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Early in her career, Adelaide Hall was a member of J. Homer Tutt and Salem Tutt Whitney’s troupe, appearing in several of their original musicals. Her first appearance on Broadway was in Sissle and Blake’s Shuffle Along (1921); she sang and danced as one of eight Jazz Jasmines, and also sang a solo in the uptempo number “Bandana Days.” Her success in that musical led to a featured role in Miller and Lyles’s hit Runnin’ Wild (1923), in which she sang James P. Johnson’s “Love Bug,” “Old-Fashioned Love,” and “Ginger Brown.” In 1925, Hall had a major success at the famous Club Alabam in New York City. She then joined the cast of Sam Wooding’s Chocolate Kiddies, which toured in Europe for about a year and was especially well received in London. During her European tour, Hall met Bert Hicks, a Trinidadian who was an officer in the merchant navy; he became her husband and manager. On their return to the United States in 1926, Hall joined the cast of Tan Town Topics, where she appeared with Florence Mills’s sister Maude, Ralph Cooper, and Thomas “Fats” Waller and his band. Hall’s next show, Desires of 1927, with music and lyrics by J. C. Johnson and Andy Razaf, toured from October 1926 through early 1927 and reunited her with J. Homer Tutt. During the latter part of that year, she joined the RKO circuit and appeared with Duke Ellington and his band in Jazzmania and Dance Mania. Hall’s first recording, a wordless obligato to Ellington’s “Creole Love Call,” was the result of her humming a countermelody during a performance of the piece. Ellington liked her improvisation and recorded it several days later.