United & States Recordings

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United Records was founded in 1951 by A&R man Lew Simpkins and his financial partner Leonard Allen. Nighthawk was the only true Delta bluesman on United's roster and they might have been looking at Chess's success with their roster of popular Delta bluesmen. Only two years previously did Nighthawk score big on Aristocrat (soon to become Chess) with his double-sided hit "Sweet Black Angel/Annie Lee" and the company obviously hoped for a repeat of this success. United recorded him on their very first day of sessions and two of United's first five releases were by "Robert Nighthawk and his Nighthawks Band." Sales never took off and Nighthawk headed back south and wouldn't record again until 1964. During his time recording for United he played local clubs; Musicians Union Local 208 posted his indefinite contract with the Quincy Club on March 1, which was soon replaced by an indefinite contract with the 708 Club on March 15.

Lew Simpkins was a veteran record man who had worked for the Miracle and Premium Records and brought many of their former artists to the new label. A news item in the trade press dated July 21, 1951, announces the formation of the United Recording Company: "The guiding force behind this new company is a Chicago area entertainment entrepreneur by the name of Lewis Simpkins. He had previous experience with the local Miracle and Premium labels in the Chicago area. Simpkins is unique because he is one of the very few Black record company owners producing this music that is largely by and for the Black community."

United's Leonard Allen scoffed: "Robert Nighthawk? I didn't think nothin' of him. I didn't go into those joints where they were playing. Lew knew him — he had Robert Nighthawk in mind for the first session. So after he cut the session it did nothin'."⁹

Robert Nighthawk's complete recordings for the United label are collected on Bricks in My Pillow, a tremendous collection that has recently been reissued on CD with some previously unreleased material. Nighthawk recorded two sessions for United — one on July 12, 1951 and one on October 25, 1952 for its subsidiary States.

On his prior records for Chess, Nighthawk stuck mostly to a slow, somber tempo but these sides find him backed by a swinging combo that propels him almost to the verge of rock and roll on up tempo numbers. The barrelhouse piano of Roosevelt Sykes and Bob Call or Curtis Jones teamed with the rock solid drumming of Jump Jackson and Ransom Knowling's snapping bass lend plenty of excitement while Nighthawk plays some magnificent slide. Nighthawk's deep mellow voice is perfectly suited to the music as well. These recordings represent Nighthawk melding the sound of the Delta with the more urbane sounds of postwar Chicago.

While these recordings are more stylistically diverse than his Chess sides they also contained fewer originals. Most of these songs had been in his repertoire for years. Nighthawk originally recorded "Take It Easy Baby" back in 1937 for Bluebird; "The Moon is Rising" was a staple of his King Biscuit shows and was a remake of Ivory Joe Hunter's 1945 hit "Blues At Sunrise"; "Nighthawk Boogie" was his theme song on the broadcasts; "You Missed A Good Man" was a song Nighthawk likely picked up from Tampa Red who recorded it in 1935 — the basis of the song goes back much further being copyrighted by Clarence Williams in 1915. "Bricks In My Pillow" was another cover originally recorded by Bumble Bee Slim in 1935; "Kansas City" was a cover of Jim Jackson's 1927 classic; and "Seventy-Four" was a song originally cut by Johnnie Temple for Decca in 1938 and later covered by Willie Love & His Three Aces as "74 Blues" for the Trumpet label in 1951. "Maggie Campbell", taken here with an unusual rhythm that sounds like a big band rumba, was a song Nighthawk likely picked up through Tommy Johnson who recorded it in 1928.

Some of the songs Robert Nighthawk would later cover

Billboard July 21, 1956