Maxine Sullivan with Claude Thornhill & Her Orchestra - I'm Coming, Virginia (OKeh Records 1937)

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"I'm Coming Virginia" is a 1926 song, composed by Donald Heywood with lyrics by Will Marion Cook. It is often wrongly attributed to vocalist Ethel Waters, who first recorded it on September 18, 1926 who first recorded it with Columbia Records with Will Marion Cook’s Singing Orchestra, though she is credited with popularizing it. Trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, pianist Fats Waller and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra featuring Bing Crosby all recorded it in 1927. The song has become a jazz standard, popular with Dixieland musicians.

It was Waters who popularized the tune. The following year, Waters first sang it during her Broadway premiere in a production of Africana at Daly’s Sixty-third Street Theatre.

After the Waters release, the tune was adopted by numerous Dixieland groups, who upped the tempo. Trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke recorded the song in 1927 with Frankie Trumbauer, and it was subsequently widely recorded in the late 1920s and 1930s by artists such as Fats Waller (with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York on 11 May 1927), Bing Crosby with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra on April 29, 1927 in one of Crosby's earliest recordings, Django Reinhardt, Artie Shaw, Art Tatum (The Genius of Art Tatum, 1953-4) Maxine Sullivan, Sidney Bechet, and Louis Armstrong. Teddy Wilson had a widely successful recording of the song in late 1937. In 1938, Benny Goodman featured it in his renowned concert of that year. Paul Whiteman re-recorded the song, and had a second hit with it in December. In following decades it was recorded by Erroll Garner, Gene Krupa, Al Cohn, and Steve Lacy. Billie Holiday adopted the tune, and performed it "Chicago style". Though the song declined somewhat in popularity after the 1950s, it remains a staple of Dixieland musicians.

Jimmy Rushing recorded "I'm Coming Virginia" with his big band in 1958. In 1974, guitarist Charlie Byrd performed a rendition of the tune at the Concerts by the Sea concert in Redondo Beach, California, which appeared on his Byrd by the Sea album. Billboard praised the sensitivity and delicate nature of the album recording. Violinist Stephane Grappelli recorded it with George Shearing for their 1976 album The Reunion. In 2000, bassist Michael Moore’s trio recorded it for the History of Jazz, Vol. 1 compilation.

Maxine Sullivan was born in Pennsylvania in 1911 and had very little formal musical training. While singing in the Ben Harrison Literary Club (actually a prohibition era speakeasy) she was discovered by Gladys Mosier who was a member of Ina Rae Hutton's Big Band and a close friend of Claude Thornhill. She was introduced to Thornhill and under his guidance, made her first 4 records in the summer of 1937, including the recording of Loch Lomond presented on this vid. Critics gave her performance friendly reviews and she was off to NY to seek club engagements. While performing at the Onyx Club in NY she met, married, and formed a musical partnership with musician John Kirby. The Loch Lomond recording became a national hit but unfortunately cast Sullivan as a ballad singer despite her obvious talent as a smooth jazz singer. In 1940, Sullivan and Kirby became the first black jazz stars to have a nationally syndicated radio show "Flow Gently Sweet Rhythm". By 1948 she was on an extended tour of Great Britain and continued to record until 1956. In 1958, she left show biz to raise her kids and become a nurse.

Sullivan appeared on stage in '39 and '53 and in two movies-St. Louis Blues and Going Places with Louis Armstrong and Ronald Reagan. After she had raised her kids, she quit nursing to rejoin showbiz and from 1975 to 1984, she toured Sweden and France and had several long engagements at Parisian clubs. She died in 1987 still performing her art at age 76.



I'm comin',
I'm comin' Virginia,
I'm comin' to stay;
Dont hold it agin me
For runnin' away.

I've tried to forget you
But found I was wrong;
'Neath your bright southern moon
Once more I'll croon
An old familiar tune.

And if I can win ya,
I'll never more roam;
I'm comin' Virginia,
My Dixieland home.

Been a year since you seen me,
That's an awfully long time!
Don't want nothin' inbetween me
And that old home of mine.

I'm so tired and so lonely,
Every hour seems a day,
For there's one and just one only
Understands when I say;

I'm comin' Virginia,
I'm comin' to stay;
Dont hold it agin me
For runnin' away.

I've tried to forget you
But found I was wrong, all wrong;
'Neath your bright southern moon
Once more I'll croon
An old familiar tune.

And if I can win ya,
I'll never more roam;
I'm comin' Virginia,
My Dixieland home.

I'm comin',
I'm comin' Virginia,
My Dixieland home.