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This iconic hard-luck song was a hit when Bessie Smith recorded it in 1929, and with its timeless message and memorable melody, Nobody Knows You When Youre Down And Out has been a favorite for singers in almost every genre including jazz, blues, folk and rock. Bessie Smith was the most popular female jazz and blues singer of the 1920s, and the highest paid black entertainer of the day. Known as The Empress of the Blues, she often worked with the top tier players in the business, including Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins and James P. Johnson. Although her career declined somewhat in the 1930s, its likely that she would have continued to be a major influence but for her death in a car wreck in 1937. This is the only film that exists of Bessie Smith, from the 1929 movie St. Louis Blues . Though the sound quality is primitive, her voice is still commanding: Josh White recorded Nobody Knows You When Youre Down And Out in 1945. A country bluesman in the Piedmont style, he was responsible