The Great American Songbook

[tonyloco]

Oct 7, 2017 22:20:40 GMT tmesis said:

I'm also a huge Schwarzkopf fan. Some find her a bit mannered but I would say she is my favourite soprano of all. Superb in R. Strauss and Mozart, about the most meticulous lieder singer there is and peerless in operetta - I love her Merry Widow (both versions) and J. Strauss. She always seems to have time, no matter how fast she is singing, to point a word or phrase deliciously that other singers just skate over. I love her operetta compilation CD which has a fabulously camp Nuns' Chorus. Ken Dodd agrees with me; he picked her wonderful Chambre Separaee as one of his Desert Island Discs and he asked for it to be sung by Betty Blackhead!

Yes Madame Schwarzkopf is indeed one of the very great singers of the 20th century, despite the mannerisms and other qualities that some people don't like. Did you know that there are two museums in Hohenems, one devoted to Schwarzkopf and one to her husband the record producer (and many other things) Walter Legge? I haven't been there but you can google them for more information. I know quite a lot about both Legge and Schwarzkopf from my days at EMI but those are stories for another time and place.

So, tmesis, do you have another installment for the Great American Songbook after Ellington and Strayhorn? I was wondering whether we might fruitfully take a new tack and list some songs under the great singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dinah Washington, etc, but omitting the songs by the big five that we have already covered. Would that be worth doing?

[tmesis]

Well there are loads more songs I want to enthuse over and in addition to the singers you mention other notable practioners are:

Nat King Cole
Billie Holiday
Sarah Vaughan
Dakota Staton
Doris Day
Peggy Lee
Carmen McRae
Anita O Day
Rosemary Clooney
Nina Simone
Julie London
Bobby Darin
Chet Baker
Tony Bennett
Lena Horne

It's a rather daunting list (and I'm amazed we've got this far with no mention of Fred Astaire!)

I'm just going to kick off with a miscellany of songs I love in no particular order

Angel Eyes
Lovely bluesy chords and melody. Favourite version Sinatra. I always think Mancini must have had this in his subconscious (harmonically only) when writing The Pink Panther!

Lover man (oh where can you be)
Another masterful, bluesy tune and chords. B. Holiday did the definitive version

Mean to me
I adore playing this, it has great drive. Ella and Oscar do my favourite version

Midnight Sun
About the most chromatic tune ever written. You can hear how it must have been conceived by L. Hampton as an instrumental first. It must be pretty easy to play on vibes with all those adjacent chromatic notes but to sing? Well Ella does it proud with Riddle and even manages to improvise round the tune in an incredibly classy way. This is from her Johnny Mercer Songbook and it's one of my favourites in the series. Mercer has the famous triple rhyme in this: chalice/palace/aurora borealis. I think the song has some of the bittersweetness of a Strayhorn composition.

Fly me to the Moon
I like the song but it's more for the excellent Julie London version with the pizzicato string arrangement, really cheesy but I love it

That'll do for now - there's loads more....

[tonyloco]

Now tmesis, you are making it harder by broadening the field so much but I will join in the game although my tastes may be less sophisticated than yours.

Firstly, there are two names on your list of additional singers whose work I am not familiar with (Dakota Staton and Chet Baker) but all the rest are of course top class practitioners of their art.
BTW, I am glad you included Carmen McRae. I found an LP of hers ('Live at Ronnie Scott's', I think, it was) that I played to death but alas it has now gone in my house move. And on your list, 'Mean to me' is very high on my list of songs I played many times and love. 'I don't know why I love you like I do' is another one in that category.

So let me throw out a few songs of varying merits that I admire, possibly for different reasons than those on your list, but here we go:

Love me or leave me
Original Ruth Etting version and the Doris Day cover in the Etting biopic

June in January
A Bing Crosby standard, of which there will be more

Love in bloom
Another Crosby hit. It became Jack Benny's signature tune played on his violin. Interesting middle eight.

What wouldn't I do for that man
Annette Hanshaw and Helen Morgan. One of those blusey songs for put-upon women that are no doubt frowned upon by the women who thought 'Funny Thing' was sexist.

St Louis Blues
Bessie Smith. The archtype blues, or so I believe, by W.C. Handy, which is an unfortunate name!

Temptation
Bing Crosby. And here are some more Crosby favourites: 'Please', 'Learn to Croon', 'A Faded Summer Love' and 'Don't let that moon get away' Do you know that last one? I had it on a 78 but have never seen it on any later Crosby reissues.

If I didn't care
The Ink Spots, plus other Ink Spots hits like 'Whispering Grass','Maybe', 'Bless You' and 'Java Jive'

Paper Doll
The Mills Brothers, plus other songs like 'You always hurt the one you love' and many others.

Baby won't you please come home
Carmen McCrae

Moon Song
Kate Smith

My old flame
Mae West and others. I am particularly fond of the Spike Jones version with the Peter Lorre imitation.
I also love the Mae West recording of 'Easy Rider' although I understand that she actually sings the verse of another song. And for Spike Jones, how about 'Cocktails for two'? Are you familiar with Spike Jones's oeuvre? 'Chloe'? 'William Tell Overture'?

Memories of you
No special version

Smiles
I love this rather short song, which does not have any kind of structure – it just starts and then goes on till it finishes. 'Lily of Laguna' is another song that does this.

Painting the clouds with sunshine
Nick Lucas. This is one of the hundreds of popular songs from the 1920s and 30s that were recorded by all the leading dance bands in the USA and the UK for fox trots and quick steps. 'Tiptoe through the tulips', 'I'm looking over a four leafed clover', 'Californla here I come' and 'Bye bye blackbird' are further examples. They form the basis of my sing-along repertoire.

Please don't talk about me when I'm gone
Walking my baby back home
(Here am I) Broken-Hearted
Somebody stole my girl
Who's sorry now
Heart of my heart
These are all songs that people know, or certainly used to, for pub sing-alongs. Johnny Ray had hits with some of them.

Ain't misbehavin'
The Fats Waller classic. Very widely known and recognised. Also 'Honeysuckle Rose'

Down among the sheltering palms
Running wild
Sugar Blues
I wanna be loved by you
I'm through with love
Sweet Georgia Brown
By the beautiful sea
Do you recognise that group of songs? They are all heard in the film 'Some Like it Hot'. I thought 'Sweet Sue' was also there but it's not mentioned in Wiki. We also hear 'La Cumparsita' but that is not in the Great American Songbook!

Well, that's my first pass – in no particular order as they say on the reality talent shows! Now you can add your next group!

[harrietcraig]

One of the great singers of the American songbook was Barbara Cook, whom I first had the pleasure of hearing at the old Reno Sweeney nightclub in Greenwich Village in the 1970's. When she died in August, Stephen Holden wrote an appreciation of her for the New York Times in which he said, "You left every Cook performance feeling warmed and grateful to be alive." Exactly.

So many favorite songs have already been mentioned here, but a few that come to mind are:

It had to be you
For all we know
Seems like old times
A kiss to build a dream on
And -- if it isn't too much of a cliche -- As time goes by

[tonyloco]

Oct 9, 2017 2:27:48 GMT harrietcraig said:

One of the great singers of the American songbook was Barbara Cook, whom I first had the pleasure of hearing at the old Reno Sweeney nightclub in Greenwich Village in the 1970's. When she died in August, Stephen Holden wrote an appreciation of her for the New York Times in which he said, "You left every Cook performance feeling warmed and grateful to be alive." Exactly.

So many favorite songs have already been mentioned here, but a few that come to mind are:

It had to be you
For all we know
Seems like old times
A kiss to build a dream on
And -- if it isn't too much of a cliche -- As time goes by

Of course, Barbara Cook is in a class of her own when it comes to authoritative and definitive performances of songs from the shows, especially those by Sondheim, and is definitely on the list of great singers of the American Songbook.

I like your list! 'It had to be you' was the song I always played to start off a session of tinkling or sing-along, especially on a piano that I had never played before, and 'As Time Goes By' is right at the top of my list of songs to be played in places like restaurants (where I very occasionally worked) when I wanted a song that I knew the punters would recognise but would not be too intrusive.  'Pennies from Heaven' was another in that category, as was 'September in the Rain'; also 'Tea for Two', 'Thanks for the memory' and 'Two sleepy people' although I expect these days those songs would be totally unknown to today's youth!

And 'A kiss to build a dream on' is a fabulous song, especially in Louis Armstrong's version. I well remember the 1951 movie 'The Strip'. And that song always reminds me of 'Blueberry Hill', maybe because of the Louis Armstrong recording.

[tmesis]

Of the songs you mention tonyloco I particularly like:

Love me or leave me
June in January
If I didn't care
Baby won't you please come home
Ain't Misbehaving
Honeysuckle Rose
Thanks for the memory (great list song)
A kiss to build a dream on (Armstrong is sublime)

A few more....

Basin Street Blues
Blame it on my Youth - excellent Feinstein version
Early Autumn - got to be Ella for this! The tune is such a simple idea; a succession of descending major 7th but no else thought of it
Everything Happens to me - I love R. Clooney's version
Gee baby ain't I good to you - Ella again, with Joe Pass
I'll take Romance
Moonlight in Vermont - Ella or Sinatra
Willow weep for me - Cleo Laine does this well
Witchcraft - Sinatra (obviously)
All or nothing at all
Good morning heartache
Misty - I think we've mentioned this before but I never tire of playing this (in E flat!) I like Sarah Vaughan's version best.

To be continued....

btw, I'm currently reading James Kaplan's definitive biography of Sinatra called 'The Chairman'. This is actually book 2 and is 1000 pages long (book one was a similar length!) I can't recommend it highly enough. As well as his fascinating personal life it goes into considerable detail regarding the classic Capitol recording sessions, particularly with Riddle, but also with Billy May and Gordon Jenkins.

[tonyloco]

You did good there, tmesis, by remembering a song that I absolutely love but can never bring it to mind when I want to, namely: 'Gee baby ain't I good to you'. I think it might be on that Carmen McCrae album. It's a song that was always hard to find in an authoritative printed version and many years ago, the man who ran the EMI Music Publishing archive was a fan of mine from the Pindar of Wakefield days (see my current avatar) and he would make me unofficial free photo copies of anything I wanted from the whole archive and that was a song where the only copy he could find was a kind of 'fake' version.

Anyway, seeing 'Misty' reminds me that I'm not sure whether either of us have yet mentioned 'Laura'? A beautiful song, although Spike Jones did his best to murder it! I remember the movie with Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews where the tune was just a melody that ran through the film until Johnny Mercer subsequently wrote a great lyric for it. Clever Johnny!

'All or nothing at all' sounds as if I should be by Cole Porter (to me it has echoes of 'Begin the Beguine') but it is actually by Arthur Altman and Jack Lawrence, dated 1939, the same yeas as 'Begin the Beguine'.

And you mentioning Cleo Laine reminds me that I saw her doing a one-woman show with Orchestra (must have been Johnny Dankworth) at the Palladium, at least I think it was a one-woman show. Anyway, it was terrific but I always forget about it when I am recounting the famous ladies I have seen on stage doing concerts like Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Eartha Kit, Barbara Cook, etc.

And 'Basin Sreet Blues' reminds me of 'Tuxedo Junction', another big band number that translates well to solo piano, at least I always thought so, as does 'Chatanooga Choo Choo', and even 'In the Mood' makes its effect on the piano although basically only for the main two opening sections and the coda.

Kaplan's Sinatra book sounds intriguing. I visited the Capitol Tower back in the 1970s to see the people running the Angel label but I never got to see the studios. Who produced the Capitol Sinatra albums? Was Dick Jones one of the producers? He was credited as Dick Jones on pop albums and Richard Jones on classical albums! He and I went to the Maria Callas concert at the Festival Hall in 1962 – on EMI tickets, of course Those were the days!

[harrietcraig]

Oct 9, 2017 22:48:24 GMT tonyloco said:

And you mentioning Cleo Laine reminds me that I saw her doing a one-woman show with Orchestra (must have been Johnny Dankworth) at the Palladium, at least I think it was a one-woman show. Anyway, it was terrific but I always forget about it when I am recounting the famous ladies I have seen on stage doing concerts like Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Eartha Kit, Barbara Cook, etc.

I'm envious -- and curious as to whether you ever saw Elisabeth Welch live in performance? I saw her in New York at the very end of her career, but since she was based in London for much of her life, you would have had many more opportunities to see her. 

[tonyloco]

Oct 9, 2017 23:23:15 GMT harrietcraig said:

I'm envious -- and curious as to whether you ever saw Elisabeth Welch live in performance? I saw her in New York at the very end of her career, but since she was based in London for much of her life, you would have had many more opportunities to see her. 

Sorry, harrietcraig, but my answer has to be a rather vague 'I may have but I don't have any specific recollection.' To explain this I will go off into one of my long anecdotes as follows. When I was working for EMI and also doing my performing as a pianist in music hall and variety, there were three elderly jazz-singing ladies all still performing, namely Adelaide Hall, Elisabeth Welch and Beryl Bryden. The first two were Americans of almost the same age whose early careers were very similar and the third was British and a bit younger. I had two young colleagues at EMI who got to know these three ladies very well, I will call them A and B. A was responsible for most of the releases on the World Records 'Retrospect' label and as well as compiling albums of the early recordings of both Adelaide Hall and Elisabeth Welch he also got to know Welch quite well and released two 'stereo' albums of her later recordings. I don't know whether he actually arranged for these recordings to be made by EMI or whether they were existing masters that he licensed in, but I certainly enjoyed listening to all the LPs as well as hearing A's anecdotes about Welch.

My other colleague, B, got to know Adelaide Hall and Beryl Bryden very well and used to squire them around to gigs and social occasions. I played a number of times for Addie on mixed bills but whenever she or Elisabeth Welch did solo shows of their own, they would usually turn up as guests on each other's shows. I never played for any of those solo shows but I am fairly sure I attended one or two so would have heard both ladies on the same show. I can say that they both retained their singing voices extremely well into very old age and certainly Addie always appeared amazingly youthful on stage, even when she forgot her words! Anyway, sadly I have no specific memory of hearing Elisabeth Welch but I think I may have!

I wonder whether tmesis can be more specific about hearing Elisabeth Welch live although I expect he knows her LPs.

[tmesis]

You raised some fascinating points tonyloco .

I love Laura - it begins with one my favourite chords, a minor 9th. Other superb uses of that chord, though not at the beginning, are in Tenderly and Chelsea Bridge. I love all the Spike Jones send ups.

I agree All or nothing at all is very like Porter; maybe it's the minor key.

I saw Cleo Laine at her 70th birthday concert (with the Dankworth orchestra) at RAH. She was on fantastic form but it was rather eclipsed by the fact that evening Diana died in the Paris crash!

I've never seen Elizabeth Welch live; her CD of the Jerome Kern songbook is very good.

[tonyloco]

Well, that was a quickie, tmesis! Seems like you had more to say but didn't finish.

So I will just add an interim note with a few random thoughts about a few songs:

Deep Purple
According to Wiki, Adelaide Hall introduced this song to the UK in 1939 with a recording for Decca. She usually included it in her set when I was playing for her. The melody has some wide jumps and I always worried that her voice would crack but she always got through it.

Nobody knows you when you're down and out
This is another one of those archetypal blues songs. I always enjoyed playing it.

Once in a while
A beautiful song with a sad kind of harmonic structure – effective to play in my restaurant background music repertoire

What a difference a day made
Another beautiful song. Wiki says Dinah Washington although I thought it was also sung by Julie London but I can't find any recordings by her.

Exactly like you
Whispering
We just couldn't say goodbye
Three 'throw away' songs in the quickstep/foxtrot category that I often played although people generally didn't know the words to sing along.

I'm confessin'
A slower song but always comfortable to play.

She's funny that way
Try a little tenderness
Two 'depression era' songs that Maxine Daniels liked to sing (and I liked to play).

OK tmesis. Your turn now! Or anybody else? Mr Snow, Dawnstar, Harrietcraig, Theatremonkey? Anybody want to remember favourite old songs not from the musical theatre?

[tmesis]

Yes tonyloco I had a very heavy teaching evening yesterday (finishing after 9.00pm) and so was not able to contribute much, but I did finish with a pupil playing a real book version of Kern's lovely I'm Old Fashioned, so frankly exploring that minor masterpiece together with one of my most likeable pupils, was money for old rope.

Once in a while
Deep Purple - great rangey melody
What a difference a day makes
Try a little tenderness

....are all favourites from your list

Now for more of mine:

More than you know - an all time favourite. There's a fantastic version by Maria Ewing, she a bit too trained in her approach but what makes it, is the superb accompaniment  from R.R.B. I love the delicious way the minor key verse 'relaxes' into the major key tune.
After you've Gone - I note from the copyright date the song is nearly 100 years old (1918)
Black Coffee - got to be Peggy Lee for this
Devil may care - Claire Martin does an excellent version
Harlem Nocturne
I'm glad there is you
In the wee small hours - fabulous song but too short! Sinatra's version is best
It's the talk of the town
Lullaby of the leaves - fantastic quirky tune
Till there was you
I can't get started - again I love Sinatra's version with a superb French horn introduction. Ira's lyric is sheer class, with the great rhyme of 'Queens I've a la carted, but I can't get started with you.'

and while we're talking about Mr. Dukelsky also

April in Paris
Autumn in New York


ps. Are you a fan of Jobim? I don't think they should be included here, but I love to both play and listen to his stuff.

[Mr Snow]

Enjoying all of this from my sun lounger in Marbs!

The mention of Do nothin till you hear from me had me checking the internet as it was perhaps the one ding that turned my head in a new direction. Out of nowhere Graham Parker’s backing ban, The Rumour, released s version in 1977 when I was 19. I bought just the one Punk album but to my friends amazement started exploring Jazz and later popular song. For me it was Billie Holliday whoose early recordings offered the best of both worlds.

The, A’s mentioned previously came Pal Joey and Steve Ross and Andrea Marcovecci at Pizza on the Park. Other highlights we’re Bobby Short. I must also thank my Father who normally didn’t pick up on our interests but out of nowhere he suddenly produced tickets for Ella Fitzgerald at the Palladium. The small group she was with was Oscar Peterson and his band

Mention of Nat King Cole has Nature Boy as my glorious ear worm. What a song

Also I can’t remember if Dietz and Schwartz have had their dues but Miss Marcovecci recorded just one verse and one chorus of Haunted Heart, one that I love. This has prompted me to look for a fuller recording

More please.

[tonyloco]

Hello Mr Snow in Marbs! Glad you are enjoying these ongoing reminiscences. I think the things you mention fall more into the field of tmesis so I will leave him to comment further.

As for me, I will go off one one of my rambles and say that although I know of Jobim's most famous song about Ipanema, I am not really a special fan. I had the usual assortment of 'anglicised' or perhaps 'americanised' Latin-American and Spanish songs in my repertoire ('You belong to my heart', 'Brazil', 'I get ideas', 'Manana', 'Quanto la gusta', 'Yours' etc, etc) but not so long ago I had to unravel a whole load of real and pseudo Latin songs for some Placido Domingo compilations which rather put me off that area, but I still like 'Granada' which makes a splendid piano solo. And I also had to come to grips with authentic and pseudo-classical Argentine tangos based on the popularity of Piazzolla and that was not much fun. Oh, but one of my favourite LPs was Xavier Cugat and Abbey Lane on Mercury having a ball with every Latin-American instrument ever made in spectacular high fidelity – now that WAS fun!

Commenting further on a few of the latest songs from tmesis:

Harlem Nocturne
That was a show piece for the dreadful three-piece dance band I played in back in the 1950s in Sydney. We thought it was wonderful and we played it from the full orchestral arrangement, but piano, trumpet and drums hardly did it justice! The middle section is a bit like the bluesey section of 'Slaughter on 10th Avenue'. There was another similar piece that was called something like 'Blue Pacific Blues' from the film 'Miss Sadie Thompson' with Rita Hayworth. We also had the full orchestral arrangement of that one.

I can't get started
Of course it was the Bunny Berrigan recording that I played endlessly as a 78 back in Sydney, but I was surprised and delighted recently at the 'Gershwin and Friends' jazz concert at Cadogan Hall when Kim Criswell sang a female version that I had never heard before.

It's the talk of the town
A great favourite for playing. 1933, apparently, another one of those 'depression era' songs. I can see listed recordings by Annette Hanshaw, Connie Boswell, Bing Crosby, Kay Starr, Perry Como and Julie London – all very me! The writers are Al J. Neiburg, Jerry Levinson and Marty Symes. Who they?

So rare
This apparently dates from 1937 but didn't really become a hit until 1957 for Jimmy Dorsey, which is already into the rock 'n' roll era. I never played it but I like it a lot.

[tmesis]

Re Dietz and Schwartz Mr Snow there is of course the sublime Dancing in the Dark, one of the classiest songs ever and also By Myself and the one where he homages Berlin's No Business Like Show Business, namely That's Entertainment.

[tonyloco]

Oct 11, 2017 14:58:54 GMT tmesis said:

Re Dietz and Schwartz Mr Snow there is of course the sublime Dancing in the Dark, one of the classiest songs ever and also By Myself and the one where he homages Berlin's No Business Like Show Business, namely That's Entertainment.

Wow! Popular songs don't come much better than those three totally contrasting numbers!

[harrietcraig]

Oct 11, 2017 13:01:22 GMT Mr Snow said:

Also I can’t remember if Dietz and Schwartz have had their dues but Miss Marcovecci recorded just one verse and one chorus of Haunted Heart, one that I love. This has prompted me to look for a fuller recording

Jonathan Schwartz -- Arthur Schwartz's son and the long-time host of New York radio shows about American popular music -- sings a full version of "Haunted heart" on a recording called "Anyone would love you" (the title of a Harold Rome song which is also on the recording). Jonathan isn't a professional singer, and it shows, but he does a creditable job on several Schwartz and Dietz songs, as well as several by Kern and a couple by Arlen. The recording also includes a couple of rarities: an unpublished song by Schwartz and Dorothy Fields called "Where do I go from you", and one by Schwartz and Maxwell Anderson called "Once upon a long ago" that was originally written for a television program. This thread has inspired me to drag my LP off the shelf, dust off the turntable, and give it a listen.

[tonyloco]

I've just remembered two romantic songs that I often play (always in F) and amuse myself by playing any one of at least three chords on the penultimate E (being C7, G flat 7 or E natural) and these are 'You'll never know' (1943) by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren and 'It's been a long, long time' (1945) by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. I can clearly remember Alice Faye singing 'You'll never know' in the film 'Hello Frisco,Hello'. Yes I was indeed precocious being only six or seven at the time but as the war was still on I suspect it took a year or two for American movies to get to Sydney (and British films took even longer). Of course it was my mother who took me to the cinema to see films like this and she also loved all those songs, old and new. When I saw the film relatively recently I was surprised and happy to find that all the other songs in the film (including the title number) were authentic American vaudeville songs although neither Wiki nor IMDB lists them and I can't find references elsewhere at the moment. Anyway, this partly explains why the songs of the American vaudeville era are lodged in my brain because I was absorbing them as a child from movies like this as well as other films like 'The Jolson Story' and older movies with Eddie Cantor. And earlier American songs were featured in 'My Gal Sal' about the composer Paul Dresser, 'When Irish Eyes are smiling' about Ernest Ball and various other movies with Betty Grable, etc.

[tmesis]

A few more...

Close your eyes
Don't be that way - Ella and Joe Pass are superb
For all we know - a simple tune but very touching
A Ghost of a chance - Diana Krall does a good version
I'm getting sentimental over you
Moonglow - hardly a tune at all, but so effective. It's all in the harmony!
Stairway to the Stars
Stars fell on Alabama
The night we called it a day - love the tense harmonies at the start that then resolve
Street of Dreams
Taking a chance on Love - Sinatra
That old feeling
'Round Midnight - Monk's masterpiece, I love Torme's version
A Garden in the rain

[tonyloco]

Another interesting list, tmesis. A couple I don't know at all including 'Close your eyes' and 'The night we called it a day' and a couple of absolute classic standards like 'Taking a chance on love' and 'That old feeling' that were very much in my repertoire. Seeing 'Moonglow' (1934) reminds me that it got used in the 1956 movie 'Picnic' mixed up with an original 'Theme from Picnic' and I think caused us some confusion when we tried to play it in our dance band with no success whatsoever! I have to admit that I know nothing about Thelonius Monk's music. I always meant to investigate it but never did.

I'll change the mood entirely bu listing a few jazz favourites going back mainly to Paul Whiteman, the Rhythm Boys and Bix Beiderbecke.

I'm comin' Virginia
From Monday on
Mississipi mud
Louisiana
The Japanese Sandman
Birth of the Blues*
Way down yonder in New Orleans*
My pet
Sweet Sue*

These were mainly just for listening pleasure although I regularly played the ones marked with an asterisk and 'My Pet' was also one of Sophie Tucker's hits. And talking of the last of the red hot mammas, I have to list:

Some of these days
What do you want to make those eyes at me for?
A good man is hard to find
My yiddische momma

I was tempted to go to see her performing at The Talk of the Town in London but I was a bit intimidated by the fact that TTOTT was operating as a theatre restaurant so I let it pass. I later got to know the manager of the place and eventually got to see a few singers of varying quality (for free) although at the moment the only one I can remember was the amazing Pearl Bailey who was brilliant.

[tonyloco]

In between the two episodes of Coronation Street tonight I turned over to 'The Good Old Days' and found a not very talented young lady having trouble keeping in tune with some naff orchestrations but she did perform a medley of old songs that I really loved, even though they didn't quite belong together:

I was a good little girl (till I met you) (1914)
The Darktown Strutters Ball (1917)
The Varsity Drag (1927)
Ballin' the Jack (1913)

'The Varsity Drag' is by DeSylva, Brown and Henderson from their musical 'Good News' which also contained 'The best things in life are free', 'Lucky in love' and the title song 'Good News'. I was also very fond of a similar 'varsity' song called 'Doin' the Raccoon' (1929) which is a perfect Charleston but that is not so widely known. There is a recording by Fred Olsen on YouTube but the melody gets lost in the harmonising of the male vocal group.

[tonyloco]

Oct 13, 2017 22:10:24 GMT tonyloco said:

'The Varsity Drag' is by DeSylva, Brown and Henderson from their musical 'Good News' which also contained 'The best things in life are free', 'Lucky in love' and the title song 'Good News'. I was also very fond of a similar 'varsity' song called 'Doin' the Raccoon' (1929) which is a perfect Charleston but that is not so widely known. There is a recording by Fred Olsen on YouTube but the melody gets lost in the harmonising of the male vocal group.

Silly me! The recording of 'Doin' the Raccoon' on YouTube is by George Olsen, not Fred Olsen who is a cruise line! But the melody is totally lost on the Olsen record in the vocal harmonising. Another version by Bill Murray is played too fast and the version by Ernie Golden is basically orchestral with just one vocal chorus which is a pity because the lyrics are quite clever. They can be found on www.heptune.com/lyrics/doinracc.html

[tmesis]

Nat King Cole

Cole recorded some great songs. I love both periods of his career; the early stuff, where he is both pianist and singer, with the lovely trio of piano, guitar and bass that so influenced Oscar Peterson and then his later, more produced career as just a singer. It's testimony to his unique voice that the many excellent songs that he made famous have not really gained much acceptance when sung by others.

Straighten up and fly right
Sweet Lorraine
Nature Boy
Mona Lisa
Too Young
Unforgettable
It's all in the game
Portrait of Jenny
Let there be love - with the superb Shearing on piano
Frim Fram Sauce - a literally delicious song
When I take my sugar to tea
When I fall in love - with that sumptuous string intro by Gordon Jenkins; positively Mahlerian!

I also loved the album 'Unforgettable' that daughter Natalie did; this could have been awful but was beautifully done.

[tonyloco]

I heartily agree about Nat King Cole. His death at 45 was a tragic loss to the world of popular music. Like all the truly great interpreters of popular songs, his style was unique and he could be mistaken for nobody else. I am also very interested in him because of his crucial role in the success of Capitol Records, both from its earliest days as a brand new record company on the West Coast in 1942 and also through its subsequent history after it was bought by EMI in 1955.

I've just been looking at the Wiki entry on Capitol and I see that among the very first discs cut by Capitol were some recordings by Paul Whiteman including one with Billie Holiday and I vaguely remember that this was included in 'André Previn's Guide to Music' in accordance with our requirement to keep as much of the repertoire EMI-owned.

Wiki also says that among the earliest Capitol artists was Margaret Whiting and I very much enjoyed her appearance at Pizza on the Park in more recent times. And her father, Richard Whiting, also contributed to the Great American Songbook. I collected a number of LP compilations of Capitol's earliest recordings by Ella Mae Morse, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Johnny Mercer, Jo Stafford, Kay Starr etc, etc but alas they went the way of all my other LPs when I moved house to downsize a few years ago.

Also in the list of early Capitol artists is the wonderful Peggy Lee, whose 'Fever' is one of those great 'stand alone' records. Her 'Manana' was the model we used for the samba in our dance band repertoire. And when I first joined EMI in 1960, the LP 'Latin a la Lee' frequently used to be returned by irate customers complaining that the playing time on each side was very short, something like under 15 minutes if I remember correctly, but the company always said it was selling music by the song and not by the yard and all those songs just happened to be short. But at that time all normal pop LPs contained just six tracks per side, and the usual playing time was around twenty minutes or less anyway.

[tmesis]

Yes tonyloco you've mentioned a few more singers I like ie. Kay Starr Jo Stafford and particularly Margaret Whiting. Her father's Too Marvellous for words and the infectious Horray for Hollywood are two highlights. I also like Nancy Wilson.

...oh and obviously Peggy Lee!