Episode 166: “Crossroads” by Cream
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
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The History of the American Black Blues
The first American black blues vocal didn't come until two years later. Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues sold 75,000 copies in its first month and purportedly went on to sell over a million copies. This was music primarily sung by female vaudeville artists backed by jazz bands. And this is the birth of what is now known as classic blues. But at the time, and for decades after, it was just what people thought of when they thought of the blues as a genre.
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