Roger Graham and between one and three other collaborators pouted their way to completion of the song entitled I Ain't Got Nobody, often known under its full, even more miserable title of I Ain't Got Nobody And Nobody Cares For Me. It is a great example of a song with its own destiny, standing in stark contrast to both mood and lyrics. This is a serious contender for one of the most recorded songs in jazz, a list of which would also include other depressing ditties chronicling awful moodies, Mood Indigo, Solitude and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out among them.

A Variety magazine blurb in the steamy summer of 1927 is proof that I Ain't Got Nobody still had promotional possibilities more than a decade after it had been first published. A swipe from this hype indicates Graham and partner's tune was described as "an indigo classic", one of the biggest hits ever for producer Joe Davis and his Triangle publishing firm. Bandleader Gus Arnheim managed to nab more than one slot in the chronology of Roaring Twenties cover versions of I Ain't Got Nobody by recording the song three times as a gimmick. Arnheim's style was based on chatting his way through lyrics, only occasionally approximating a pitch. His interpretation became one of the standard approaches to I Ain't Got Nobody, the delivery involving speaking out of only one of side of the mouth at a time. Comic material involving "tough guy" characters such as Edward G. Robinson doing the song was a logical development and probably accurate since crime bosses usually are pretty lonely.

Meanwhile many other recording artists actually liked to sing the song, generally using the

the classic blues empress Bessie Smith's rendition from 1925 as a guide. Homophobic male vocalists would use the following variation on the lyrics in order to avoid romantic pining over a 'he': "It's awful hard to love someone, when they don't care for you." The extent to which the public has been exposed to this song can be explained in a quite different way than the usual series of chart and sales statistics. The aforementioned lyric is actually printed in several grammer books as an example of common use of 'they' with a singular antecedent.

How much credit Graham should take for all of this is one of many small discussions concerning

the music of the early 20th century. In some publishing credits, Graham and Spencer Williams are listed as the sole composers. Elsewhere, Spencer's brother Clarence Williams and Dave Peyton are added to the list of nobodies, or rather people who don't have nobody. It is possible, however, that all the words to the song are written by Graham, who doesn't seem to show up in connection with any other published song, not that he would need to when something is such a big hit. Outrageous bandleader and performer Louis Prima revived the song in his own way by combining it in an arrangement with Just a Gigolo; David Lee Roth did a cover version of this medley on one of his solo albums, the choice of vintage Tin Pan Alley itself serving to shock his heavy metal fans. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi