Claude Hopkins spent most of his career as a band leader and piano player. The 1930s featured long residencies at the Savoy and Roseland ballrooms and at the Cotton Club. Although more notable as a performer than as a composer, the songs he did write have a very syncopated and stride piano feel. Of his few tunes with J.C.’s lyrics, the finest example is VAMPIN A COED (used in TRAV’LIN).