“I Get a Kick Out of You” – Ethel Merman (1936)

Posted on March 1, 2024 by Richard Barry

Cole Porter wrote “I Get a Kick Out of You” for a 1931 Broadway show, Star Dust, which never got produced. The song was, however, later used in Porter’s Broadway show Anything Goes in 1934, sung by Ethel Merman. Other notable tunes to come out of that production were “All Through the Night,” “You’re the Top,” and “Anything Goes.” Quite the show.

In 1936, a musical film version was produced, directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, Charles Ruggles, and Ida Lupino. For the record, this is the plot:

A young man falls in love with a beautiful blonde. When he sees her being forced onto a luxury liner, he decides to follow and rescue her. However, he discovers that she is an English heiress who ran away from home and is now being returned to England. He also discovers that his boss is on the ship. To avoid discovery, he disguises himself as the gangster accomplice of a minister, who is actually a gangster on the run from the law.

IMDb

The one thing about this song that “I Get a Kick Out of You” that has always struck me is the way the reference to cocaine comes and go depending on which version one is is hearing. And there’s a good reason for that. It’s called the Motion Picture Production Code of 1934 or the Hays office (William H. Hays was the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America). The code was a set of industry guidelines which asked, and got, self-censorship of the content of U.S. movies released by major studios from 1934 to 1968. The origin of the Hays Code, and the reason the industry fell into line is that, after what were thought to be some particularly risque films and some notable scandals, an image makeover was needed. For a long time, movies got “cleaner.”

Here are some highlights of what the code “suggested,” the interpretation of which must have been a nightmare.

  1. The technique of murder shall be done in a way that will not inspire imitation.
  2. Brutal killings shall not be presented in detail.
  3. Revenge in modern times shall not be justified.
  4. Theft, robbery, safecracking and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc., should not be detailed in method.
  5. Arson must be subject to the same safeguards.
  6. The use of firearms should be restricted to essentials.
  7. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented.
  8. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot, or for proper characterization shall not be shown.

Thus, see number 7 above, illegal drug trafficking, such as implied by the use of cocaine, must never be presented, so that in the 1936 film, this:

Some get a kick from cocaine
I‘m sure that if
I took even one sniff
That would bore me terrif-
Ically, too
Yet, I get a kick out of you

Became this:

Some like the perfume in Spain

This only applied to films, and eventually was ignored by film makers many years later, but it is the reason the reference to cocaine comes and goes depending on the version of “I Get a Kick Out of You” one is hearing. There, doesn’t that make you feel morally upright, not having to listen to that nasty lyric?

Here’s Ethel Merman with the non-offending version. Bonus track is a Sinatra take with the offending line.

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“Have You Seen Her” – The Chi-lites (1971)

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Richard Barry

Reading through Charlie Gillette’s The Sound of the City: The Classic History of Rock, I came across a reference to this Chi-lites’ hit. Beside being one of the best soul tunes of all time, it’s well known in part because of the talking intro, which, unfortunately, some radio stations felt the need to omit. That’s too bad, as it added so much to the feeling of the song.

Written by lead singer Eugene Record (1940-2005) and Barbara Acklin (1943-1998), it’s a sad song about a guy who passes his time in various mundane ways hoping his lost love will come back to him. That doesn’t happen and in a worldly-wise way our protagonist has to deal with the fact that you don’t always get want you want (to quote another song).

“Have You Seen Her” reached no. 3 on the Billboard Top 100, and got to the top of the Billboard R&B Singles chart in November of 1971.

Previous records by the group had veered between the raspy attack of the Temptations and the purity of the Miracles, but in [“Have You Seen Her”] Record found his own territory: “situation songs” presented in fine detail, and sung in a voice that switched from warm tenor to soft falsetto.

The Sound of the City p . 222

In the interest of equal time, I should note that the co-writer on the song was Barbara Acklin, a singer as well as a songwriter who had most of her success in the 1960s and 1970s. Her biggest hit as a singer was “Love Makes a Woman” (1968).

It’s a classic and was no doubt a heartache song for many.

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“Shotgun” – Jr. Walker & The All Stars

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Richard Barry
all

There aren’t many things on my bucket list, but getting “that sound” on the tenor sax is way up there. It’s called a growl or some such thing. I’m getting close. Anyway, it’s in this cut.

“Shotgun” is a 1965 single by Junior Walker & the All Stars. It was written by Walker and produced by Berry Gordy Jr. and Lawrence Horn, was number #1 on the U.S. R&B Singles charts for four non-consecutive weeks and got to number four on the Billboard Hot 100.

Under the heading “music doesn’t have to be complicated to be great, “Shotgun” uses only one chord in the entire song — A-flat seventh.

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“I Dig Chicks” – Jonah Jones (1959)

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Richard Barry

difThere’s a store that sells old vinyl a few blocks from my house in Toronto. I’m not really a collector. And given all the options for accessing music, it makes no sense to me to get my music that way. I know a few audiophiles who swear by the quality of the sound. I’m not going to argue with them. They are very passionate. But I can’t be bothered.

These days I buy vinyl for the album art. Some of it is so interesting. This afternoon I picked up an album by the Jonah Jones Quartet. It’s called Swingin’ at the Cinema. It was released in 1959. It contains a number of songs from movies of the day. 

Jonah Jones was a trumpet player and singer who was, according to one entry, “best known for creating concise versions of jazz and swing standards that appealed to a mass audience.”

I was drawn to the album cover art because, well, I’m old, not dead. Whatever else Jonah Jones did with his music, he certainly liked women, and even recorded a song called “I Dig Chicks.”  Terribly sexist and inappropriate and all that but, hey, think of it as musical anthropology as in the study of man before he walked upright.

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“Swingin’ Shepherd Blues” – Moe Koffman (1957)

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Richard Barry
mo

When I first got to Toronto in 1980, some people I met suggested I get down to George’s Spaghetti House to hear Moe Koffman. Koffman booked the venue and also played there on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I never managed to do that. And now it’s gone and so is Moe.

Moe played at the venue so much, in fact, that a joke making the rounds in the day had a prospective attendee to the club calling up and asking who was preforming that night, then quickly adding “and I won’t take Moe for an answer.”

Koffman was best known as a flute player, though he played the sax and clarinet, which is a common form of multi-instrumentalism, or doubling, as they say. In 1957 he had a hit with “Swingin’ Shepherd Blues,” an incredibly catchy tune the likes of which appeals to music fans who might not otherwise care much about jazz.  In fact, it’s just the kind of cross-over hit that makes jazz purists squirm. You wouldn’t want the uninitiated digging your music. In a way, it’s like Vince Gauraldi playing those Peanuts Christmas songs. For a lot of folks it’s the only jazz they might ever appreciate.

“Swingin’ Shepherd Blues” is a fun tune to listen to and fun to play. Good enough for me. Koffman died in 2001, but he had a pretty good run, having played with some of the brighter lights in jazz like Dizzy Gillespie and Peter Appleyard. And he did a lot of session work on the Canadian scene, including music for movies. Basically, he had a decent career in music, which is no easy task.

Sure, “Swingin’ Shepherd Blues” is kitschy, but catchy too.

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“Sixty Minute Man” – Billy Ward and His Dominoes (1951)

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Richard Barry
BWATD-NICE1

For some people “Sixty Minute Man” will be familiar as having been featured in the 1988 movie Bull Durham. Think Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and toenail painting, after you thought it was something else. The song follows a theme well-known in blues music in which a singer brags about abilities of a sexual nature, which is why it was banned from some radio stations at the time of its original debut.

“Sixty Minute Man” was written by Billy Ward and Rose Marks and released as a single on Federal Records in 1951 by Billy Ward and His Dominoes. The line-up around this time would have been (I believe) Bill Brown, Billy Ward, Clyde McPhatter, Charlie White and Joe Lamont.

It reached #1 on the R&B charts in May 1951, stayed there for 14 weeks, and also rose to #17 on the pop charts, one of the first R&B songs to cross-over. It is also generally cited as a song that helped shape rock and roll.

Bruce Eder writes:

What made The Dominoes special, besides the excellent arrangements and McPhatter’s unique voice, was their appeal beyond the usual racial lines of demarcation. They were huge in the black community, but they were also one of a relative handful of R&B acts that developed a small but fiercely loyal following among younger white listeners as well during the early ’50s, which didn’t matter a lot at the time — and, as things worked out, was only incidental to their fate — but helped to plant a seed that blossomed into the full-blown rock & roll boom four years later.

The group had significant success in the ’50s as one of the best selling acts of the period, with three Billboard Top-40 hits by the end of the decade.

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“You Talk Too Much” – Joe Jones (1960)

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Richard Barry
JOnes

Joe Jones (1926 – 2005) was born in New Orleans. He was an R&B singer, songwriter and arranger, and is often cited as having discovered the Dixie Cups, a pop girl group best known for the 1964 hit “Chapel of Love.”

“You Talk Too Much” was released by Joe Jones & His Orchestra on the Roulette label and reached No. 3 on the pop charts in 1960. The song was written by Reginald Hall, Fats Domino‘s brother-in-law, but Domino decided not to record it.

“You Talk Too Much” was the high point of Jones’ career – a nice high point.

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“The Preacher” – Horace Silver (1955)

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Richard Barry

Not that jazz can’t be happy music, but this one is a particularly upbeat thing. “The Preacher” is by Horace Silver,  recored first  by Silver’s quintet in February of 1955. That would be Silver on piano, with Hank Mobley (tenor saxophone), Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Doug Watkins (bass), and Art Blakey (drums).

According to Silver’ 2007 biography Let’s Get to the Nitty Gritty – The Autobiography of Horace Silver (University of California Press), the song almost didn’t get recorded because the producer thought it was “too old-timey.” No accounting for taste.

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“I Will” – Laurence Juber (2020)

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Richard Barry

I was searching for some fingerstyle jazz today and came across Laurence Juber. Though I have played for decades, and read some of the niche magazines for players, I was not aware of Mr. Juber, which seems like a serious oversight.

His website says the following about him:

A music graduate of London’s Goldsmith’s College, he was featured guitar soloist with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra before becoming established as a studio musician in the mid-1970’s. First internationally recognized as lead guitarist in Beatle Paul McCartney’s Wings, with whom he won a Grammy, Juber has since established himself as world-renowned guitar virtuoso and entertainer.

LaurenceJuber.com

He has more than two dozen albums to credit, the latest of which is his fourth album in a series of arrangements for solo guitar of Beatles songs called The Fab 4th.

Here is Mr. Juber with an impossibly beautiful version of my absolutely favourite Beatle song, “I Will” from the aforementioned The Fab 4th album. By the way, here’s a link to an Acoustic Guitar review of the album. Nice read.

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“Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” – Perez Prado (1955)

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Richard Barry

If you were wondering what the Billboard top single of 1955 was, wouldn’t you think that maybe it would be the Bill Haley and His Comets version of “Rock Around the Clock,” or one of the three versions of “The Ballad of Davey Crockett” released that year, or even Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons.” In each case, you would be wrong. The Billboard year-end top single for 1955 was “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” by Perez Prado.

Prado recorded the song as an instrumental with his orchestra featuring trumpet player Bill Regis, although lyrics do exist in both French (Jacque Larue) and English (Mack David). The music was written by Louiguy. Louiguy is a nom de plum of Louis Guglielmi, a Spanish-born French musician of Italian descent.

Dámaso Pérez Prado (1916 – 1989) was a Cuban bandleader, pianist, composer and arranger who popularized the mambo in the 1950s, which was the key to the song’s massive popularity at the time. And why is that you ask?

In the 1950’s, the mambo was the most popular dance craze in the Western world. Mambo dancers became famous, and the New York Palladium, a showcase for mambo music, gained international attention. Afro-Cuban band leaders like Damaso Perez Prado …and Mario Bauza, (1911-1993), became legendary. 

The New York Times, May 12, 1991, Section 1, p. 32

Another interesting bit about the tune is that Perez Prado first recorded it for the movie Underwater in 1955 for a scene which involves Jane Russell dancing in some way (well, we know what kind of way). As you might imagine it was set around the ocean with ample opportunity for Ms. Russell to wear bathing attire.

It would seem that fads or, to be kinder, short-lived popular interests, can influence all sorts of things. In this case, the mambo craze made a song number one in 1955. Go figure.

Sadly, I could not find a clip a Jane Russell dancing, but here’s Perez Prado with that characteristic trumpet sound introducing the main theme, which I think is the only part of the tune I actually remembered.

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