118 years ago today, “Stagger Lee” Sheldon shot Billy Lyons in a St. Louis saloon, launching a legend that would inspire many musical recordings. Here’s the most famous, Lloyd Price’s “Stagger Lee.”

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York Magazine; a longtime contributor to the Washington Monthly; and a former policy adviser to three governors and a U.S. senator from his home state of Georgia.