Sitting on Top of the World

VINYL FORMAT. Formed in 1930 as a trio of guitar and fiddle music, the original lineup was composed of Lonnie, Sam and Armenter Chatmon, the latter best known as Bo Carter, who was also a solo star of the period. The Mississippi Sheiks took their name from Rudolph Valentino's movie The Sheik and became extremely popular in the 1930s despite the fact that the famous country music artists of the day were almost all solo artists. Their first single, "Sittin' on Top of the World," was also their biggest success. It went on to become a standard country blues song covered by many artists of the caliber of Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan and Cream.