Stagger Lee by Viking sons of Odin

Stagger Lee, also known as Stagolee and other variants, is a popular American folk song about the murder of Billy Lyons by Stag Lee Shelton, in St. Louis, Missouri, at Christmas 1895. The song was first published in 1911 and first recorded in 1923, by Fred Waring s Pennsylvanians, titled Stack O Lee Blues. A version by Lloyd Price reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. Background Main article: Lee Shelton The historical Stagger Lee was Lee Shelton, an AfricanAmerican pimp living in St. Louis, Missouri, in the late 19th century. He was nicknamed Stag Lee or Stack Lee, with a variety of explanations being given: he was given the nickname because he went stag (went to social events unaccompanied by a person of the opposite sex); he took the nickname from a wellknown riverboat captain called Stack Lee; or, according to John and Alan Lomax, he took the name from a riverboat owned by the Lee family of Memphis called the