“I’m Sittin’ on Top of the World” – Al Jolson (1928)

Posted on February 27, 2024 by Richard Barry

“I’m Sittin’ on Top of the World” was published in 1925 – words by Ray Henderson, lyrics Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young.

Al Jolson recorded the song in 1925, and then sang it in the 1928 part-talkie film The Singing Fool and in his biographical movie The Jolson Story in 1946.

As for “part-talkie” films, and this makes perfect sense, there was a transition between 1927 and 1929 when some audio was added to otherwise silent films – a bit of dialogue or some singing. During this period, it took movie houses about a year and a half to fully transition to talkies. In the interim, as the commercial value of talkies became apparent, studios began adding bits of sound where possible (hence the “See and Hear” tag in the movie poster at left).

One interesting point is that the so-called “first talking picture”, The Jazz Singer (1927), starring Al Jolson, is in fact only a part-talkie with about fifteen minutes of singing and talking – the rest the standard silent fare with “title” cards and recorded orchestral music. The clip “I’m Sitting on Top of the World” below from The Singing Fool is of this type.

The Singing Fool plot synopsis: A singing star tries to recover from heartbreak when his wife deserts him and takes away his beloved son.

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“Haven’t We Met?” – Kenny Rankin (1975)

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Richard Barry
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When I was an undergraduate, I went through a very serious Kenny Rankin phase. That would have been in the late ’70s, which was probably a strange thing for a guy that age to be into. I thought that if I had been blessed with a good singing voice (a condition contrary to fact), I would have wanted to sing like Rankin. And I loved his acoustic guitar jazz finger-styles thing. Still do.

The album that I remember most fondly is his 1975 Silver Morning. It continues to be way up there on my list of personal favourites.

As Stephen J. Matteo at AllMusic writes:

At the height of the singer/songwriter period, Rankin quietly became one of the key voices of the genre. Silver Morning ranks as one of the best and most representative albums of that time. Once again, Rankin does a fine job covering Gordon Lightfoot (“Pussywillows, Cat Tails”), but he really shines on his reworkings of the Beatles‘ songbook. His vocal and guitar arrangements on Lennon and McCartney‘s “Blackbird,” and particularly on “Penny Lane,” show him to be one of the best interpreters of the Beatles‘ music. Moreover, in lending the songs his distinctive sound, they transcend being mere cover versions. The title cut and “Haven’t We Met” illustrate his continued ability not only to play wonderful guitar and sing like an angel, but also to write great songs. This is easily one of his best albums.

Tragically, Rankin died in 2009 at the age of 69, just a few short weeks after having been diagnosed with lung cancer. He did, however, leave a pretty good legacy including 13 studio albums. And there is this, which I found on his website bio:

Rankin’s 1975 album Silver Morning featured a popular reworking of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” that so impressed Paul McCartney that he asked Rankin to represent himself and John Lennon when they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

If I’m not mistaken, those guys could write a good song too.

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“It Might As Well Be a Spring” – Nina Simone (1959)

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Richard Barry

“It Might As Well Be Spring” is a Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein classic from the 1945 film State Fair, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year. Jeanne Crain performed it in the movie, but the voice was dubbed by Louanne Hogan.

Dick Haymes had the first hit with the tune in 1945, and later, in 1961, Frank Sinatra hit with it on his 1961 album Sinatra & Strings. Other early recordings include The Sammy Kaye Orchestra with Margaret Whiting on vocals (1945), Sarah Vaughan (1955), Ella Fitzgerald (1961), Shirley Bassey (1962). I’ve always been partial to anything Stan Getz did with it.

Here’s a great version by Nina Simone from an album called The Amazing Nina Simone (1959).

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“Mambo Boogie” – Johnny Otis (1951)

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Richard Barry
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Johnny Otis (1921-2012) had quite the resume: singer, musician, composer, arranger, bandleader, talent scout, disc jockey, record producer, television show host, artist, author, journalist, minister, and impresario. Beside being a major influence on R&B and rock and roll, his various resumes usually includes mention of the fact that he had a talent for finding other artists like Little Esther, Big Mama Thornton, Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John and Hank Ballard.

His last single charted in 1969, but he managed to stay busy in journalism, the ministry, and politics, among other pursuits.  In fact, during the ’60s he lost a race for a seat in the California State Assembly and was chief of staff for Democratic Congressman Mervyn M. Dymally.

An important figure in the origins of popular music, and an interesting fellow who lived to the age of 90s, Otis died in 2012.

In 1951, he released “Mambo Boogie.” As you can hear below, it features all manner of latin percussion: congas, maracas, claves. Apparently, this was also the very first R&B mambo ever recorded, though I am not quite sure how you would distinguish an R&B mambo. 

Otis wrote this one, which was the B-side of a single with “Gee Baby” (Mel Walker) as the A-side, on the Savoy label.

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“But Beautiful” – Road to Rio (1948)

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Richard Barry
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But Beautiful is from the film “Road to Rio,” which is the fifth in the series of famous “Road” films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. The IMDb summary of the film states:

Two inept vaudevillians stow away on a Brazilian-bound ocean liner and foil a plot by a sinister hypnotist to marry off her niece to a greedy fortune hunter.

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Road to Rio was the top grossing film of 1948, with the score by composer Jimmy Van Heusen and lyricist Johnny Burke. (It was actually released on Christmas Day 1947). The movie also  introduced “You Don’t Have to Know the Language” and “Experience.” 

First the Crosby version from the film, then a 1960 recording by Freddie Hubbard from his album Open Sesame.

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The Boswell Sisters: “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” (1932)

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Richard Barry
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The Boswell Sisters, who were raised in New Orleans, consisted of sisters Martha, Connee, and Helvitia (Vet) Boswell. They were best known for their tight family harmonies and were a prominent act in the 1930s.

Their website says this:

They were three extraordinarily gifted musicians who emerged from the wellspring of the jazz movement in New Orleans in the early 1900s. They were icons, pioneers in music and early radio with influences that extend far beyond their own time. As Maxene Andrews once said, “They took the idea of jazz and did it vocally.” And they did it with such blending and precision that it has never been equaled since.

They started recording on Victor Records in 1925, but didn’t receive national attention until 1930 when they moved to New York City and began doing national radio broadcasts, particularly with their own show on CBS from 1931 to 1933.

During the 1930s, The Boswell Sisters had 20 hits including the number one record “The Object of My Affection” in 1935. Most of their significant recordings were in fact done from 1930-36.

And this, from Jazz.com:

The Boswell Sisters were the most innovative vocal group of their day.  All three sisters . . . were trained instrumentalists. Connie played cello, piano and saxophone, Vet played violin and guitar, and Martha played piano. Martha was the only one who played an instrument in the act, but Connie wrote all of the arrangements, except “Darktown Strutter’s Ball”, which was arranged by Vet.

Between 1931 and 1936 they had the following top 10 recordings. Quite a run.

  • “When I Take My Sugar to Tea” (6)
  • “Roll On, Mississippi, Roll On”  (7)
  • “I Found a Million Dollar Baby” (3)
  • “It’s the Girl” (9)
  • “Gems from George White’s Scandals” (3)
  • “Was That the Human Thing to Do? (7)
  • “Rock and Roll” (7)
  • “The Object of My Affection” (1)
  • “Dinah” (3)
  • “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (9)
  • “Cheek to Cheek” (10)
  • “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” (3)

In 1936, the group signed to Decca, but broke up after only a few recordings. Their last recording was February 12, 1936. “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” is a jazz standard by Benton Overstreet,  lyrics by William Blackstone published in 1921.

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Arthur Fields: “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm” (1919)

Posted on February 26, 2024 by Richard Barry
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I have a fully functional 1903 Victrola record player that once belonged to my grandfather. Family lore has it that he found it in an old barn in upstate New York and refurbished it himself. In many ways the interest in keeping old things is a relatively new phenomena so it was probably no great feat for him to acquire it in the 1950s, which is when I think he got it.

Along with the Victrola came boxes and boxes of old 78s. I don’t think any of them are worth much, but they certainly are interesting.

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 I was going through them this morning and discovered the Arthur Fields recording of “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)?” It’s a famous song, of course, but I still knew little about it but that it was a post-WWI favourite.

The magical Wiki confirms that the song was published in 1919 and rose to prominence after the end of WWI. The meaning of the lyrics are fairly obvious.

As for the recording history:

In 1919, an early jazz band, Jim Europe’s 369th Infantry Band, recorded it for Pathé Records and it became a hit for that year. Also, Nora Bayes recorded it for Columbia that same year. Victor released its recording, featuring the singer Arthur Fields (the one featured below), on February 27, 1919.

And although I did not know this, it appears that the song is featured in the 2014 Lego Movie. The music is by Walter Donaldson. Lyrics are by Joe Young and Sam M. Lewis.

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“Song for Canada” – Ian & Sylvia (1965)

Posted on February 25, 2024 by Richard Barry

The path to finding songs can be oddly circuitous. I was doing some research on The Chad Mitchell Trio, specifically the years during which John Denver was a member. I was curious about how the group changed once Denver joined, so listened to what I think is the first album on which he participates, a 1965 offering called “The Way It’s Going to Be.” I was intrigued to see a cut called “Song for Canada.”

The lyrics were obviously political in some sense, but I couldn’t quite figure out the context. A bit more research led me to a Globe and Mail (a Toronto daily) article which appeared in 2000.

The song was written in the mid-1960s, by Ian Tyson (of Ian & Sylvia) and well known Canadian media personality Peter Gzowski. As the Globe piece explains, “after the Quiet Revolution was under way in Quebec …the song has English Canada speaking to French Canada, asking for tolerance and understanding and promising a future together.”

For those unfamiliar with Canadian history, the Quiet Revolution is a name given to a period in 1960s of major social and political changes in the province of Quebec, including the secularization of Quebec society and government, the creation of a welfare state, and political realignment of the politics of the province into federalist and separatist factions, i.e., those who wanted to remain a part of Canada and those who wanted to move towards independence – a question that has not been fully resolved to this day.

With that context, the lyrics make sense, and I continue to learn things about a country I have called home for almost forty years.

How come we can’t talk to each other anymore?
Why can’t you see I’m changing too?
We’ve got by far too long to end it feeling wronged
And I still share too much with you

This is live version by Ian & Sylvia at the Newport Folk Festival, though I am not sure of the year.

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“Baby the Rain Must Fall” – Glen Yarbrough (1964)

Posted on February 25, 2024 by Richard Barry

“Baby the Rain Must Fall” was written for a movie (a Steve McQueen vehicle), by the same name. Interesting fact is that the song ran over the credits with McQueen lip-synching to the vocals of Bill Strange. The “McQueen moving his lips thing” is pretty damn cheesy, or maybe it was fine for its time. I couldn’t resist posting as a bonus below.

[No slight to Bill Strange, who was a a session musician with the famed Wrecking Crew, and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007.]

Writing credits for “Baby the Rain Must Fall” go to Elmer Bernstein (music) and Ernie Sheldon (lyrics). Bernstein is known for a list of movie scores longer than you can imagine – “The Magnificent Seven”, “The Great Escape”, “The Ten Commandment” and on and on.

The better known version of “Baby the Rain Must Fall” was recorded by Glen Yarborough after he left the Limeliters to go solo. Not much doubt it was his best known song, despite a long list of work with the folk group. It charted relatively well in early 1965, reaching #2 on the adult contemporary chart and #12 on the Billboard chart.

In his 2006 obit in the New York Times, his voice is referred to as a “silvery, lyric tenor,’ and I’ve heard it called elsewhere “velvet.” It was, in any case, one of the best voices of the folk revival. It may be true that Yarborough could have sung the phone book with success but, with a Bernstein tune to work with, it’s pretty high quality stuff all the way around. A personal favourite.

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“I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” – Paul McCartney (2012)

Posted on February 25, 2024 by Richard Barry

I‘m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” was written in 1935 by Fred E. Ahlert, with lyrics by Joe Young. It is a part of the Great American Songbook, having been recorded by many of the biggest names in popular song – Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, etc., though it was Fats Waller’s 1935 version that was key to moving the tune on its way to fame (bonus track below).

Fast forward to 2012 when Paul McCartney released an album containing “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down…” called Kisses on the Bottom, a reference to one of the stranger lines in the tune. It was McCartney’s fifteenth solo album, and it presents mostly jazz and pop standards with a couple of originals thrown in for good measure. Other standards include “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “Bye-Bye Blackbird,” and “Always” – real Songbook stuff.

As for its reception, it won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards. So it did okay.

On critical response from the pros, Rolling Stones’ reviewer said this:

Like Rock ‘n’ Roll, John Lennon’s 1975 album of primal rock gems, Kisses on the Bottom is the sound of a musician joyfully tapping his roots; and like his former song writing partner, McCartney is better transforming influences than mirroring them. But it’s fun, and touching, to hear him crooning his way through the great American songbook.”

And at AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said of McCartney that with this album he “cut faithful, loving versions of songs he’s always sung”, even calling his two original compositions—”My Valentine” and “Only Our Hearts”—”quite good”.

I did notice one reviewer give a generally positive review though calling it “easy listening,” something he did not intend as praise. Don’t get me started.

Anything that keeps the tradition alive is good by me. Just a little digging will unearth countless tales of woe about the pitiful sales numbers for jazz and jazz related material, which I’m sure is true. Good to see such a big name adding his prestige to the support of the genre, whatever his motivation.

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