Tag Archives: Bing Crosby

August 28, 2013 · 8:03 pm

A Christmas classic “just like the ones we used to know”

white christmas
In my last post, I wrote of dreams and hope. What better way of following that idea than with the number one song about dreaming – White Christmas. Now, how’s that for a smooth segue?

In January, 1940, Irving Berlin raced into his office and said to his secretary: “Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written — hell, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written.” The song was, of course, White Christmas. Berlin later dropped the original verse that poked fun at a well-off Californian who, amid orange and palm trees, longs for a traditional Christmas “up north”:
The sun is shining, the grass is green,
The orange and palm trees sway.
There’s never been such a day
in Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it’s December the twenty-fourth, —
And I am longing to be up North —

But he kept the now-famous choruses that begin:
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know.

White Christmas is a pleasant holiday song that reminisces about an old-fashioned Christmas setting and has become the second most popular Christmas song, surpassed only by Silent Night. In the seventy plus years since the song was written, White Christmas comes the closest that any secular writing can come to being considered a carol.

The song has very little to do with the meaning of the religious holy day, for that religious Christmas is neither white fluffy snow, nor nostalgic sleigh bells, nor even beautiful Christmas cards.

It has often been noted that the mix of the melancholy – “just like the ones I used to know” – with the comforting images of home – “where the treetops glisten” – resonated especially strongly with listeners during World War Two.

The song begins by dreaming of snow. “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know . . .” Snow is every child’s dream. And snow, as we know, is certainly one thing that we associate with Christmas. After all, how does Santa Claus arrive in his sleigh without snow? That it was probably not a snowy Christmas that first Christmas millennia ago is not really relevant to us. Christmas is celebrated in December; snow often comes in December, at least in the Northern Hemisphere; hence the association of snow and Christmas.

After lovingly looking at snow on glistening tree tops, the song longingly looks at the past. The song dreams of sleigh bells. “. . . To hear sleigh bells in the snow.” During World War Two, more than anything else, White Christmas was one of the strongest links our armed forces had with home, whether they were in the mud of a southern training camp, or in the dust of Northern Africa, or in the rain of Italy, or in the tropical forests of the South Pacific, or on a storm-tossed destroyer in the North Atlantic, or in the bitter cold of Bastogne. Now, White Christmas did not necessarily draw those homesick men and women to a home as it really was, but rather to a romantic spell of security and peace, of childhood bliss, of bright promises, and of merry hearts. I have the feeling though that of those whose eyes became misty as they heard or sang the words of the song, few had ever heard a sleigh bell! Yet, the song still resonated with those who were far away from home and hearth.

Finally, White Christmas dreams of Christmas cards. “. . . With every Christmas card I write.” Now, I know how easy it is to be cynical about Christmas cards. Perhaps you remember that classic cartoon in Punch some years ago. A woman, addressing her cards, says to her significant other: “We sent them one last year, and they didn’t send us one, so they probably won’t send us one this year because they’ll think we won’t send them one because they didn’t send us one last year, don’t you think – or shall we? Well, we may survey the mountain of cards to be addressed and groan, but the massive stack is not all that bad and sending cards does involve thinking of friends, recapturing past moments, and reaching out to others.

The first public performance of White Christmas was by Bing Crosby on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941.He subsequently recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers for Decca Records in 1942, and it was released as part of an album of six songs from the film Holiday Inn. In that film, Bing Crosby sings White Christmas as a duet with actress Marjorie Reynolds, though her voice was dubbed by Martha Mears. The unique feature of the “Holiday Inn” in the film was that the inn of the title was a night club and a restaurant that opened only on holidays, and was closed the rest of the year.

The song is noted for Crosby’s whistling during the second chorus. The version most often heard today is not the original 1942 Crosby recording, as the master had become damaged due to frequent use. Crosby re-recorded the track in 1947, accompanied again by the Trotter Orchestra and the Darby Singers, with every effort made to reproduce the original recording session. There are subtle differences in the orchestration, most notably the addition of a celesta and flutes to brighten up the introduction. The recording became a chart perennial, reappearing annually on the pop chart twenty separate times before Billboard magazine created a distinct Christmas chart for seasonal releases. I have included both versions below.

Crosby’s White Christmas has been credited with selling fifty million copies, the most by any release and therefore it is the biggest-selling single worldwide of all time and has never been out-of-print since 1949.

White Christmas has the distinction of being the most-recorded Christmas song of all time and there have been more than five hundred recorded versions of the song, in several different languages. No, I am not going to list them all (you can now breathe a sigh of relief), but in the spirit of my blog I will present the significant recordings made during the 1940s and 1950s. Chronologically, those versions are:
1942: Bing Crosby (with backing vocals by the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra) released his version of the song and it reached #1 on the Billboard charts. The Crosby version also charted #5 in 1944, #1 in 1945, #1 in 1947, #3 in 1948, #6 in 1949, #5 in 1950, #13 in 1950, #13 in 1952, and #13 in 1955. Since 1947, the version that charted was the 1947 version, not the 1942 version. Both are available for comparison below.
1942: Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra (with Bob Carroll on lead vocal) released a version of the song that reached # 16 on Billboard magazine’s pop singles chart.
1942: Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra (with Garry Stevens on lead vocal) released a version of the song that reached # 18 on Billboard magazine’s pop singles chart.
1942: Freddy Martin and his Orchestra (with Clyde Rogers on lead vocal) released a version of the song that reached # 20 on Billboard magazine’s pop singles chart (this same version charted on the Billboard pop singles chart again in December 1945, reaching # 16).
1944: Frank Sinatra released a version of the song (with backing orchestration by Axel Stordahl) that reached # 7 on Billboard magazine’s pop singles chart (this same version charted on the Billboard pop singles chart two more times: in December 1945, reaching # 5, and in December 1946, # number 6).
1945: On December 23, Kay Thompson performed her version of the song on the CBS radio program Request Performance backed by the Kay Thompson Rhythm Singers and an orchestra conducted by Leith Stevens. A recording of this radio performance has survived and I present it below. This version did not chart on the Billboard charts.
1946: Jo Stafford (with backing vocals by the Lyn Murray Singers and backing orchestration by Paul Weston) released a version of the song that reached # 9 on Billboard magazine’s pop singles chart.
1947: Eddy Howard and his Orchestra released a version of the song that did not chart.
1947: Perry Como (with backing orchestration by Lloyd Shaffer) released a non-charting version of the song.
1948: R&B vocal group The Ravens released a version of the song that reached # 9 on Billboard’s Rhythm & Blues Records chart in January 1949.
1949: Country singer Ernest Tubb (with female backing vocals by The Troubadettes) released a version of the song that reached # 7 on Billboard’s Country & Western Records chart.
1952: Singer Eddie Fisher (with Hugo Winterhalter’s Orchestra and Chorus) recorded a version of the song that did not chart.
1952: Mantovani and His Orchestra released a version of the song that did not chart.
1954: The Drifters released a cover version of the song that showcased the talents of lead singer Clyde McPhatter and the bass of Bill Pinkney. Their recording of the song peaked at # 2 on Billboard’s Rhythm & Blues Records chart in December 1954 (it also returned to the same chart in the next two years).
1957: Elvis Presley recorded a non-charting version of the song for his first holiday album, Elvis’ Christmas Album.

To listen to a song, click on the song title. To download, click on the song title, then right click on Save target as. The download should begin immediately.

Bing Crosby, with backing vocals by the Ken Darby Singers, John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra 1942 White Christmas
Bing Crosby, with backing vocals by the Ken Darby Singers, John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra 1947 White Christmas
Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra, vocals by Bob Carroll White Christmas
Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra, vocals by Garry Stevens White Christmas
Freddy Martin and his Orchestra, vocals by Clyde Rogers White Christmas
Frank Sinatra, Axel Stordahl and his Orchestra and Chorus White Christmas
Kay Thompson, backing vocals by the Kay Thompson Rhythm Singers, Leith Stevens and his Orchestra White Christmas (Previously Unreleased)
Jo Stafford, backing vocals by the Lyn Murray Singers, Paul Weston and his Orchestra White Christmas
Eddy Howard and his Orchestra White Christmas
Perry Como, backing vocals by a mixed chorus, Lloyd Shaffer Orchestra White Christmas
The Ravens White Christmas
Ernest Tubb White Christmas
Eddie Fisher, Hugo Winterhalter, his Orchestra and Chorus White Christmas
Mantovani and His Orchestra (instrumental) White Christmas
The Drifters, vocals by Bill Pinkney and Clyde McPhatter White Christmas
Elvis Presley, backing vocals by the Jordanaires White Christmas

Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds in the scene from "Holiday Inn" in which they sing "White Christmas"

Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds in the scene from “Holiday Inn” in which they sing “White Christmas”

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August 26, 2013 · 9:57 am

How sweet it is!

sweets
It would be great if we could have a sumptuous dessert and not have to worry about the calories. We would then be able to satisfy our “sweet tooth” yearnings as well as solve the obesity problem that plagues this nation today.

Alex Kramer, Mack David and Joan Whitney solved that problem back in 1944 with their song, Candy. Songs about sweets were not new, of course.

One of the earlier “sweets” song was introduced by Shirley Temple in 1934. The song was entitled On the Good Ship Lollipop. The song became child-star Shirley Temple’s signature song, and while it may be a bit dated, how could anyone resist a song that talks about
. . .Where bon-bons play
On the sunny beach of Peppermint Bay.
Lemonade stands everywhere.
Crackerjack bands fill the air.
And there you are
Happy landing on a chocolate bar.

Now that is a ship I am willing to take anytime! Pipe me aboard, Captain!

Another “sweets” song, A Marshmallow World is usually sung around Christmas-time, even though it has nothing to do with that particular holiday, either in the religious or in the secular sense. The song does refer to winter, however. Since Christmas comes in the winter (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), I guess that is the connection. The song speaks of winter as a time for “marshmallow clouds,” and further talks about “a whipped cream day,” sugary dates, and “a yum- yummy world made for sweethearts.” I am starting to droll just contemplating these delectable words.

Still another song in this same genre is Lollipop, a favorite song among many who perform barbershop music and it became a world-wide hit by the Chordettes, a popular female singing quartet, who usually sang a cappella. This “sweet” tune comes from a time when songs about candy and other sugary food items were a lot more innocent than their modern counterparts. The lollipop is a candy classic, and this ode to the sweet treat temptation complete with a fun “POP!” near the end never seems to get old.

Other songs that come to my mind and fall into this category include Big Rock Candy Mountain by Tex Ritter, Sugar by Peggy Lee, Cotton Candy by Al Hirt, Sugartime by the McGuire Sisters, Honeycomb by Jimmy Rogers, Tutti Fruitti by Little Richard, Candy Kisses by George Morgan, Candy and Cake by Mindy Carson, and, of course, my all-time favorite, I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream by Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians.

You would think that listening to songs about such sweet things might give you diabetes, but in most cases these songs are not actually about food at all.

The Alex Kramer, Mack David and Joan Whitney song, Candy is no exception to that statement. Just read the lyrics and you will see what I mean.
Candy, I call my sugar Candy
Because I’m sweet on Candy
And Candy’s sweet on me

She understands me
My understanding Candy
And Candy’s always handy
When I need sympathy

I wish that there were four of her
So I could love much more of her
She has taken my complete heart
Got a sweet tooth for my sweetheart

Candy, it’s gonna be just dandy
The day I take my Candy
And make her mine, all mineAs you can see from these lyrics, even in the innocent days of the 1940s, it was not a morsel of candy that the singer longed for and sang about, but rather the one he or she loved.

This “sweet” song was recorded by a large number of artists. No less than five different versions charted on the Billboard charts. Among the most popular version of the song was the recording by Johnny Mercer and Jo Stafford. Their recording first reached the Billboard Best Seller charts on 24 February 1945 and lasted nineteen weeks on the charts, peaking at #1.

A recording by Dinah Shore was released by RCA Victor Records and reached the Billboard Best Seller charts on 10 March 1945 at #5, and stayed on the charts for eleven weeks.

Johnny Long and his Orchestra, with Dick Robertson doing the vocals also charted on the Billboard charts. Long’s recording debuted on the Billboard charts on 5 May 1945 and peaked at #8, lasting eight weeks.

Still another charted version was made by The Four King Sisters (a family vocal group from Salt Lake City, consisting of Alyce, Yvonne, Donna, and Louise Driggs. “King” was their father’s middle name, which they used professionally). The quartet’s version reached the Billboard charts on 31 March 1945, peaking at #15, and staying on the charts for two weeks.

Jerry Wald and his Orchestra, with Kay Allen handling the vocals was the fifth charted version of the song. This version came on to the Billboard charts on 19 May 1945, and stayed on the charts for one week, peaking at #18.

In England, Joe Loss and his Orchestra recorded the song with Harry Kaye on vocals. The recording was made on 15 June 1945 and was released by EMI on the HMV Records label. This version did not chart in the United States and there were no recording charts in England at the time.

To listen to the songs, click on the song title; to down load a song, right click on the song title, then click on Save target as.

Johnny Mercer and Jo Stafford, Paul Weston and his Orchestra Candy
Dinah Shore, Al Sack and his Orchestra Candy
Johnny Long and his Orchestra, vocals by Dick Robertson Candy
The Four King Sisters, Buddy Cole and his Orchestra Candy
Jerry Wald and his Orchestra, vocals by Kay Allen Candy
Joe Loss and his Orchestra, vocals by Harry Kaye Candy

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August 25, 2013 · 9:54 am

Pos-i-tive-ly!

optimism

In recent years, hundreds of academic papers have been published studying the health effects of expecting good things to happen, a trait which researchers call “dispositional optimism.” They have linked this positive outlook on life to everything from decreased feelings of loneliness to increased pain tolerance.

Oddly enough, a mere thirty years ago, the outlook for research on optimism did not look that optimistic at all. But then, in 1985, Michael F. Scheier and Charles S. Carver published their pivotal study entitled “Optimism, Coping, and Health: Assessment and Implications of Generalized Outcome Expectancies” in Health Psychology, the official scientific publication of the American Psychological Association. Researchers immediately embraced the simple hopefulness test that Scheier and Carver included in the paper and their work has now been cited in over three thousand other published works. Just as importantly, by testing the effect of a personality variable on a person’s physical health, Scheier and Carver helped to bridge the gap between the worlds of psychology and biology. After Scheier and Carver’s groundbreaking paper, scientists had a method for seriously studying the healing powers of positive thinking.

In 1952, three decades before the Scheier and Carver study, a Protestant minister by the name of Norman Vincent Peale, originated the term “positive thinking” in his most popular book entitled, The Power of Positive Thinking. Peale was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church and was pastor of the prestigious Marble Collegiate Church in New York City from 1932 to 1984. There he gained fame for his sermons on a positive approach to modern living. The church had six hundred members when he arrived as pastor in 1932; it had over five thousand by the time he retired in 1984. Peale’s work came under criticism from several mental health experts, one of whom directly said that Peale was a con man and a fraud. I won’t comment on that statement, but I will say this: Norman Vincent Peale is quoted as saying, “Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world will go on even without you. Don’t take yourself so seriously.” Maybe it is just me, but that statement is not the utterance of a deceitful scammer, but rather of a counselor who speaks the truth, no matter how difficult hearing the honesty of that truth may be.

It is no wonder that Peale’s book was popular. American culture, after all, is known for its optimistic quality. I believe that only an American (Oscar Hammerstein) would write a song entitled A Cockeyed Optimist. I further believe that only an American (Dorothy Fields) could write these words:
Nothing’s impossible I have found,
For when my chin is on the ground,
I pick myself up,
Dust myself off,
And start all over again.

Optimism is in the American DNA. The common stereotype that contrasts the positive, optimistic American sensibility with the darker, world-weary European awareness is not without validity. At one level, optimism is an important American “natural resource.” That resourcefulness inspired the development of one of the world’s first modern democracies and provided a haven for immigrants fleeing lives of persecution, oppression and poverty in their homelands. Ideally, America is the land of equal opportunity – a classless society, where hard work allows anyone to lead the type of lifestyle that was once reserved only for the privileged aristocracy.

As much as Norman Vincent Peale captured that theme with his sermons and his books on “positive thinking,” so, too, Johnny Mercer described it in his song, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive, a song that was featured in the 1944 film Here Come The Waves, starring Bing Crosby and Betty Hutton. The song was written during World War Two, when a victorious outcome of that conflict was by no means all that certain. Writing the song in collaboration with composer Harold Arlen, Mercer’s lyrics were written in the style of a sermon, and explained that accentuating the positive was the key to happiness. In describing his inspiration for the lyrics, Johnny Mercer has said, “I went to hear Father Divine and he had a sermon and his subject was ‘you got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.’ And I said ‘Wow, that’s a colorful phrase!’”

Who was this man who spoke such colorful phrases? He was Father Divine, an African-American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death in 1965. He probably went by the name of George Baker around the turn of the twentieth century and worked as a gardener in Baltimore, Maryland. In a 1906 sojourn in California, however, the man who became known as Father Divine was introduced to the ideas of Charles Fillmore and the New Thought Movement, a philosophy of positive thinking that would inform his later doctrines. Among other things, this belief system asserted that negative thoughts led to poverty and unhappiness.

One can see how Father Divine’s sermon and “colorful phrases” may have inspired Johnny Mercer’s lyrics for his song. Consider his lyrics:
Gather ‘round me, everybody
Gather ‘round me, while I preach some
Feel a sermon coming on here
The topic will be sin
And that’s what I’m agin’
If you wanna hear my story
Then settle back and just sit tight
While I start reviewing
The attitude of doing right

You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with mister in-between

You got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
And have faith, or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark,
What did they do, just when everything looked so dark?

Man, they said, we better
Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with mister in-between.

Mercer recorded the song with the Pied Pipers and Paul Weston’s Orchestra on 4 October 1944. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on 6 January 1945 and lasted sixteen weeks on the charts, peaking at Number One.

Within a matter of weeks, several other recordings of the song were released by other well-known artists: Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters made a recording on 8 December 1944. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on 3 February 1945 and lasted twelve weeks on the charts, peaking at Number Two.

A recording by Artie Shaw was released by RCA Victor Records and first reached the Billboard magazine charts on 20 January 1945 and lasted five weeks on the charts, peaking at Number Five.

The last song to chart during this period was Kay Kyser’s recording on 21 December 1944, with Dolly Mitchell and a vocal trio. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on 24 February 1945 and lasted two weeks on the charts, peaking at Number Twelve.

Over the years, many artists have recorded this song. Among the more familiar names are Connie Francis, who added the song in 1960 to her Swinging Medley (sometimes also referred to as Gospel Medley), in which she combined it with three other songs: Yes, Indeed, Amen, and Lonesome Road; Ella Fitzgerald, who included this song on her 1961 double album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook; Perry Como, who recorded the song twice: once on 19 February1958 and later in July, 1980; Aretha Franklin, “The Queen of Soul,” who recorded it for her The Electrifying Aretha Franklin album in 1962; Sam Cooke, who recorded it for his Encore album; Sir Cliff Richard, who recorded the song on his album Bold as Brass; and Sir Paul McCartney, former Beatle, who covered it on his 2012 charming album, Kisses on the Bottom.

That is not too shabby for a “sermon in song,” so I will end this piece on that positive note and simply add, “Amen.”

To listen to the song, click on the song title.

Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers, Paul Weston and his Orchestra Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive
Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, Vic Schoen and his Orchestra Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive
Artie Shaw and his Orchestra, vocals by Imogene Lynn Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive
Kay Kyser and his Orchestra, vocals by Dolly Mitchell and a vocal trio Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive

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August 22, 2013 · 11:38 am

Kissing the war goodbye

V-J Day, Times Square, 14 August 1945 by Alfred Eisenstaedt

V-J Day, Times Square, 14 August 1945 by Alfred Eisenstaedt

The old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. One such picture appears at the top of today’s post.

The picture in question is one of the most famous photographs ever published by Life magazine and was shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square on V-J Day (14 August 1945). Eisenstaedt took his classic shot by following a sailor who had been running through the streets of New York kissing every woman he encountered in celebration of the end of World War II.
What is the deal with this picture? Why do we love it so much? Certainly, this young woman does not look comfortable, with her body being twisted into a ninety degree angle. This does not look like some sweet, intimate, private, in-love moment that every woman seems to want. Some dozen ex-sailors have claimed to be the amorous seaman and at least two other former nurses have identified themselves as his partner, but Life has accepted Edith Cullen Shain’s claim to be the nurse in this photograph and has said that for her, the kiss represented “hope, love, peace, and tomorrow.”

And that is perhaps the reason that we love this picture so much. It just fills us with exhilaration, with patriotism, and with hope. To have been in New York City on that day, to have lived through a world war in which this nation was the victim of unprovoked Japanese aggression with the attack on Pearl Harbor, and to know that the Empire of Japan had unconditionally surrendered – that was cause for an amazing feeling of joy, of triumph, of hope, of faith in the power of good to overcome evil, and of the belief in the power of the values for which this country stands. It was a day of deliverance. It was a day of peace with the past. It was a day of hope for the future. It was a day when feelings and emotions went unexpressed simply because some things cannot be described in words. And this photograph expresses all of that with a kiss! In the immortal words of Ingrid Bergman: “A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”

What Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photograph did for our visual sense, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn did for our other senses with their romantic ballad, It’s Been A Long, Long Time. As our men and women came home from World War II, they were welcomed back with this Number One hit from 1945 that perfectly captured the sentiments of those who remained home while their loved ones were away. Written from the perspective of a person welcoming home his or her spouse or lover at the end of the war, the lilting melody expertly supplied by Jule Styne effortlessly supports the tender lyrics written by Sammy Cahn that spoke to millions of couples who had been separated by the war.

One would be hard pressed to find a better vocalist than Bing Crosby to deliver these hopeful, romantic lyrics in a croon that was both smooth and warm. World War II ended the month before the Crosby recording hit Number One on the Billboard charts in 1945. Crosby effectively captured the swelling anticipation of Americans regarding the imminent return of their loved ones from overseas.Crosby’s version features some impressive and memorable guitar playing by the innovative Les Paul, who recalled in an interview printed in Mojo magazine: “Bing was a sucker for guitar and that particular song was a case of you don’t have to play a lot of notes, you just have to play the right notes.” Well, all the right notes were indeed played. It was a perfect song, sung by the perfect singer, backed by the perfect accompaniment; perfect in every way.

A recording by Harry James with vocal by Kitty Kallen also reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on November 24, 1945.

In 1945, unlike today, it was standard practice for record companies to release “competing” versions of hit songs. Other recordings of It’s Been A Long, Long Time that charted in 1945 were recorded by Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra and Stan Kenton and his Orchestra.

The Sammy Kahn lyrics speak for themselves:
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again.
It’s been a long, long time.
Haven’t felt like this, my dear
Since I can’t remember when.
It’s been a long, long time

You’ll never know how many dreams
I’ve dreamed about you.
Or just how empty they all seemed without you.
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again.
It’s been a long, long time.

Ah, kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again.
It’s been a long time.
Haven’t felt like this my dear
Since I can’t remember when
It’s been a long, long time.

You’ll never know how many dreams
I dreamed about you.
Or just how empty they all seemed without you.
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again.
It’s been a long, long time.
Long, long time.Lyrics do not get much more romantic than that!

To listen to the song, click on the song title.

Bing Crosby with Les Paul and his Trio (#1) It’s Been A Long Long Time
Harry James and his Orchestra, vocals by Kitty Kallen (#1) It’s Been A Long, Long Time
Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra, vocals by Irene Daye (#4) It’s Been A Long, Long Time
Stan Kenton and his Orchestra, vocals by June Christy (#6) It’s Been A Long, Long Time

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August 20, 2013 · 2:38 pm

Hello, Dolly (Sisters)

The Dolly Sisters Movie Poster

The Dolly Sisters Movie Poster

I Can’t Begin to Tell You is a beautiful ballad written by James Vincent Monaco and Mack Gordon. The song was published in 1945 and was introduced by John Payne and reprised by Betty Grable in the film The Dolly Sisters.

Since the song was first heard in the film, The Dolly Sisters perhaps that is the place to begin. The real-life Dolly Sisters were identical twins named Roszika (Rosie) and Yansci (Jenny) Deutsch and were vaudeville performers in the early years of the twentieth century. They were born October 25, 1892 in Budapest, Hungary, and emigrated to the United States in 1905. They perfected a single-sex “tandem” dance act – practicing in front of mirrors – and performed under the name of “The Dolly Sisters.”

The real Dolly Sisters

The real Dolly Sisters

Born to Julius and Margarethe Deutsch, Yansci (Jenny) and Roszika (Rosie) were immediately issued with pink and blue ribbons to differentiate them. So perfect was their resemblance that when the ribbons slipped off, their own mother could not tell them apart.

It was the girls’ nursemaid who inspired their love of dancing with trips to the theatre and, before long, Jenny and Rosie were copying the dancers’ routines during performances at home. By the age of eight, they were charging friends to watch them dance.

When these identical twins, now eighteen years old, danced onto the Broadway stage in 1911, they caused quite a sensation. Theatres swelled to bursting as people swarmed to see the girls who were a perfect mirror image of each other. Once viewed, their thrilling double act was never forgotten. Dancers came and went during the early twentieth century, but the twins’ novelty appeal, combined with their exotic good looks, majestic costumes and faultless footwork, ensured that they would become international superstars.

To modern tastes, their most spectacular routines, such as “The Dollies and their Collies” (in which they danced with performing pooches) and “The Pony Trot” (where they pranced around like sleek black fillies), sound tacky, but audiences in 1920s Paris, London and New York were enthralled by it all.

The Dolly Sisters created a stir off-stage, as well. From Noël Coward to Tallulah Bankhead, everyone wanted to meet the twin sisters, but it was their association with a succession of rich suitors that was most fascinating. Considered by some to be simply gold-diggers, legend has it that the sisters would remove their jewelry when a wealthy man approached them in the hopes that he would take pity on them and furnish them with more. Altogether, the sisters took five husbands between them, but they were constantly pursued by male admirers, including Harry Gordon Selfridge, the famous London department store owner – who reputedly blew the bulk of his fortune bankrolling their extravagant lifestyle – and King Edward VII, then the Prince of Wales. Famous, too, for their love of casinos, they earned a reputation as the most incurable gamblers in Europe, regularly winning – and losing – millions without batting an eyelid.

But for all the glitz and glamour, both women would come to experience great heartache and tragedy. After retiring early from the stage, their luck changed. In a series of events worthy of any soap opera, the sisters endured crushing debt, business failure and broken marriages.

Jenny was involved in a serious car crash near Bordeaux with her former lover Max Constant. It took six weeks, fifteen painful surgical procedures and the sale of most her jewelry to restore Jenny to some semblance of her former beauty. Jenny died on May 1, 1941, having committed suicide by hanging herself in the shower of her apartment in the Shelton Hotel.

Rosie lived long enough to see a biopic made in 1945 of their lives called, inevitably The Dolly Sisters, starring June Haver and Betty Grable, but in 1962 she attempted to follow her sister in suicide. The attempt failed. She died on February 1, 1970, succumbing to congestive heart failure.

Betty Grable and June Haver as the Dolly Sisters

Betty Grable and June Haver as the Dolly Sisters

The above referenced film, The Dolly Sisters was produced in a 1945, and purported to be a biographical film about the two sisters. It was hardly that. It starred Betty Grable as Jenny, June Haver as Rosie and John Payne as Harry Fox. The plot is pure Hollywood fluff: In 1904, Uncle Latsie (a nickname for László, played by S. Z. Sakall) comes to New York from Hungary with two young nieces, who immediately take to cafe dancing. In 1912, they are still at it, but to pay Uncle Latsie’s card debts, they decide to go into vaudeville. Singer Harry Fox, whom they meet en route, schemes to get them an audition with the great Hammerstein, but their resulting success takes them far out of Harry’s league. As one of the critics said of the film, “It contained lots of songs with a little story.” One of the pluses of the film, however, was the introduction of the song, I Can’t Begin To Tell You. Sung in the film by John Payne during a scene of a rehearsal at the Elmira Theater and then later performed by John Payne, Betty Grable and June Haver, the song was almost a centerpiece of the film. It was also played often in the film as background.

The song concerns a lover who has trouble telling the one he loves of his true feelings:
I can’t begin to tell you
How much you mean to me
My world would end
If ever we were through

I can’t begin to tell you
How happy I would be
If I could speak my mind
Like others do

I make such pretty speeches
Whenever we’re apart
But when you’re near
The words I choose
Refuse to leave my heart

So take the sweetest phrases
The world has ever known
And make believe
I’ve said them all to you

Portraying Jenny was Betty Grable (Elizabeth Ruth “Betty” Grable) a popular Hollywood actress, dancer, and singer. She was perhaps best known for having the most beautiful legs in Hollywood and studio publicity widely dispersed photos featuring them. Her iconic bathing suit poster made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. She was known by several nicknames during her heyday in the 1940s, including “the girl with the million dollar legs,” “the quick-silver blonde,’ “the queen of the Hollywood musical,” and “the darling of the forties.” Grable’s legs were supposedly insured by her studio for $1,000,000 with Lloyds of London. Grable appeared in several smash-hit musical films in the 1940s, most notable: Mother Wore Tights in 1947, with frequent co-star Dan Dailey and, of course, in the aforementioned, The Dolly Sisters.

A version of the song by Bing Crosby was the best-known recording, reaching its peak of popularity in 1945. The recording by Bing Crosby (with Carmen Cavallaro And His Piano) reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on November 15, 1945, and lasted seventeen weeks on the chart, peaking at #1. Crosby’s version is the only recording that charted in 1945. All the other versions entered the Billboard charts later in the year and peaked in 1946.

A recording by the Harry James Orchestra, with Betty Grable singing vocals, was released by Columbia Records and reached the Billboard Best Seller charts on December 27, 1945, and lasted three weeks on the chart, peaking at #9. I Can’t Begin To Tell You became the only commercial recording Betty Grable ever released. Her studio, Twentieth Century-Fox discouraged its stars working for recording companies, but Grable was able to make the recording by using the pseudo name Ruth Haag as a vocalist on the Harry James recording. (Ruth was her middle name and Haag was Harry James’ mother’s maiden name.) The name, Ruth Hagg, was a joke, of course. Betty Grable was anything but a hag as evidence by her most famous bathing suit photograph (see below) that made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era.

A third recording by Andy Russell reached the Billboard Best Seller charts on December 27, 1945, and lasted two weeks on the chart, peaking at #8.

Sammy Kaye’s recording rounds out the versions that charted. The song came on the Billboard charts on December 8, 1945 and lasted some nine weeks, peaking at #9.

Betty Grable, the number-one pin-up girl of World War II

Betty Grable, the number-one pin-up girl of World War II

To listen to the song, click on the song title.

Bing Crosby with Carmen Cavallaro At The Piano (1945 #1) I Can’t Begin To Tell You
Harry James and his Orchestra, vocals by Betty Grable (under the pseudonym “Ruth Hagg”) (1946 #5) I Can’t Begin To Tell You
Andy Russell, Paul Weston Orchestra (1946 #7) I Can’t Begin To Tell You
Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye, vocals by Nancy Norman (1946 #9) I Can’t Begin To Tell You

Next charted song: Chickery Chick

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