Gillum was born in
Indianola, Mississippi. He ran away from home at age seven and for the next few years lived in
Charleston, Mississippi, working and playing for tips on street corners. He moved to
Chicago in 1923, where he met the guitarist
Big Bill Broonzy. By 1934 Gillum was recording for
ARC Records and
Bluebird Records. Gillum's recordings, under his own name and as a
sideman, were included on many of the highly popular "Bluebird beat" recordings produced by
Lester Melrose in the 1930s and 1940s. utilizing the now-standard melody and eight-bar blues arrangement. The song had first been recorded a few months earlier by
Charlie Segar, with a different melody and a 12-bar blues arrangement. Gillum's styling of the song was copied by Broonzy a few months later, and his version became the standard arrangement of this now-classic blues track. Gillum's records were some of the earliest featuring blues with electric guitar accompaniment, when the 16-year-old jazz guitarist
George Barnes played on several songs on Gillum's 1938 session that produced "Reefer Headed Woman" and others. He joined the
United States Army in 1942 and served until 1945. ==See also==