St. Louis Blues is a 1958 American film broadly based on the life of W. C. Handy. It stars jazz and blues greats Nat "King" Cole, Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, and Barney Bigard, as well as gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and actress Ruby Dee. The film's soundtrack uses over ten of Handy's songs, including the title song. In conjunction with the film, Cole recorded an album of W. C. Handy compositions, arranged by Nelson Riddle, and Fitzgerald incorporated "St. Louis Blues" into her concert repertoire.

Plot

At the turn of the century in Memphis, a young boy named W.C. Handy (Billy Preston) is caught with a trumpet he bought by his Aunt Hagar (Pearl Bailey). His father, the Reverend Charles Handy (Juano Hernandez) rejects all music other than church hymns as songs of Satan, and destroys the trumpet upon discovery. Later, as a grown man, W.C. Handy is offered a teaching job his family approves of, but volunteers instead to write music for a local political campaign, drawing the attention of singer Gogo Germaine (Eartha Kitt) and nightclub owner Blade (Cab Calloway). While Germaine encourages Handy to continue writing popular music, his girlfriend Elizabeth (Ruby Dee) and father continue to discourage his dreams of pursuing a career as a jazz composer. After going blind and subsequently abandoning his jazz career, Handy returns to performing in his church and composing hymns, finally winning the approval of his father. His sight restored, Handy is still anguished by the loss of jazz in his life, and runs away from home to continue writing the music he loves away from the disapproval of his family.