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"Rockin' Chair" is popular song with music by Hoagy Carmichael. Musically, it is unconventional as after the B section when most popular songs return to A, this song has an A-B-C-A¹ structure. Mildred Bailey made it famous by using it as her theme song. Frank Sinatra recorded a definitive version^[1]

It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong at Okeh studios in the 1930s after the stock market crashed, giving a badly needed boost to Carmichael's finances. The song utilises "call and response" to create a dialog between an aged father and his son.He performed Rockin' Chair numerous times in his career with his trombonist Jack Teagarden.

A different song using the same name was composed by Robbie Robertson and performed by rock group The Band on their self-titled album in 1969. Yet another song with the title was a #1 R&B hit in 1975 for rhythm and blues singer Gwen McCrae.

Footnotes

1. ^ Wilder, Alec (1990). American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 374–375. ISBN 0-19-501445-6.  

See also

• List of 1920s jazz standards