St. James Infirmary Blues, or known as St. James Infirmary, is an American blues and jazz standard that emerged, like many others, from folk traditions. Louis Armstrong brought the song to lasting fame through his 1928 recording, on which Don Redman is named as composer; later releases credit "Joe Primrose", a pseudonym used by musician manager, music promoter, and publisher Irving Mills. The melody is eight bars long, unlike songs in the classic blues genre, where there are 12 bars.
I went down to St. James Infirmary,
Saw my baby there,
Stretched out on a long white table,
So cold, so sweet, so fair.
Let her go, let her go, God bless her,
Wherever she may be,
She can look this wide world over,
But she'll never find a sweet man like me.
Let her go, let her go, God bless her
Wherever she may be
She can search this world wide over
But she'll never find a sweet man like me.
When I die, bury me in straight-lace shoes,
I want a box-back coat and a Stetson hat.
Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain,
So the boys'll know that I died standin' pat.
Sixteen coal-black horses,
All hitch to a rubber-tired hack,
Carried seven girls to the graveyard,
And only six of 'em coming' back.
Six crap shooters as pall bearers
Let a chorus girl sing me a song
With a jazz band on my hearse
To raise hell as we go along.
Splash Mountain:Burrow's Lament • Little Brown Jug • Shortnin' Bread • Polly Wolly Doodle • Froggy Went a Courtin' • Shoo Fly (Don't Bother Me) • Goober Peas • Camptown Races • Dixie • Swing Low Sweet Chariot • When Johnny Comes Marching Home • Comin' Round the Mountain • Ol' MacDonald • Skip to My Lou • Freight Train Blues • Wabash Cannonball • St. James Infirmary • Tennessee Waltz • Show Me the Way to Go Home • Alabamy Bound • Down By the Riverside • My Old Kentucky Home • Blue Moon if Kentucky • Blue Ridge Mountain Blues • Carolina Moon • Deep River Blues • Goodnight Ladies • Honey Comb • Jailhouse Blues • Old Mill Stream • Salty Dog • Up a Lazy River • Tom Dooley • Oh, Susanna • John Henry • Sixteen Tons • I've Been Working on the Railroad • When the Saints Go Marchin' In • You Are My Sunshine
