The song that you are referring to is ‘I’m Just a Gigolo, I Ain’t Got Nobody’ by Louis Prima. It is a medley of the song ‘I’m Just a Gigolo’ by Irving Caesar, who in fact adapted it from the Austrian song ‘Schoner Gigolo’, and ‘I Ain’t Got Nobody’ by Roger Graham and Spencer Williams. The popularity of Prima’s combination and the subsequent cover by David Lee Roth has lead many people to believe that the two songs are in fact part of a single original composition. Prima first combined the songs in a 1945 recording which was adapted by Sam Butera for his 1950s Las Vegas show. The success of this show that combined old hits with a new jive and jumping style led to Prima being offered a recording deal with Capitol Records. Capitol Records wanted to capture the atmosphere of Prima’s shows on record and set out to release his first album ‘The Wildest’ in January 1957. ‘Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody’ was the opening song on the album and became Prima’s signature number and relaunched his career.
‘I’m Just a Gigolo/ I Ain’t Got Nobody’ was recorded in a session that took place at the Capitol Tower Studies, Los Angeles. Voyle Gilmore produced the record in April 1956. Prima was backed up in the record by the original line up of his Las Vegas group, Sam Buter and the Witnesses. They were made up of Sam Butera (tenor sax), James ‘Red’ Blount (trombone), William ‘Willie’ McCumber (piano), Jack Marshall (guitar), Amado Rodrigues (bass) and Robert ‘Bobby’ Morris (drums). One of the most important members of Prima’s act was his wife Keely Smith, who joined the Witnesses to give the record its characteristic backing vocals. For the song Prima sang the lead but, unlike many of his other tracks, he did not play the trumpet.
‘I’m Just a Gigolo/ I Ain’t Got Nobody’ was recorded in a session that took place at the Capitol Tower Studies, Los Angeles. Voyle Gilmore produced the record in April 1956. Prima was backed up in the record by the original line up of his Las Vegas group, Sam Buter and the Witnesses. They were made up of Sam Butera (tenor sax), James ‘Red’ Blount (trombone), William ‘Willie’ McCumber (piano), Jack Marshall (guitar), Amado Rodrigues (bass) and Robert ‘Bobby’ Morris (drums). One of the most important members of Prima’s act was his wife Keely Smith, who joined the Witnesses to give the record its characteristic backing vocals. For the song Prima sang the lead but, unlike many of his other tracks, he did not play the trumpet.
