I'm looking for the title and artist of old song I heard on the radio
once.
-I heard it on a jazz station 
-I think it was called something like "Handyman"  
-It sounded like it was recorded sometime before the early 1950s (I'm
guessing it was recorded in the 40s).
-It was sung by a woman (it sounded like she was black)
-It had all kinds of sexual innuendos about different things her
handyman could fix
-I remember being shocked that something that old could be so dirty

Hello techgoddess-ga,

I believe the song you are referring to is “My Handy Man” performed by
Ethel Waters.

The lyrics are as follows:

“Whoever said a good man was hard to find, 
Postively, absolutely sure was blind; 
I found the best that ever was, 
Here's just some of the things he does: 

He shakes my ashes, greases my griddle, 
Churns my butter, strokes my fiddle; 
My man is such a handy man! 

He threads my needle, creams my wheat, 
Heats my heater, chops my meat; 
My man is such a handy man! 

Don't care if you believe or not, 
He sure is good to have around; 
Why, when my furnace gets too hot, 
He's right there to turn my damper down! 

For everything he's got a scheme; 
You ought to see his new starter that he uses on my machine; 
My man is such a handy man! 

He flaps my flapjacks, cleans off the table, He feeds the horses in my
stable; My man is such a handy man!

He's God's gift! 

Sometimes he's up long before dawn, 
Busy trimming the rough edges off my lawn; 
Oooh, you can't get away from it! He's such a handy man! 

Never has a single thing to say, 
While he's working hard; 
I wish that you could see the way 
He handles my front yard! 

My ice don't get a chance to melt away, 
He sees that I get that old fresh piece every day; 
Lord, that man sure is such a handy man! “

(reference: http://www.heptune.com/lyrics/myhandym.html)


It's even older than you thought. It was recorded in 1929.


The song is included on a CD titled, “Legendary Blues: Dirty Blues”,
released September 17 2002 on the Columbia River Ent Label.  The CD is
available at Barnes and Noble
(http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?sourceid=00401402267214449611&ean=723724420328&bfdate=12-31-2002+17:20:48).


Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I’m thinking about buying this
CD myself!

Googlenut


Search strategy:

All music guide (http://www.allmusic.com) search in Songs for
“handyman”


Google search:

blues lyrics ethel waters handy man
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=blues+lyrics+ethel+waters+handy+man&btnG=Google+Search

Awesome!  

"Strokes my fiddle" hee hee hee =)

This wonderfully bawdy song was written by Andy Razaf and Eubie Blake.

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/m/myhandyman.html

While Ethel Waters' version is good, I recommend the version recorded
by Alberta Hunter. You can listen to a snippet of Alberta's jazzy,
offhand version here:

http://mfile.akamai.com/3171/wm2/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/uswm2/217/430217_1_16.asx