Gene Greene

It has often been stated and written that scat singing began in 1926 when Louis Armstrong, while recording "Heebie Jeebies," dropped the music and covered himself by making up nonsense syllables. However, it is doubtful that it happened that way and, besides, there are several examples of scat singing on record dating back to 1923. It has rarely been mentioned that back in 1911, a vaudevillian singer, Gene Greene, scatted for two choruses on his recording of "King of the Bungaloos." Greene was thought to have learned about scatting from ragtime performer Ben Harney, who unfort...