Rent Strike, Episode 107). The Hollister rendition was viewable on YouTube at the time of this writing.

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