Throughout American history, white artists have unfairly taken credit for art and culture created by Black artists.
In the 1920s, race records — music marketed primarily to Black Americans in the 1920s and the precursor to R&B, according to Britannica.com — grew in popularity.
According to studocu.com, “the term ‘race’ was used in a positive sense in urban African American communities during the 1920s and was an early example of Black nationalism; an individual who wanted to express pride in his heritage might refer to himself as ‘a race man.’”
As a Black woman, I had never heard of race records until I took African American History Since 1877 (HIST 30B) and Introduction to Mass Communication (MCOM 1) at Delta College in 2020 and 2021.
Black artists didn’t really get that much play time on the radio compared to the artists that covered their songs. White disc jockeys didn’t often did not want to, or were prohibited from, playing music from artists of color. Songs with rhythm and blues roots sung by Black people were covered by white musicians with better reception and play.
For example, most people know legendary white artist Elvis Presley sang the song “Hound Dog,” but did you know a Black artist named Big Mama Thornton was the first to sing it?
Thornton’s version of the song was released on Aug. 13, 1952, under the label Peacock Records. She sold more than 500,000 copies and spent 14 weeks in the R&B charts.
With Elvis he re-recorded the song and was released in july 1956 it sold 10 million copies and held the No. 1 spot for 11 weeks.
Some other songs that were allegedly stolen by white artists include:
- “Louie Louie” by Richard Berry stolen by The Kingsmen
- “I shot the sheriff” by Bob Marley and stolen by Eric Clapton
- “Cherry oh baby” by Eric Donaldson and stolen by The Rolling Stones
- “Police and thieves” by Junior Murvin and stolen by The Clash
One example of the trend moving the other way is Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” which was released in 1957. A year before, white singer Pat Boone did his own version of “Tutti Frutti.” It’s Richard’s version that has gone down in history as the more notable song.
This subject has also been a topic on a few movies about Black singers from the 1950s and 1960s pertaining to their songs being stolen.
“Dreamgirls” (2006), ”The Five Heartbeats” (1991) and “Cadillac Records” (2008) are examples. These movies give narrative to how Black artists feel about their records being re-recorded by white artists, particularly in noting that the covers were inferior to the originals.
I find it to be very unfair how someone can make a cover of a song that is wildly popular, well the original artists don’t see the same success.
It’s also absurd that I could get through 38 years without knowing about any of this.