Mamie Smith was a vaudeville singer, dancer, and actress who, almost by accident, became the first African American woman to make a vocal blues record when she cut "Crazy Blues" for OKeh in August 1920. Its record-breaking sales proved a mass Black audience existed for recorded music and launched the "race records" industry that carried blues and jazz to the rest of the country; her booming, theater-trained delivery became a foundational reference point for the classic blues singers who followed.

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1920

Crazy BluesMamie Smith