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Last Recording
''Last Recording'' ( MGM Records, 1959) is final album Billie Holiday recorded. It was originally released during Holiday's lifetime with the title ''Billie Holiday'', and was retitled after her death. It is not to be confused with the 1954 Clef Records album titled ''Billie Holiday''. Content After the success of her album, '' Lady in Satin'' (1958), Billie Holiday wanted to record another album with arranger Ray Ellis. Ellis had switched from Columbia to MGM, so Billie switched labels also to avoid breaching her contract with Columbia. When she returned to the studio in March 1959, jazz critic and friend of Holiday's Leonard Feather, said Holiday "walked into the studio statuesque and sharp as ever." When Holiday recorded her previous album '' Lady in Satin'' with Ellis, she conveyed to him her desire to “sound like Sinatra”, but at the time was in such poor health from years of difficulty and substance abuse that a nurse sometimes had to help keep her propped up on a high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by producer John Hammond, who liked her voice. She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson produced the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. By the late 1940s, however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All Of You (Cole Porter Song)
"All of You" is a popular song written by Cole Porter and published in 1954. It was introduced by Don Ameche in the Broadway musical '' Silk Stockings'' and featured in the film version as well, when it was sung by Fred Astaire. Notable recordings * Ahmad Jamal – for the album ''Ahmad Jamal Plays'' (1955) * Kenny Burrell – for the album ''Kenny Burrell'' (1957) * Anita O'Day - included on her album ''Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May'' (1959) * Annie Ross – for her album '' Annie Ross Sings a Song with Mulligan!'' (1959) * Bill Evans – featured the song on his live 1961 album ''Sunday at the Village Vanguard'' * Billie Holiday - on the album ''Last Recording'' (1959) * Bobby Darin (1963) - included on the compilation album ''The Swinging Side of Bobby Darin'' (2005). * Denny Zeitlin - on his album ''Wishing on the Moon'' (2018) * Ella Fitzgerald - on her album ''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book'' (1956) * Karrin Allyson - on her album '' Collage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leon René
Leon René (February 6, 1902 – May 30, 1982) was an American music composer of pop, R&B and rock and roll songs and a record producer in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. He sometimes used the songwriting pseudonym Jimmy Thomas or Jimmie Thomas. He also established several record labels. History Born in Covington, Louisiana, he is best known for his hit song "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano". The song, written as a tribute to the annual springtime return of the cliff swallows to Mission San Juan Capistrano in Southern California, spent several weeks at the top of ''Your Hit Parade'' charts during its initial release in 1940. The lyrics say: The song has been recorded by such musicians as The Ink Spots, Fred Waring, Guy Lombardo, and Glenn Miller. A glassed-off room in the mission has been designated in René's honor and displays the upright piano on which he composed the tune, the reception desk from his office and several copies of the song's sheet music and other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safe In Hell
''Safe in Hell'' is a 1931 American pre-Code thriller film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Dorothy Mackaill and Donald Cook, with featured performances by Morgan Wallace, Ralf Harolde, Nina Mae McKinney, Clarence Muse, and Noble Johnson. The screenplay by Joseph Jackson and Maude Fulton is based on a play by Houston Branch. Plot Gilda Karlson (Dorothy Mackaill) is a New Orleans prostitute. She is accused of murdering Piet Van Saal (Ralf Harolde), the man responsible for ending her former job as a secretary and leading her into prostitution. Her old boyfriend, sailor Carl Erickson ( Donald Cook), smuggles her to safety to Tortuga, an island in the Caribbean from which she cannot be extradited. On the island, Gilda and Carl get "married" without a clergyman to officiate, and she swears to be faithful to him. After Carl leaves on his ship, Gilda finds herself to be the only white woman in a hotel full of international criminals, all of whom try to seduce her. Espe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
When It's Sleepy Time Down South
"When It's Sleepy Time Down South", also known as "Sleepy Time Down South", is a 1931 jazz song written by Clarence Muse, Leon René and Otis René. It was sung in the 1931 movie ''Safe in Hell'' by Nina Mae McKinney, and became the signature song of Louis Armstrong, who recorded it almost a hundred times during his career.Charles Hersch: ''Subversive Sounds: Race and the Birth of Jazz in New Orleans''. University of Chicago Press, 2008. . p. 199 The song is now considered a jazz standard and it has been recorded by a plethora of artists. A popular recording in 1931 was by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra (vocal by Mildred Bailey). History Al Hirt released a version on his 1963 album, ''Our Man in New Orleans,'' and Harry James released a version on his 1972 album ''Mr. Trumpet'' (Longines Symphonette Society SYS 5459/LS 217C/LS 217U). A British cover version was released in 1932 by Bob and Alf Pearson. Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1975 for his album ''A Southern Memoir''. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodgers And Hart
Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895–1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943.Rodgers and Hart Biography Guide to Musical Theatre, accessed April 5, 2009 History Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were introduced in 1919; Rodgers was still in high school while Hart had already graduated from . Their first collaboration together was at Columbia, and resulted in the 1920 |
Present Arms (musical)
''Present Arms'' is a Broadway musical comedy that opened April 26, 1928, with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and book by Herbert Fields. It was produced by Lew Fields with musical numbers stage by Busby Berkeley. It ran for 155 performances at the Lew Fields' Mansfield Theatre, which today is known as the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. ''Present Arms'' was filmed in 1930 with Irene Dunne, with its title changed to ''Leathernecking''. The film is presumed lost. Plot The show starred Charles King, Flora Le Breton, Joyce Barbour and Busby Berkeley. A man from Brooklyn is serving as a buck private in Pearl Harbor. He flirts with an English Peer's daughter; however, she is being pursued by a German, who raises pineapples in Hawaii. The Brooklynite pretends to be a Captain in order to make an impression, but he is found out, booted out, and loses out on the girl, until he proves himself in a shipwreck. Songs Act One * "Tell It to the Marines" * "You Took Advantage of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
You Took Advantage Of Me
"You Took Advantage of Me" is a 1928 popular song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart, for the musical '' Present Arms'' (1928), where it was introduced by Joyce Barbour and Busby Berkeley as the characters Edna Stevens and Douglas Atwell. The characters were formerly married, but still have romantic feelings for each other. On opening night, Berkeley forgot the lyrics and had to scat and hum the entire second verse. Berkeley also claimed that his nonsense lyrics for the improvised second verse left Hart "almost apoplectic", but the audience was amused and Hart later forgave him. The song was subsequently included in the 1930 film ''Leathernecking'', an adaptation of ''Present Arms''. Rodgers described the song as a "sassy and unregretful number" which audiences liked far more than traditional contemporary love songs. In his book ''The Poets of Tin Pan Alley'', Philip Furia wrote that the song depicted a "...wittily self deprecating character who was perfectly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Youmans
Vincent Millie Youmans (September 27, 1898 – April 5, 1946) was an American Broadway composer and producer. A leading Broadway composer of his day, Youmans collaborated with virtually all the greatest lyricists on Broadway: Ira Gershwin, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Caesar, Anne Caldwell, Leo Robin, Howard Dietz, Clifford Grey, Billy Rose, Edward Eliscu, Edward Heyman, Harold Adamson, Buddy DeSylva and Gus Kahn. Youmans' early songs are remarkable for their economy of melodic material: two-, three- or four-note phrases are constantly repeated and varied by subtle harmonic or rhythmic changes. In later years, however, he turned to longer musical sentences and more rhapsodic melodic lines. Youmans published fewer than 100 songs, but 18 of these were considered standards by ASCAP, a remarkably high percentage. Biography Youmans was born in New York City, United States, into a prosperous family of hat makers. When he was two, his father moved the family to upp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifford Grey
Clifford Grey (5 January 1887 – 25 September 1941) was an English songwriter, librettist, actor and screenwriter. His birth name was Percival Davis, and he was also known as Clifford Gray. Grey contributed prolifically to West End and Broadway shows, as librettist and lyricist for composers including Ivor Novello, Jerome Kern, Howard Talbot, Ivan Caryll and George Gershwin. Among his best-remembered songs are two from early in his career, in 1916: " If You Were the Only Girl (In the World)" and "Another Little Drink Wouldn't Do Us Any Harm". His later hits include "Got a Date with an Angel" and "Spread a Little Happiness". For 35 years after 1979 it was widely believed that Grey secretly competed as an American bobsleigher, under the name Clifford "Tippy" Gray, in two Winter Olympics, in 1928 and 1932, winning gold medals, but it was finally shown that the sportsman was a different person. Life and career Early years Grey was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irving Caesar
Irving Caesar (born Isidor Keiser, July 4, 1895 – December 18, 1996) was an American lyricist and theater composer who wrote lyrics for numerous song standards, including " Swanee", "Sometimes I'm Happy", "Crazy Rhythm", and " Tea for Two", one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written. In 1972, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Biography Caesar, the son of Morris Keiser, a Romanian Jew, was born in New York City, United States. His older brother Arthur Caesar was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. The Caesar brothers spent their childhood and teen years in Yorkville, the same Manhattan neighborhood where the Marx Brothers were raised. Caesar knew the Marx Brothers during his childhood. He was educated at Chappaqua Mountain Institute in Chappaqua, New York. In his career, Caesar collaborated with a wide variety of composers and songwriters, including Rudolf Friml, George Gershwin, Sigmund Romberg, Victor Herbert, Ted Koehler and Ray Hender ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hit The Deck (musical)
''Hit the Deck'' is a musical with music by Vincent Youmans, lyrics by Clifford Grey and Leo Robin and book by Herbert Fields. It was based on the 1922 play ''Shore Leave'' by Hubert Osborne. The title refers to a nautical slang term that means to prepare for action (general) or to drop to a prone position on the ground (as a defensive response to hostile fire). The original production was staged at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway, opening on April 25, 1927, and running for 352 performances. Charles King played Bilge and Louise Groody played Loulou. The show's co-producers were Youmans and Lew Fields, and Lew Fields co-directed with Alexander Leftwich. The production ran for 352 performances. The first London production opened at the Hippodrome on July 3, 1927 and ran for 277 performances. It starred Stanley Holloway. In ''The Manchester Guardian'', Ivor Brown praised Holloway for a singing style "which coaxes the ear rather than clubbing the head." Songs ;Act I *Join the Navy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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