Five guys named Moe, one guy named Louis

The first time I heard a Louis Jordan song, it was featured in, of all things, a Tom and Jerry cartoon from the '40s or '50s. (And yes, wise guy, it was rerun I watched as a kid growing up in the '70s.) As I remember it, Tom was wooing a lady cat armed with an upright bass and slyly crooning "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby." It was irresistible, as were almost all the tunes by the hugely influential Little Rock, Ark., native, whose centennial was celebrated July 8. (Jordan died in 1975.)

His tunes were like humorous playlets set to boogie rhythms that defy all efforts to not jitterbug like one of the case-study kids from Reefer Madness. This was proto-rock'n'roll, Ur&B, the template for Chuck Berry and Little Richard and Bo Diddley and Ray Charles and B.B. King and Gatemouth Brown. Discovering his music was, for me, like finding the Rosetta Stone.

And wouldn't you know it took Joe Jackson's 1981 tribute album Jumpin' Jive to affect the proper introduction (from an Enlgishman, no less!). Fingerpoppers such as "Jack, You're Dead," the aforementioned "Is You Is" and especially "Five Guys Named Moe" captured my imagination, brought me back to a fabled time when Jordan and Cab Calloway and Lester Young were the jukebox kings of the day. Over the years, I would delight in finding collections of Jordan's work, as well as tunes that popped up on albums by the likes of Lou Rawls (who does one of my favorite covers of "Saturday Night Fish Fry" with Joe Williams and Lionel Hampton on his Portrait of the Blues recording) and B.B. King, who did a superb album of Jordan covers that remains one of his late-career best. And, hell, who didn't cover "Caldonia," still one of the most ecstatic call-and-response tunes to ever get a crowd hoppin' on the dancefloor.

Best of all was seeing the vintage musical "shorts" of Jordan which would often run on David Sanborn's excellent (and too short-lived) late-night Sunday television program. Mugging like the showman he was, Jordan instructed the fellas in the band to "Beware, brother, beware" when their girls were being suspiciously nice to them. But like Satchmo, Jordan was no clown, which was evidenced in his sharp suits and generally dapper appearance. And anyone who dared to think he was a novelty act would have his mind forever changed when Jordan hefted his alto sax and blew sometimes all-too-brief solos.

Here are my Top 10 Louis Jordan tunes:
1. "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie"
2. "Five Guys Named Moe"
3. "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens"
4. "Knock Me a Kiss"
5. "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town"
6. "Salt Pork West Virginia"
7. "Fire"
8. "Big Bess"
9. "Early in the Mornin'"
10. "Beans and Cornbread"