# Al Hibbler

Albert George Hibbler (August 16, 1915 – April 24, 2001) was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of Hibbler's singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best seen as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music. According to one authority, "Hibbler cannot be regarded as a jazz singer but as an exceptionally good interpreter of twentieth-century popular songs who happened to work with some of the best jazz musicians of the time."

## Early life

Hibbler was born in Tyro, Mississippi, United States, and was blind from birth. Some sources give his birth name as Andrew George Hibbler. At the age of 12 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he attended Arkansas School for the Blind, joining the school choir. Later he began working as a blues singer in local bands, failing his first audition for Duke Ellington in 1935. However, after winning an amateur talent contest in Memphis, Tennessee, he was given his start with Dub Jenkins and his Playmates; Jenkins was a popular Memphis saxophonist and bandleader. He later joined a band led by Jay McShann in 1942, and the following year joined Ellington's orchestra, replacing Herb Jeffries.

## Career

He stayed with Ellington for almost eight years, and featured on a range of Ellington standards, including "Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Me", the words for which were written specifically for him and which reached #6 on the Billboard pop chart (and #1 for eight weeks on the "Harlem Hit Parade") in 1944, "I Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues," and "I'm Just a Lucky So-and-So". Although Hibbler's style was described as "mannered", "over-stated", and "full of idiosyncrasies" and "bizarre vocal pyrotechnics", he was also considered "undoubtedly the best" of Ellington's male vocalists. While with Ellington, Hibbler won the Esquire New Star Award in 1947 and the Down Beat award for Best Band Vocalist in 1949.
Hibbler left Ellington's band in 1951 after a dispute over his wages. He then recorded with various bands including those of Johnny Hodges and Count Basie, and for various labels including Mercury and Norgran, a subsidiary of Verve Records, for whom he released an LP, Al Hibbler Favorites, in 1953. In 1954 he released a more successful album, Al Hibbler Sings Duke Ellington, and in 1955, he started recording with Decca Records, with immediate success. His biggest hit was "Unchained Melody", which reached #3 on the US pop chart, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Hibbler's version also reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming his only chart hit in the United Kingdom. Its success led to network appearances, including a live jazz club remote on NBC's Monitor. Other hits were "He" (1955), "11th Hour Melody" and "Never Turn Back" (both in 1956). "After the Lights Go Down Low" (also in 1956) was his last top ten hit.

### Activism

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Hibbler became a civil rights activist, marching with protestors and getting arrested in 1959 in New Jersey and in 1963 in Alabama. The notoriety of this activism discouraged major record labels from carrying his work, but Frank Sinatra supported him and signed him to a contract with his label, Reprise Records. However, Hibbler made very few recordings after that, occasionally doing live appearances through the 1990s. In 1971, Hibbler sang two songs at Louis Armstrong's funeral. In 1972 he made an album, A Meeting of the Times, with another fiercely independent blind musician, the multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

## Death and legacy

He died at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago in April 2001, at the age of 85. He is buried at Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois.

## Discography
### Solo singles discography

| Year | Titles (A-side, B-side) Both sides from same album except where indicated | Label & number | Chart positions | Chart positions | Chart positions | Album |
| Year | Titles (A-side, B-side) Both sides from same album except where indicated | Label & number | U.S. Pop | U.S. R&B | UK | Album |
| 1946 | "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" b/w "How Long Blues" | Aladdin 154 | - | - | - | I Surrender Dear |
| 1947 | "S'posin'" b/w "Don't Take Your Love from Me" | Aladdin 155A - 156A | - | - | - | I Surrender Dear |
| 1947 | "I Surrender Dear" b/w "Fat and Forty" | Aladdin 155B - 156B | - | - | - | I Surrender Dear |
| 1948 | "Trees" / | Miracle 501 | - | 2 | - | Melodies by Al Hibbler |
| 1948 | "Lover, Come Back To Me" | Miracle 501 | - | 9 | - | Melodies by Al Hibbler |
| 1950 | "Danny Boy" b/w "Song of the Wanderer" (from After the Lights Go Down Low) | Atlantic 911 | - | 9 | - | Non-album track |
| 1951 | "The Blues Come Falling Down" B/w "Old Folks" (Non-album track) | Atlantic 925 | - | - | - | After the Lights Go Down Low |
| 1951 | "Travelin' Light" b/w "If I Knew You Were There" | Atlantic 932 | - | - | - | After the Lights Go Down Low |
| 1951 | "Now I Lay Me Down to Dream" b/w "This Is Always" | Atlantic 945 | - | - | - | After the Lights Go Down Low |
| 1951 | "What Will I Tell My Heart" b/w "It Don't Mean a Thing" | Chess 1455 | - | 9 | - | Melodies by Al Hibbler |
| 1951 | "Trees" b/w "Lover Come Back to Me" | Chess 1456 | - | - | - | Melodies by Al Hibbler |
| 1951 | "Solitude" b/w "Feather Roll Blues" | Chess 1457 | - | - | - | Melodies by Al Hibbler |
| 1951 | "My Little Brown Book" b/w "I Love You" | Chess 1481 | - | - | - | Melodies by Al Hibbler |
| 1952 | "Please" b/w "Believe It Beloved" | Mercury 89011 | - | - | - | Al Hibbler Sings Love Songs |
| 1953 | "Sent for You Yesterday and Here You Come Today" b/w "Goin' to Chicago" | Mercury 89028 | - | - | - | Basie Jazz |
| 1953 | "There Is No Greater Love" b/w "It Must Be True" | Mercury 89046 | - | - | - | Al Hibbler Sings Love Songs |
| 1954 | "As Time Goes By" b/w "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" | Clef 89095 | - | - | - | Al Hibbler Sings Love Songs |
| 1954 | "Poor Butterfly" b/w "Fat and Forty" | Chess 1569 | - | - | - | Melodies By Al Hibbler |
| 1954 | "Little Brown Book" b/w "I'm Just a Lucky So-and-So" | Norgran 114 | - | - | - | Al Hibbler Sings Love Songs |
| 1955 | "After the Lights Go Down Low" (Original version) b/w "Tell Me" | Original 1006 | - | - | - | After the Lights Go Down Low |
| 1955 | "Autumn Winds" b/w "You Will Be Mine" | Original 1008 | - | - | - | After the Lights Go Down Low |
| 1955 | "Unchained Melody" b/w "Daybreak" | Decca 29441 (US) Brunswick 05420 (UK) | 3 | 1 | 2 | Hits by Hibbler |
| 1955 | "They Say You're Laughing at Me" b/w "I Can't Put My Arms Around a Memory" (Non-album track) | Decca 29543 | - | - | - | Hits by Hibbler |
| 1955 | "Danny Boy" b/w "Now I Lay Me Down to Dream" (from After the Lights Go Down Low) | Atlantic 1071 | - | - | - | Non-album track |
| 1955 | "He" b/w "Breeze (Blow My Baby Back to Me)" | Decca 29660 | 4 | 13 | - | Hits by Hibbler |
| 1955 | "This Love of Mine" b/w "Every Hour on the Hour" (from Al Hibbler Sings Love Songs) | Norgran 143 | - | - | - | Non-album track |
| 1956 | "11th Hour Melody" b/w "Let's Try Again" | Decca 29789 | 21 | - | - | Hits by Hibbler |
| 1956 | "Never Turn Back" / | Decca 29950 | 22 | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1956 | "Away All Boats" | Decca 29950 | 77 | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1956 | "After the Lights Go Down Low" (re-recording) b/w "I Was Telling Her About You" (Non-album track) | Decca 29982 | 10 | - | - | Starring Al Hibbler |
| 1956 | "Don't Take Your Love from Me" b/w "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" | Aladdin 3328 | - | - | - | I Surrender Dear |
| 1956 | "I'm Free" b/w "Nightfall" | Decca 30100 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1956 | "Silent Night" b/w "White Christmas" | Decca 30127 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1957 | "Trees" (re-recording) b/w "The Town Crier" | Decca 30176 | 92 | - | - | Here's Hibbler |
| 1957 | "Sweet Slumber" b/w "Because of You" | Decca 30268 | - | - | - | Here's Hibbler |
| 1957 | "I Complain" b/w "Around the Corner from the Blues" | Decca 30337 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1957 | "When Will I Forget You" b/w "Be Fair" | Decca 30397 | - | - | - | Hits by Hibbler |
| 1957 | "I Wish" b/w "The Crying Wind" (Non-album track) | Decca 30483 | - | - | - | Hits by Hibbler |
| 1958 | "My Heart Tells Me" b/w "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore" (Non-album track) | Decca 30547 | - | - | - | Hits by Hibbler |
| 1958 | "Ain't Nothing Wrong with That Baby" b/w "Honeysuckle Rose" (Non-album track) | Decca 30622 | - | - | - | Hits by Hibbler |
| 1958 | "Softly, My Love" b/w "Your Hands" | Decca 30684 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1958 | "Love Land" b/w "Love Me Long, Hold Me Close, Kiss Me Warm and Tender" | Decca 30752 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1958 | "Warm Heart - Cold Feet" b/w "Mine All Mine" | Decca 30817 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1959 | "He Is Always There" b/w "What Tis? What Tis? Tis Spring" | Decca 30870 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1959 | "It Won't Be Easy" b/w "Lonesome and Cold" | Decca 30946 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1960 | "Strawberry Hill" b/w "Stranger" | Top Rank 2089 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1961 | "Tall the Sky" b/w "Look Away" | Reprise 20035 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1962 | "Walk Away" b/w "I've Convinced Everyone But Me" | Reprise 20077 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1966 | "Good for a Lifetime" b/w "Once Before" | Satin 401 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |
| 1967 | "Let's Make the Most of a Beautiful Thing" b/w "Early One Morning" | Vegas 711 | - | - | - | Non-album tracks |

### Albums

* Sings Duke Ellington (Norgran, 1954)
* Favorites (Norgran, 1954)
* Melodies by Al Hibbler (Argo/Chess, 1956)
* Sings Love Songs (Verve, 1956)
* Starring Al Hibbler (Decca, 1956)
* After the Lights Go Down Low: The Voice of Al Hibbler (Atlantic, 1957)
* Here's Hibbler (Decca, 1957)
* I Surrender Dear (Score/Aladdin, 1957)
* Torchy and Blue (Decca, 1958)
* Al Hibbler Remembers (Decca, 1958)
* Hits by Hibbler (Decca, 1958)
* Monday Every Day: Al Hibbler Sings the Blues (Reprise, 1961)
* Big Boy Blues (Grand Prix Series, 1964)
* Shades of Blue (Sunset, 1968)
* A Meeting of the Times with Rahsaan Roland Kirk (Atlantic, 1972)
* Christmas with Al Hibbler (Holiday, 1981)
* Solitude (Pickwick, 1997)
With Count Basie
* Basie Jazz (Clef MGC-633, 1954 [recordings from 1952])

### Compilations

* The Chronological Al Hibbler 1946–1949 Classics, 2002)
* The Chronological Al Hibbler 1950–1952 (Classics, 2003)