Open the Door, Richard! The Story of a Showbiz Phenomenon / Acrobat CD-4365

Description

Open the Door, Richard! various artists

‘Open The Door, Richard’ began life as a vaudeville routine performed by a number of black performers, including Bob Russell, Pigmeat Markham and Dusty Fletcher at places like New York’s Apollo Theatre. Jack McVea, sax and clarinet player for the Black & White label’s studio band wrote a riff to go with the routine and it developed into a song which became a staple in the performances of many different artists. Over the years many different artists recorded some variant of the song. This collection pulls together as many as we could find and fit on one CD, and it makes for an entertaining and oblique look at a slice of music and theatre history that obviously struck a chord with American audiences.

McVea’s record, released in early 1947, was rapidly followed by many others, including Count Basie‘s no. 1. So many versions of the song charted that it became the year’s biggest hit on Billboard.