1. Clyde McCoy is best remembered for his theme song, "Sugar Blues", written by Clarence Williams and Lucy Fletcher, and as a co-founder of Down Beat magazine in 1935.
19 Facts About Clyde McCoy
1. 2.
Clyde McCoy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6426 Hollywood Boulevard.
3.
Clyde McCoy had begun mastering the trumpet when he was without formal instruction, after the Clyde McCoy family moved to Portsmouth, Ohio in 1912.
4.
Clyde McCoy was to perform on the Cincinnati riverboats five years later, plying the Mississippi River, and would perform on the side-wheelers the Island Queen and the Bernard McSwain, becoming one of the youngest musicians on the river at age 14.
5.
Clyde McCoy was informed in 1920 by a musical associate about an opening for a small band at a popular resort location in Knoxville, Tennessee, which was originally planned to be a two-week gig.
6.
Clyde McCoy performed his song "Sugar Blues" at the Drake Hotel in Chicago in 1930.
7.
The Clyde McCoy Orchestra had a long and successful run at the Drake Hotel before beginning a year-long engagement at Terrace Gardens in Chicago.
8.
In mid-1935 Clyde McCoy signed a five-year recording contract with Decca Records.
9.
Clyde McCoy would start recording for LangWorth Transcriptions in New York and several prominent labels, including Mercury, Capitol, and Vocalion Records.
10.
Clyde McCoy would be a member of that lodge for 64 years by the time of his death.
11.
Clyde McCoy became a devoted Mason and a lifetime member of the lodge.
12.
On January 20,1945, Clyde McCoy married one of the Bennett sisters, Maxine Means, who he had been courting since the girls joined his band back in 1936.
13.
Clyde McCoy had Alzheimer's disease, and Maxine adamantly rejected medical advice to admit her beloved Clyde to an extended care facility.
14.
Clyde McCoy cared for him in their home, where he died on June 11,1990, at age 86.
15.
Clyde McCoy had been experimenting for nearly ten years with the "wah-wah" trumpet mute.
16.
Clyde McCoy used it when performing the song "Sugar Blues" and many of the songs in his band's library of arrangements.
17.
Clyde McCoy developed the signature "wah-wah" sound in the late 1920s by fluttering a Harmon mute in the bell of his trumpet.
18.
Early versions of the Clyde McCoy pedal featured an image of McCoy on the bottom panel, which soon gave way to his signature only before Thomas Organ changed the name of the pedal to Cry Baby.
19.
Thomas Organ's failure to trademark the Cry Baby name soon led to the market being flooded with Cry Baby imitations from various parts of the world, including Italy, where the Clyde McCoy pedals were originally made.