Walter Bishop Sr.
Jamaican composer and songwriter (1905-1984)
Walter Bishop Sr. (January 9, 1905 – January 8, 1984) was a Jamaican-American drummer, composer and songwriter. Bishop was born in Jamaica, but emigrated to the United States prior to beginning his professional career. He and his family lived in the Sugar Hill district of the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan.
Bishop played drums on recordings by pianist Alex Hill and trumpeter Jabbo Smith during the 1920s and 1930s. His song "Swing, Brother, Swing" was recorded by Billie Holiday with Count Basie, among other performers. Other songs written by Bishop include "Jack, You're Dead," which was a #1 R&B hit in 1947 as recorded by Louis Jordan, "The Stuff is Here (and It's Mellow)," and "Bop! Goes My Heart," which was recorded by Frank Sinatra. His song "My Baby Likes to Bebop" was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, and by Nat "King" Cole with Johnny Mercer, and his calypso "Sex is a Misdemeanor" was recorded by Vanessa Rubin.
He was the father of American jazz pianist Walter Bishop Jr.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Walter Bishop Sr.” as jamaican composer and songwriter (1905-1984). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as jamaican composer and songwriter (1905-1984). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7964311. VIAF identifies the subject as 56427236. The Library of Congress control number is no2008104387. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1905, 1984 and 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “Walter Bishop Sr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.