In the late nineties I visited New Orleans and heard the late Al Hirt in one of his final appearances in a small club on Bourbon Street. When he finished playing I had the chance to meet him and talk with him for a bit and I asked him if he ever had a #1 song on the charts. He laughed and said, “Once.” Then he explained that it was not that it was his greatest song or anything. “It became so popular because it was just a minute and fifty eight seconds long. Nationally, the disc jockeys loved it because they could use it to fill a two minute time slot in a schedule and there just wasn’t anything else that length.
To me, Al Hirt was one of the greatest trumpet men of all time and many of his records just blow me away but, just imagine, he only got the #1 spot on the charts once in his lifetime and that was because he cut it short. Maybe we could all benefit from that lesson. Know what you are going to play. Play it and then cut.
You can listen to this song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqwIpH6phJs
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