How Louis Armstrong invented the modern pop star
In 1964, Louis Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts with his recording of \u201cHello, Dolly!\u201d becoming, at age 62, the oldest artist to ever hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Sixty years later, Louis Armstrong remains a beloved cultural figure, his oft-imitated voice still instantly recognizable. But Armstrong is more than a source of levity \u2014 his artistry and innovations when he made his first recordings a century ago in 1923 set the template for the modern pop star. On this centennial episode, hear Armstrong as you\u2019ve never heard him: a defiant, pathbreaking musician whose voice resonates in every hit record.\xa0\n\nSongs Discussed\n\nLouis Armstrong - Hello, Dolly!\n\nKing Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Dippermouth Blues\n\nFletcher Henderson & His Orchestra - Sugar Foot Stomp\n\nLouis Armstrong & His Hot Seven - Potato Head Blues, West End Blues, Big Butter And Egg Man, Heebie Jeebies\n\nLouis Armstrong - Ain't Misbehavin', Dinah, I'm a Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas), Black And Blue, Swing That Music\n\nBing Crosby, The Mills Brothers - Dinah\n\nThe Boswell Sisters - Heebie Jeebies\n\nElla Fitzgerald - Mack The Knife - Live At The Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, 1960\n\nJoey Ramone - What a Wonderful World\n\nGhostface Killah - The Forest\n\nJon Batiste - What A Wonderful World\n\n\nMore\nRead Terry Teachout\u2019s brilliant biography of Armstrong, Pops\nVisit the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NY\nListen to Lil Hardin Armstrong\u2019s 1968 interview with Chris Albertson for Riverside Records\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices