Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee

Sticks McGhee recorded Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee in New York in 1949 with a small band that included his brother Brownie McGhee. The Atlantic session reshaped a rowdy song McGhee had first cut for Harlem into a harder commercial rhythm and blues record. Released by Atlantic in 1949, the single became the labels first major national hit and reached number 2 on the Billboard R&B chart. Its shouted refrain, party lyric, and driving backbeat made it a key postwar jump-blues record. Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee became McGhees signature song and a durable early rhythm and blues standard. Later recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis, Lionel Hampton, Wynonie Harris, and Johnny Burnette carried the song into rock and roll and revival repertoires.