Heartaches

Heartaches” is a song that was originally released in 1931 by composer Al Hoffman and singer John Klenner. It gained popularity in the 2010s and 2020s due to its sampling in the Caretaker’s album Everywhere at the End of Time. The biggest recorded version of the song was by the Ted Weems Orchestra, with Elmo Tanner whistling. The recording was made in 1933 on Bluebird B-5131 (in a novelty fast rhumba tempo) to low record sales. Weems re-recorded “Heartaches” at a slightly slower “rhumba fox trot” tempo for Decca Records in 1938. Weems dissolved his band in early 1942, leaving to fight in World War II. In early 1947, Kurt Webster, a late-night disc jockey on WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina, a 50,000-watt station that reached across the East Coast, played Weems’s 1938 version of “Heartaches.” Webster enjoyed the tune and it entered his regular rotation, leading to listeners frequently requesting it and “Heartaches” gaining national attention.[4] Decca reissued the 1938 record (catalog number 25017), prompting Victor to reissue its 1933 version (catalog number 20-2175); both labels shared credit on the charts, where the song remained for 16 weeks, peaking at number 1.Ted Weems revived his orchestra to capitalize on the success of “Heartaches.” Weems made front-page news in 1947 when he publicly repaid his debt to Kurt Webster, the man who had revived “Heartaches” and thus Weems’s career. Weems staged a benefit performance by his band on June 6, with all proceeds going to war veteran Webster. I tried to whistle Elmo’s part – who once lived in Birmingham.