Andrew Tibbs was born Melvin Andrew Grayson on 2 February 1929 in Columbus, Ohio. His father was the prominent Chicago Baptist minister, Reverend S. A. Grayson, and Tibbs got his start singing in church choirs. His brother Robert for a time was married to Dinah Washington. When he surreptitiously began singing blues in clubs, he used his middle name and his mother's maiden name, becoming "Andrew Tibbs." His route to Aristocrat began when in 1947 he was singing at Jimmy's Palm Garden. At intermission, he would go around the corner to the Macomba Lounge and sing during that club's intermissions. Sammy Goldberg saw him at the club and signed him to Aristocrat; Leonard Chess saw commercial potential in recording Tibbs, and decided to invest in the company, which was already recording Tom Archia. Tibbs' debut session has always been said to be the first one that Leonard Chess attended.
When interviewed by Jim O'Neal in Living Blues (1982), Tibbs explained how he just got up and sang traditional blues verses in the clubs, so he had never needed to come up with any compositions. Two numbers were hastily concocted for the recording date: Tibbs and Tom Archia worked out "Bilbo Is Dead" in the back seat of a cab on the way to the session, and Tibbs brought the lyrics into the session inscribed on a paper bag.
Theodore Gilmore Bilbo (October 13, 1877 – August 21, 1947) was an American politician. Bilbo, a Democrat, twice served as governor of Mississippi (1916–20, 1928–32) and later became a U.S. Senator (1935–47). A master of filibuster and scathing rhetoric, a rough-and-tumble fighter in debate, he made his name a synonym for white supremacy. Proud of being a racist, Bilbo believed in the natural inferiority of black people, was a fiery defender of segregation, and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Of short stature (5 ft 2 in, 1.57 m), Bilbo wore flashy clothing, and was nicknamed "The Man" because he tended to refer to himself in the third person. [...] — Wikipedia
