The meanings of Louis Armstrong

This week in US Pop History class, we are talking about early jazz, and that means talking about Louis Armstrong. If you are not deep into 1920s music, your relationship with him almost certainly begins and ends with this: Bob Thiele and George David Weiss wrote the tune specifically with Armstrong in mind. He recorded it in 1967, four years before his death, and many decades after his period of peak cultural relevance. It wasn’t a big hit in the US, though it did top the UK singles chart. The tune worked its way into the fabric of American culture gradually, especially once it started appearing in movies and TV shows. For my age cohort, the most iconic usage is an ironic one. I grew up thinking of Louis Armstrong as a kind of benevolent grandpa figure with a muppet-y voice. I had always assumed that Frank Oz based Cookie Monster’s voice on Armstrong, though I can’t find any evidence of that. Kevin Clash did explicitly model Hoot The Owl on Armstrong, though; you can compare and…