King Size Papa

"King Size Papa" is a 1948 dirty blues^[1] ("hokum"^[2]) song by Julia Lee and Her Boy Friends. The Lee's eighth single,^[3] penned by Benny Carter (working under a pseudonym Johnny Gomez^[4] due to the risqué material of the song) and Paul Vance (Paul Vandervoort II), was recorded on November 11, 1947 and released on the Capitol Americana label under #40082.^[5] The song entered the charts on February 14, 1948^[5] and peaked at number one on the US Billboard R&B chart.^[6] The song, written in the verse-and-refrain twelve-bar blues form,^[2] stayed in the first place for more than two months, in the charts for six, crossed over to the pop chart (peaked at #15),^[7] and remains Lee's most-remembered song.^[5] With sensuality being at the core of Julia's style (during the November 1947 recording session, according to the record producer Dave Dexter Jr., "she came across on shellac like a bitch in heat"),^[5] the song is still being selected as one of the few top sexually risqué ones in the 21st century.^[8]

The text of this song, intended for a broad audience,^[3] is overtly sexual, as was typical for African-American songs of the post-war decade.^[1] Julia Lee (on vocals and piano) and Her Boy Friends (including Benny Carter himself on alto saxophone, Dave Cavanaugh on tenor saxophone, Vic Dickenson on trombone) in this "salacious and fun" song^[5] create images of objects of great size, length, or height to titillate both the white and black listeners,^[9] although the song is not as suggestive as one would expect from the title.^[2] While the topic was not new (cf. "It's Too Big Poppa" by Claude Hopkins in 1945), the slightly mocking vocals and Carter's sax solo assured the amusement.^[7]