Biography
The ensemble known as Barbecue Joe and His Hot Dogs represented merely one of numerous groups fronted by trumpeter and vocalist Wingy Manone. Sessions cut under that name in 1930 yielded a piece whose central riff later supplied the foundation for Glen Miller's signature swing-era recording "In the Mood." Manone had previously led Joe Manone's Harmony Kings, Joe "Wingy" Manone and his Club Royale Orchestra, the Arcadian Serenaders, and Wingy Manone and his Orchestra. The motive behind his adoption of the Barbecue Joe alias remains unclear, though some have conjectured that Decca acquired the masters in the early 1940s and applied the pseudonym to market the sides as the work of a white jazz unit. Although Woody Allen later joked about a one-armed vibraphonist in Broadway Danny Rose, Manone himself played trumpet with only one arm yet managed a prosthetic limb so adeptly that audiences seldom noticed the impairment.
Among the Barbecue Joe titles, "Big Butter And Egg Man" alone extended the culinary motif. The remaining selections comprised "Indiana Champion," "Shake That Thing," "Weary Blues," and "Up The Country Blues." "Tar Paper Stomp" proved the most consequential, its principal riff circulating through subsequent big-band arrangements and acquiring fresh titles along the way. Horace Henderson's orchestra recorded it as "Hot And Anxious," after which the same motif surfaced as "In the Mood" for both Edgar Hayes and Glen Miller. Miller's immense success ensured the phrase would be permanently linked to his version, irrespective of the earlier Barbecue Joe performance. The personnel featured trumpeter Ed Camden, multi-instrumentalist Miff Frink on trombone and banjo, tuba player Orville Hayes, and New Orleans drummer Dash Burkis.
Among the Barbecue Joe titles, "Big Butter And Egg Man" alone extended the culinary motif. The remaining selections comprised "Indiana Champion," "Shake That Thing," "Weary Blues," and "Up The Country Blues." "Tar Paper Stomp" proved the most consequential, its principal riff circulating through subsequent big-band arrangements and acquiring fresh titles along the way. Horace Henderson's orchestra recorded it as "Hot And Anxious," after which the same motif surfaced as "In the Mood" for both Edgar Hayes and Glen Miller. Miller's immense success ensured the phrase would be permanently linked to his version, irrespective of the earlier Barbecue Joe performance. The personnel featured trumpeter Ed Camden, multi-instrumentalist Miff Frink on trombone and banjo, tuba player Orville Hayes, and New Orleans drummer Dash Burkis.