Hello Bill

Black text on a white background with red and white checkerboard design around the rim

Jazz and blues musician Lucky Millinder (1910-1966) first recorded his song “Hello Bill” in 1946 to critical acclaim. Lucky could not read or write music and didn’t play any instruments, though this didn’t stop him from performing; Lucky had great showmanship and lent his musical taste to his accompanying bands.

Lucky’s band was one of the first racially integrated in the country and was composed of “mixed musicians” during the Southern Swing era of music. Lucky is quoted as having said, “[The time has come to] do away with the jim crow [sic] attitude of Negroes as well as whites,’ and had Italian, Armenian, Irish, Jewish, East Indian, and Black musicians in his bands.

In the 1940s, carnivals gave out checkered pin-back buttons as game prizes and souvenirs, many of which had funny phrases like “You’re the One” and “Jeepers Creepers” and also included titles of famous songs of the day, like “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No ‘Mo.” This “Hello Bill” button may be a variation of such buttons.