 Bessie Smith died in a car crash in 1937, at the age of 41.Lionel Hampton was quoted as saying, “Had she lived, Bessie would’ve been right up there on top with the rest of us in the Swing Era.”

With the downturn in the popularity of female blues singers, beginning about 1933 and 1934, some of these artists began performing and recording what became swing blues.Singers like Lil Johnson, Memphis Minnie and Lucille Bogan started recording for the ARC group of cheaper labels and for Decca Records (after late 1934).