Caldonia!

In his hit “Caldonia,” Louis Jordan wasn’t singing about his wife Fleecie Moore’s “hard head”, but, you know, he could have been.

Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five first recorded “Caldonia” in 1945. This recording is a rerelease from 1947, the year that Jordan and Moore divorced. Apparently, being sent to the hospital with stab wounds was Jordan’s idea of a dealbreaker. Though, there was one other deal to address: Jordan had listed Moore as the writer of “Caldonia”, enabling him to sidestep publisher agreements, and she retained the royalties after the divorce.

His thoughts on the arrangement: “She didn’t know nothin’ about no music at all. Her name is on this song and that song, and she’s still getting money.”

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Alicia Drummond as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.