Java

Popularized by Al Hirt as a trumpet piece, this instrumental was written and originally recorded by the New Orleans producer/songwriter Allen Toussaint with piano as lead instrument. Born in 1938, Toussaint got a gig in the mid-'50s touring with the duo Shirley & Lee ("Let The Good Times Roll," #20 in 1956) on piano. He also played sessions around New Orleans, including one for Fats Domino. With the music scene burgeoning in the city, a producer for the RCA label named Danny Kessler would audition musicians, sometimes using Toussaint or Mac Rebennack for piano accompaniment. One of these auditions took place at Cosimo Matassa's Cosimo Recording Studio, where according to Matassa, 150 musicians showed up. None of the applicants moved the needle, but Kessler was impressed with Toussaint and offered him a deal. He asked Toussaint to write some instrumental songs, and the young pianist came up with 12 tracks that Kessler produced. These songs were released on an album called The Wild Sounds Of New Orleans, credited to "Tousan," a compact pseudonym for Toussaint. Issued on the RCA Victor label in 1958, the album didn't get much attention, but in 1962 Floyd Cramer covered one of the tracks: "Java." His piano version went to #49 US, and the following year the song got the attention of Al Hirt, whose trumpet rendition running 1:55 went to #4. Even before Hirt's hit cover, Toussaint's career was taking off. He got a job as staff producer at the Instant and Minit labels in 1959, where he wrote and produced the Ernie K-Doe #1 "Mother-In-Law" and Chris Kenner's "I Like It Like That (Part 1)."

"Java" was not named after a cup of coffee or the programming language (which didn't exist yet), but a racehorse. Producer Danny Kessler named each track on the The Wild Sounds Of New Orleans after a racehorse, since he was a frequent visitor to the track.

Allen Toussaint isn't the only composer listed on this song. Also on the writing credits are Alvin Tyler, Marilyn Schack and Freddy Friday. Alvin "Red" Tyler played baritone sax at the session, but the other names are pseudonyms. "Marilyn Schack" is Danny Kessler; "Freddy Friday" is Kessler's partner, Murray Sporn, who was then a veteran music publisher and who with Kessler found the talent for those sessions. Sporn and Kessler co-authored several of the compositions from that session.