Louis Jordan - Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby

On this day October 4, 1943 Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five recorded "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?"

"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" is a Louis Jordan song, released during 1944 as the B-side of single with "G.I. Jive". "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" reached #1 on the US folk/country charts. The Louis Jordan recording also peaked at number two for three weeks on the pop chart and peaked at number three on the R&B charts. It was so successful that Jordan performed it in the wartime movie "Follow The Boys."

It was co-written by Jordan and Billy Austin. Austin (March 6, 1896 - July 24, 1964) was a songwriter and author, born in Denver, Colorado. The phrase "Is you is or is you ain't" is dialect, apparently first recorded in a 1921 story by Octavus Roy Cohen, a Jewish writer from South Carolina who wrote humorous black dialect fiction. Glenn Miller recorded this song on a radio broadcast from Europe during World War II.The tune has become something of a jazz standard with versions recorded by artists including The Andrews Sisters, June Christy, Bing Crosby, Nat "King" Cole, Buster Brown, Glenn Miller, Renee Olstead, Dinah Washington, Woody Herman, Anita O'Day, Joe Williams, B.B. King, Vic Damone, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Diana Krall, Joe Jackson and Emilie-Claire Barlow. There was also a cover of this on Tom and Jerry by Tom Cat.

A remix of the Dinah Washington version by Rae & Christian appeared on the Verve Remixed (2002) album. (Info mainly Wiki)