In 1917, there came out of Tin Pan Alley a
song called "Everybody's Crazy about the Doggone
Blues" (Henry Creamer - Turner Layton). The
message had Validity: Everybody, it seemed,
was writing blues for popular consumption.
W.
C. Handy had opened the flood gates. The
tidal wave of blues inundated the song industry.
Some of the
commercialized blues came from men who had known New
Orleans well, Spencer Williams And Clarence
Williams (no relation) for example.
Spencer Williams had
his first song hit with "I Aint Got Nobody,"
published in 1916. This was a number in the
style and spirit of the blues. Among his other
popular hits was "Squeeze Me," which he wrote with
Thomas "Fats" Waller -- Waller's first composition,
published in 1925.
Most of the blues
written for the general market, however, came from
Tin Pan Alley's native songwriters.
David Ewen -
All The Years of American Popular Music