This week we’re highlighting songs that my parents liked. Whether or not I liked them is irrelevant. With that in mind, today’s classic song that my parents liked of the day is “Java” by trumpeter Al Hirt. This instrumental track, released in November of 1963, was Mr. Hirt’s first and biggest mainstream hit, peaking at a surprising #4 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 charts and #1 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.
“Java” was written way back in 1958 by Allen Toussaint, then going by the single moniker of Tousan. He released on an album of piano compositions titled The Wild Sounds of New Orleans.
Country piano player Floyd Cramer heard Toussaint’s original track and decided to record it himself, which he did in 1962. Cramer’s version topped out at #49 on the Billboard Hot 100, #44 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #12 on the Easy Listening chart.
Al Hirt recorded “Java” for his 1963 album, Honey in the Horn. It became his signature tune, one that won him a Grammy Award for Best Performance by an Orchestra or Instrumental with Orchestra.
Mr. Hirt was born in New Orleans and started playing trumpet at age six. He began playing professionally while in high school, often with his friend clarinetist Pete Fountain. After a stint as a bugler in the Army during World War II, he played in a variety of swing big bands for the likes of Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman. He did some orchestra work and then returned to New Orleans to work with various Dixieland bands.
He struck out on his own during the 1950s and 1960s, signing with RCA Victor and placing 22 albums on the Billboard charts. Readers of a certain age might remember his stellar horn work on the theme to the 1966-1967 TV show, The Green Hornet. (The theme was actually a variation of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee.) That track was also featured in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film, Kill Bill: Volume 1, as Uma Thurman’s character arrives in Japan. It’s stunning.
Al Hirt opened his own club on Bourbon Street in 1962 and made it his home base until it was sold in 1983. He passed away in 1999, aged 76.
My parents listened a lot to Mr. Hirt’s Honey in the Horn album. It was a good easy listening vibe for a thirty-something couple in the early 60s who were just a little too old to be caught up in the whole British Invasion thing. It’s actually not bad music and Hirt’s playing is spectacular. It’s not really jazz (Hirt made a point of saying that he was “not a jazz trumpeter and never was a jazz trumpeter”) but it does show off a virtuoso on his instrument, albeit in a crowd-pleasing setting.
