How Louis Armstrong invented the modern pop star

In 1964, Louis Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts with his recording of “Hello, Dolly!” becoming, at age 62, the oldest artist to ever hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Sixty years later, Louis Armstrong remains a beloved cultural figure, his oft-imitated voice still instantly recognizable. But Armstrong is more than a source of levity — his artistry and innovations when he made his first recordings a century ago in 1923 set the template for the modern pop star. On this centennial episode, hear Armstrong as you’ve never heard him: a defiant, pathbreaking musician whose voice resonates in every hit record.

Songs Discussed

Louis Armstrong - Hello, Dolly!

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Dippermouth Blues

Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra - Sugar Foot Stomp

Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven - Potato Head Blues, West End Blues, Big Butter And Egg Man, Heebie Jeebies

Louis Armstrong - Ain't Misbehavin', Dinah, I'm a Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas), Black And Blue, Swing That Music

Bing Crosby, The Mills Brothers - Dinah

The Boswell Sisters - Heebie Jeebies

Ella Fitzgerald - Mack The Knife - Live At The Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, 1960

Joey Ramone - What a Wonderful World

Ghostface Killah - The Forest

Jon Batiste - What A Wonderful World

More
Read Terry Teachout’s brilliant biography of Armstrong, Pops
Visit the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NY
Listen to Lil Hardin Armstrong’s 1968 interview with Chris Albertson for Riverside Records
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