Herbie Kay

Herbie Kay, born John Herbert Powers Kaumeyer (November 5, 1904 Chicago, Illinois – May 11, 1944, Dallas, Texas) was an American guitarist, trumpeter and big band leader. During the 1930s, his band gained a following in the Midwestern United States.

In spite of his obscurity and the band’s limited recording activity, Kay is best-remembered for being the first husband of actress Dorothy Lamour and his 1935 recording of “Rhythm Steps”, which gained mainstream attention starting in 2022 thanks to Internet exposure.

Kay was born in 1904 in Chicago, Illinois to Katherine Hannon and William Kaumeyer, both of whom were Illinois natives. He had one sibling, Katherine Kaumeyer, who died before her first birthday.

Kay's career began while he was a student at Northwestern University, where he played in dance bands in the mid-1920s. He took over Bud Dant’s orchestra and led his own group from the late 1920s, and played extensively in the Chicago area from the early 1930s to the early 1940s, including a longstanding residency at the Blackhawk Restaurant.

Kay did some touring in the Western United States and performed at the Lakeside in Denver, Colorado; Sebastian’s Cotton Club in Los Angeles, Santa Catalina Casino and the Mural Room of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, all in California. ^[1]

On March 28, 1934, Kay and his orchestra performed at the grand opening of Sandford Hall in Mitchell, Nebraska.

Kay hired Dorothy Lamour as a vocalist in 1932, and married her on May 10, 1935; by 1936, Lamour had moved to Hollywood to pursue a film career, and her marriage to Kay ended in 1939.^[2]

For most of his career, he led a band with four saxophones, four brass instruments, and four rhythm instruments. Singers included Dorothy Lamour, Shirley Lloyd, Wynne Fair, Helen Connor, Elvan “Fuzzy” Combs, King Harvey, Ken Nealy, and a vocal trio called “The Three Kays” (Combs, Harvey and Sam Chase). Charles "Bud" Dant and Charlie Kyner were the band’s arrangers. Roswell W. Metzger was Kay’s manager and co-wrote several songs with Kay; they include “I’ve an Evening for Sale” (1933) and “This is a Night Made for Love” (1930).

Kay dissolved the group around 1942 and moved to Dallas, where he lived with his second wife, Margaret Rinehart. He died of melanoma with metastases to the cord, spine, and brain in 1944.

Herbie Kay recorded for Vocalion and Columbia Records and toured throughout the Western United States from 1935-1939. A total of five recording sessions were made.

November 8, 1935 - Chicago, Illinois

• “Rhythm Steps” (Shirley Lloyd & Three Kays, vocal) — Herbie Kay’s best-known recording and an Internet meme on Am I Right from 2022-2024. Columbia 3109-D.
• “Precious Little One” (King Harvey, vocal) — Columbia 3109-D.
• “A Little Bit Independent” (Shirley Lloyd, vocal) — Columbia 3100-D.
• “Remember Last Night” (Fuzzy Combs, vocal) — Columbia 3100-D

February 24, 1936 — Chicago, Illinois

• “Swing, Mister Charlie” (Three Kays, vocal) — First recorded on February 24, 1936 and rejected; recorded again on March 3, 1936 and released on Columbia 3125-D.
• “Sunday on the Swanee” (Fuzzy Combs, vocal) — Columbia 3126-D. Also released on Parlophone F-536.
• “Za Zoo Za” (Shirley Lloyd, vocal) — Columbia 3126-D. Also released on Parlophone F-536.
• “Chopsticks (waltz)” — Columbia 3125-D.

March 3, 1936 — Chicago, Illinois

• “Swing, Mister Charlie” — See above.

April 30, 1938 — Los Angeles, California. All vocals by Dorothy Lamour.

• “Lovelight in the Starlight” — Brunswick 8132, Columbia DB-1777 (England), Columbia C-7039 (China), Columbia CQ-1419 (Italy)
• “Little Lady Make-Believe” — Brunswick 8132, Columbia DB-1783 (England)
• “Tonight Will Live” — Brunswick 8154, Columbia DB-1783 (England)
• “On a Tropic Night” — Brunswick 8154, Columbia DB-1811 (England)

March 22, 1939 — Los Angeles, California

• “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater” — Columbia 36135
• “Violets and Friends” (Theme Song, waltz) — Columbia 36135
• “Y’Had It Coming To You” (Wynne Fair, vocal) — Vocalion 4820
• “Glorianna” (Fuzzy Combs and band, vocal) — Vocalion 4752
• “By Candlelight” (King Harvey & The Kay Kwire, vocal) — Vocalion 4820
• “It’s All So New To Me” (King Harvey, vocal) — Vocalion 4752

Herbie Kay also made several Soundie films during 1940-41. His known Soundies include, “Say Si, Si”, “I’m Looking Out the Window”, “Willie, Willie, Will Ya?” and “San Antonio Rose”.

Perhaps the best-known tune by Herbie Kay, by virtue of recent Internet exposure, is “Rhythm Steps”, recorded for the Columbia Records label on November 8, 1935, and released in February 1936 on Columbia 3109-D. Written by band manager Roswell W. “Ros” Metzger and Lou Holzer, the recording contains vocals by Shirley Lloyd and the Three Kays.

Originally intended for release on the Vocalion label, it was switched over to Columbia at the last minute; as a result, some discographies list this track as being unreleased. ^[3]

The recording starts with a brief guitar riff, likely played by Kay. An instrumental chorus in C major is played, followed by use of glissando in the brass section, accompanied by rim shots.

Shirley Lloyd and the Three Kays then sing their vocals, with Shirley taking the first performance of the vocal chorus in G major. The title is repeated five times throughout each chorus.

After another glissando/rim shot riff, the vocal trio returns the key back to C major, accompanied by a clarinet. They sing the vocal chorus twice, with an instrumental call-back during the final performance of the chorus. Its lyrics contain references to “putting the world on its feet”, and has humorous interjections.

The very last use of the title in the lyrics is followed by a brief descending brass motif and ends with the phrase, “Simple as the day is long”. Finally, a three-note accentuation by the whole orchestra is heard, immediately followed by a guitar chord and a rim shot.

The song was briefly featured in the 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon, The CooCoo Nut Grove, performed by a caricature of contemporary bandleader Ben Bernie. It is an instrumental version, similar to the opening of the record arrangement and has a brief segment in waltz time. The song also appears in another Merrie Melodies cartoon, Page Miss Glory (1936 film).

It became an Internet meme starting in 2022, having been parodied on the Am I Right song parody site. From July 2022 to August 2024, more than 300 parodies of the song were submitted to the website. Despite criticism from board members, the song’s recent popularity can be attributed to this small, yet effective segment on the Internet site. The song was also played at several weddings and social events in 2023.

In May 2024, the first ever MIDI sequence of the arrangement was posted online to the Internet Archive. A slightly revised version was posted in July of that year.

• Herbie Kay (guitar and leader)
• Shirley Lloyd (vocal) and The Three Kays (vocal trio of Elvan “Fuzzy” Combs, King Harvey and Sam Chase)
• Arnold Liddell, Lou Holzer, Donald Worrall (trumpets)
• Larry Baur, Bill Alexander (trombones)
• Elvan Floyd “Fuzzy” Combs (tenor sax/vocal), Sam Chase (clt/ts/vocal), Gene Glennan (as/clt)
• Frank Vivola (glockenspiel, heard during introductory guitar riff)
• Bud Dant (string bass/arranger), Charles Kyner (piano), King Harvey (second guitar), Frank Sehrer (drums)
• Fritz Miller (first violin, not heard here), Norman Kirschner (second violin, not heard here) ^[4]

• MIDI arrangement of “Rhythm Steps” by Herbie Kay & his Orchestra on the Internet Archive