"Caravan" has been recorded so many times that a radio station could play a different version of the song for 24 hours straight without a repetition. It has been called the first Latin jazz song, but it owes much to Middle Eastern influences as well. It seems that everyone has covered the song, beginning with Barney Bigard and his Jazzopaters in December of 1936. A month later in 1937 Duke Ellington recorded it with his orchestra. Bigard’s recording peaked at fourth place on the pop charts and Ellington’s at #20. In 1949 Billy Eckstine’s million-selling recording peaked at #27 and Ralph Marterie had a million-seller peaking at #6 in 1952.

As was true for many of Ellington’s compositions, the idea for "Caravan" originated with a musician in his band, trombonist Juan Tizol. He joined Ellington's orchestra in 1929 and remained with him for the next 15 years. Ellington frequently wrote arrangements that took advantage of Tizol’s mastery of the valve trombone, pairing him with saxophones and trumpets. In 1944 Tizol left the Ellington band and moved to the Harry James orchestra. In 1951, Ellington persuaded Tizol, along with the drummer Louis Bellson and alto saxophonist Willie Smith, to rejoin his band in what became known as "The Great James Raid". Tizol left the Ellington band two years later and retired from regular touring. He wrote several songs, most of them during his time with Ellington and for which Ellington usually did the arrangements; "Caravan" and another jazz standard "Perdito" were the only ones that were commercially successful. Tizol sold the "Caravan" song rights to Irving Mills, Ellington’s publisher and manager, for $25. At that time it was customary to pay royalties as a flat settlement fee, but when the song became a hit, Tizol requested a share of the royalties and Mills agreed.

Mills, who wrote the lyrics for "Caravan", served as the manager of the Ellington band from 1926 to 1939. In addition, he sang on some of their recordings and wrote the lyrics for a number of Ellington songs that became popular standards: "Mood Indigo", "Solitude", "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)", "Sophisticated Lady" and others. He was instrumental in getting the Ellington band booked into the Cotton Club in 1927, which was a major step in Ellington’s career. He was an early and energetic promoter of black performers and was one of the first to record black and white musicians playing together. He recorded the Duke Ellington Orchestra along with 12 white musicians performing St. Louis Blues on one side and a song medley on the other side, with himself singing with the Ellington Orchestra. Victor Records initially hesitated to release the record, but when Mills threatened to take his artists off the roster, they released it. He also was the founder of Mills Music, Inc., which became the largest independent music publisher in the world by 1965.

There is long-standing controversy regarding how much Mills actually contributed to the more than fifty Ellington compositions on which he took credit and received royalties. Interestingly, Ellington sided with Mills in the controversy. In Ellington’s book, Music is My Mistress, he says the following about his relationship with Mills: "We dissolved our business relationship agreeably, and in spite of how much he had made on me, I respected the way he had operated. He had always preserved the dignity of my name. Duke Ellington had an unblemished image, and that is the most anybody can do for anybody."

CARAVAN
by Duke Ellington/Juan Tizol/ Irving Mills

Night and stars above that shine so bright
The myst'ry of their fading light
That shines upon our caravan
Sleep upon my shoulder as we creep
Across the sand so I may keep
The mem'ry of our caravan
This is so exciting
You are so inviting
Resting in my arms
As I thrill to the magic charms
Of you beside me here beneath the blue
My dream of love is coming true
Within our desert caravan!

"All right, you cats been talkin’ ‘bout you got rhythm.
You got this and you got that. I got rhythm!
I’m gonna see what you all got."
---Louis Armstrong,
in his spoken introduction to "I Got Rhythm"

"I Got Rhythm" already was becoming a jazz anthem by the time that Louis Armstrong and his band made their brilliant recording in 1931. Ethel Merman had officially stopped the show when she sang the song in the October 14, 1930 debut of the musical Girl Crazy by George and Ira Gershwin. An all-star orchestra was in the pit that night, led by trumpeter Red Nichols with sidemen that included Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller. Girl Crazy made Merman a star and put “I Got Rhythm” on the way to become what is probably the most widely heard Gershwin song and the one most commonly recorded by instrumentalists. The first recording, shortly after the show opened in 1930, was by Red Nichols and His Five Pennies with vocalist Dick Robertson and rose to fifth place on the pop charts. In 1931 a recording by Ethel Waters peaked at seventeen and Louis Armstrong’s version also rose to seventeen in 1932.

Since the 272 performances on Broadway when it first opened in 1930, Girl Crazy has been recycled a few times. It served as the basis for three films, the first of which was a lacklustre RKO effort in 1932. The second release, by MGM in 1943 with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, was much more successful. MGM probably should have stopped with that release, but went on to a third release in 1965, entitled When the Boys Meet the Girls, which, with the exception of the music, received very poor reviews. In 1992 Girl Crazy appeared on Broadway again as the basis for the hit Crazy for You that ran for 1,622 performances. Several other Gershwin hits were introduced in Girl Crazy, including "Embraceable You" and "But Not for Me," both sung by Ginger Rodgers, the other female lead in the 1930 show. That show also made her a star, but her performance was somewhat overshadowed by Merman’s climatic rendition of "I Got Rhythm."

The popularity of "I Got Rhythm" with jazz musicians lies in its harmonic chord progression. The term "rhythm changes", as understood by jazz musicians, refers to the chord progressions of "I Got Rhythm". Will Friedwald, in his book Stardust Melodies, provides a detailed history and analysis of the song. He describes it as being a "…simple, playful melody and well-constructed chord sequence…designed to encourage improvisation." He goes on to say "…1932 was the year of Sidney Bechet’s variation on "I Got Rhythm," which the great New Orleans reedman titled "Shag," a piece sometimes described as the first instance of what would soon become exceedingly commonplace in jazz: a musician taking the chord sequence to "Rhythm" and putting a new melody of his own on top of it." While Bechet may have been the first to recycle the chords in "I Got Rhythm", since then the "rhythm changes" have been used to create hundreds of published songs. Some notable examples include: "Lester Leaps In," "Cottontail," "Salt Peanuts," "Shaw Nuff," "Hit that Jive, Jack!" "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "Anthropology," and "Giant Steps." It is well-known that bebop artists like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie frequently used variations of the "I Got Rhythm" changes for improvisation. However, it may come as a surprise that Thelonious Monk used a "Rhythm" foundation for a number of his original compositions, including "Bemsha Swing" and "Rhythm-a-ning."

Although instrumentalists primarily focused their improvisations on the harmonic progressions in "I Got Rhythm," vocalists improvised on the melody and lyrics. Notable recordings by jazz singers include Ella Fitzgerald, Mark Murphy and Sarah Vaughn. However, singers from other genres, like pop and Broadway, have delivered the song convincingly. In 1967 The Happenings, a pop music group, recorded a rock version of "I Got Rhythm" that sold over a million copies and peaked at third place on the Billboard charts.

Will Friedwald sums up the impact of "I Got Rhythm" on the jazz world: "It would be impossible to name a melody or set of chord sequence that has withstood more interpretations and variations, while Ira Gershwin’s lyric has become part of our common cultural consciousness. Performers looking for an inspiring piece of material may "ask for anything more," but they’re not very likely to get it."

I Got Rhythm
by George and Ira Gershwin

Verse
Days can be sunny, with never a sigh
Don't need what money can buy
Birds in the trees sing their day full of song
Why shouldn't we sing along?
I'm chipper all the day, happy with my lot
How do I get that way? Look at what I've got
Refrain
I got rhythm, I got music
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?
I got daisies, in green pastures
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?
Old man trouble
I don't mind him
You won't find him 'round my door
I got starlight
I got sweet dreams
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?
Old man trouble
I don't mind him
You won't find him, 'round my door
I got starlight
I got sweet dreams
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?
I got rhythm, I got music
I got daisies, in green pastures
I got starlight
I got sweet dreams
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?

"Too sexy and profane" was how Marlene Dietrich described One Touch of Venus when she rejected the title role. Mary Martin went on to play Venus in the 1943 musical comedy that ran for over 500 performances on Broadway and made Martin a star. She sang "Speak Low", which became the signature tune of the show and went on to become one of the most recorded jazz standards.

Kurt Weill, who composed the music for "Speak Low", had been a prominent composer in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s. There he collaborated with Bertolt Brecht on works that included The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and The Threepenny Opera with his best known song "Mack the Knife". As a popular Jewish composer he was targeted by the Nazis, who criticized and interfered with his stage productions. In 1933 he fled Germany and ultimately arrived in the United States in 1935. After immigrating to the USA, Weill moved away from the European art-music tradition and devoted his efforts to writing for the Broadway stage. A comparison of "Speak Low" with "Mack the Knife" shows the extent to which he adjusted his style to adapt to the American musical theater. Some critics consider his American output to be inferior to his earlier compositions. However, his collaborations with a number of lyricists, including Ira Gershwin, Langston Hughes, Alan Jay Lerner, and Ogden Nash, to produce individual songs and shows that became highly respected and admired demonstrate that the American Weill was no less talented than the German Weill. One Touch of Venus was his only collaboration with Nash.

Of "Candy/ Is dandy/ But liquor/ Is quicker" fame, Ogden Nash is best known for his light and humorous poetry characterized by puns, deliberately misspelled or invented words for comic effect and off-beat rhyming devices. He has been called the American Laureate of Light Verse and continues to be one of the most widely read and quoted American poets. When composing the lyrics for "Speak Low", Nash displayed his literary background when he based the first line of the song on a line from a Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing, in which the character Don Pedro says "Speak low, if you speak love" in Act II, Scene 1. Nash also wrote screenplays for MGM and lyrics for a Broadway revue, Two’s Company, but One Touch of Venus was his biggest hit.

"Speak Low" was first recorded by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians and peaked at 5th place on the charts in 1944. Its beautiful melody and the breathless urgency of its lyrics have made it a favorite of instrumentalists and vocalists, and earned it a rating as one of the top 300 jazz standards.

Speak Low by Ogden Nash and Kurt Weill

Speak low when you speak, love
Our summer day withers away too soon, too soon
Speak low when you speak, love
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift, we’re swept apart, too soon

Speak low, darling speak low
Love is a spark, lost in the dark, too soon, too soon
I feel wherever I go
That tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here and always too soon

Time is so old and love's so brief
Love is pure gold and time a thief.

We're late, darling we're late
The curtain descends, everything ends too soon, too soon.
I wait, darling, I wait
When you speak low to me, speak love to me and soon
Speak low

Ask many jazz fans who wrote "You Go to My Head", and chances are they will say that Cole Porter must have composed it. Certainly the effervescent lyrics and sophisticated melody suggest a Porter tune. However, the fans would be wrong and likely would be even more surprised to learn that the composers who wrote it, J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, also wrote one of the biggest pop hits of all time, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

Coots and Gillespie both were Tin Pan Alley stalwarts, but jazz critics often describe Coots as a one-hit wonder. William Zinsser, who, in his book Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs, includes "You Go to My Head" in a group of songs he calls "…the great shots that came from out of nowhere." Alec Wilder, another jazz critic, characterized Coots as "competent but unexceptional", and expressed surprise that he could write such a song, a “minor masterpiece”. The reason for the jazz critics’ disdain of Coots may lie in the fact that, although he composed over 700 songs, he was considered to primarily write in
the "pop" genre. He had a background in vaudeville and musical theater and wrote material for performers like Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante; he also performed on the stage himself. In "You Go to My Head" the complex and unusual harmonic composition developed in an AABA form is rarely seen in a pop tune. The non-traditional chord progressions, along with a ten-bar coda and a melody with a high number of repeated notes, make for challenging improvisation. Although Coots did not write another jazz standard like "You Go to My Head", he did compose the music for other well-known songs like "Love Letters in the Sand" and "For All We Know".

Haven Gillespie’s role as lyricist seems to have inspired less incredulity from critics. His urbane lyrics, in which he likened a romance to the intoxicating effect of an alcoholic beverage, were well suited to the music. He wrote over 1,000 songs and collaborated with a number of composers and jazz singers; other well-known songs for which he wrote the lyrics include "Drifting and Dreaming", "Breezin' Along with the Breeze" and "That Lucky Old Sun". Gillespie had no formal musical education, but his ability to play music by ear, along with his tenacity and willingness to take risks, allowed him to make a life as a professional songwriter. He once likened his career to trying to beat gambling odds. "A songwriter is like a race horse," he said. "If they bet on you once and you lose, they won't bet on you again."

Glen Gray and his Casa Loma Orchestra usually are credited with introducing "You Go to My Head", but in actuality it was first recorded by Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra in 1938. His recording appeared in the pop charts in June of that year and in rapid succession, recordings by Larry Clinton (July 1938) and Glen Gray (August 1938) appeared on the pop charts also. Since then there have been hundreds of recordings in every style by instrumentalists and singers. While "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" may have earned Coots and Gillespie the most royalties, "You Go to My Head" would be close behind.

YOU GO TO MY HEAD by J. Fred Coots and Harve Gillespie
You go to my head
You go to my head,
And you linger like a haunting refrain
And I find you spinning round in my brain
Like the bubbles in a glass of champagne.
You go to my head
Like a sip of sparkling burgundy brew
And I find the very mention of you
Like the kicker in a julep or two.
The thrill of the thought
That you might give a thought
To my plea casts a spell over me
Still I say to myself: get a hold of yourself
Can't you see that it can never be?
You go to my head
With smile that makes my temperature rise
Like a summer with a thousand Julys
You intoxicate my soul with your eyes
Tho I'm certain that this heart of mine
Hasn't a ghost of a chance in this crazy romance,
You go to my head.

Many jazz standards originally were written for a motion picture, and “Blues in the Night” is one of those songs; it debuted in 1941 in a film noir musical of the same name, Blues in the Night. The film chronicled the adventures of a struggling jazz quintet that criss-crossed the country riding the rails in boxcars and looking for its first big break. Warner Brothers assigned Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer to create the soundtrack for the film. At one point in the film the band members ended up in jail and Arlen and Mercer were told to compose a blues song that would be sung in a jail cell. For two days Arlen analyzed recordings of blues songs and composed a melody, to which Mercer quickly devised lyrics that covered four pages. This was Mercer’s usual way of writing lyrics; the melody would be written first and he would add the words. Arlen thought that the lyrics were very strong beginning with the second stanza, but that the first stanza was weak. Although he rarely offered any suggestions to Mercer for changes in his lyrics, he did recommend that a line that appeared later in the song, “My mama done tol’ me…”, be moved to the beginning. Mercer made the change and the song “Blues in the Night” was born. Mercer had a life-long fascination with trains and his second stanza speaks eloquently to the romance and drama that he associated with train travel.

It was immediately acknowledged that Arlen and Mercer had written a great song, and the film, which originally had been titled Hot Nocturne, was retitled Blues in the Night before it opened in theaters. William Gillespie, a fine baritone, sang it in the film, but was not listed in the credits. He also performed the role of Porgy in the George Gershwin biography Rhapsody in Blue and sang on other film soundtracks in the 1940s, for which he also did not receive credit.

The film opened to mixed reviews. To quote the New York Times movie review in December 1941, “Here tunesmiths Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, with assists from the Jimmy Lunceford and Will Osborne Bands and a quintet composed of the film’s leading players, have produced a melodious sound track. And, so far as this corner is concerned, that’s just about all the film has to offer.” However, the “melodious soundtrack” was an immediate hit, and the song “Blues in the Night” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It lost to “The Last Time I Saw Paris”. Woody Herman and his Orchestra recorded it on the Decca label and it reached the Billboard magazine charts by January 2, 1942, where it remained for 11 weeks and peaked at the #1 spot.

Time has dealt more kindly with the film than did the original reviewers. Current reviewers have declared it to be well worth seeing, describing it as a fascinating melodrama that mixes soap opera with music enhanced by sharp dialogue and moody black and white cinematography by the great Ernest Haller (an Oscar winner for Gone with the Wind). It was released on DVD on July 22, 2008.

BLUES IN THE NIGHT (MY MAMA DONE TOL' ME) by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer

My mama done tol' me,
When I was in knee pants,
My mama done tol' me, Son!
A woman'll sweet talk
And give ya the big eye;
But when the sweet talkin's done,
A woman's a two face
A worrisome thing
Who'll leave ya t'sing
The blues in the night

Now the rain's a-fallin',
Hear the train a-callin'
Whoo-ee (my mama done tol' me)
Hear that lonesome whistle
Blowin' `cross the trestle,
Whoo-ee (my mama done tol' me)
A whoo-ee-duh-whoo-ee, ol' clickety clack's
A-echoin' back the blues in the night

The evenin' breeze'll start the trees to cryin'
And the moon'll hide its light
When you get the blues in the night

Take my word, the mockin' bird'll
Sing the saddest kind o' song
He knows things are wrong and he's right

From Natchez to Mobile,
From Memphis to St. Jo,
Wherever the four winds blow,
I been in some big towns,
An' heard me some big talk,
But there is one thing I know
A woman's a two face,
A worrisome thing
Who'll leave ya t'sing the blues in the night.

My mama was right,
There's blues in the night.

Although Cole Porter wrote over 800 songs, “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” holds a special distinction: it was his first major hit. Porter was nearly 40 years old and had written over 200 songs, but was relatively unknown when his musical comedy Paris debuted in New York City in October of 1928. The musical featured “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love”, and that, along with the songs from the musical Fifty Million Frenchmen in 1929, moved him to the front ranks of songwriters on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley. However, in the off-Broadway tryouts for Paris, its most famous song was not one of the musical numbers in the show. Right before the New York opening, “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” replaced another Porter song, “Let’s Misbehave”, which later became a hit in its own right.

This was the first of Porter’s famous “list songs”. A list song usually develops by working through a list, often with increasingly absurd or outrageous entries, and has been used by many composers. Other well-known examples of list songs include “You’re the Top”, also by Porter, “My Favorite Things” by Rodgers and Hammerstein, “The Waters of March” by Antonio Carlos Jobim, “50 Ways to Leave your Lover” by Paul Simon, and the traditional carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.

The lyrics to “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” feature five list-based refrains after the opening verse; the first refrain refers to people, the second to birds, the third to insects and centipedes, the fourth to marine life and the fifth to mammals. The song’s lyrics typified the sophistication, cynicism, increased sexual freedom and less inhibited behavior that characterized the 1920s. Full of double-entendres and suggestive comparisons, they were intended to amuse and provoke, but not to offend. When Porter realized that the original lyrics for the beginning of the first refrain were offensive, he changed them. The original version began with “And that’s why Chinks do it, Japs do it, Up in Lapland, little Lapps do it” and was revised to “And that's why Birds do it, Bees do it, Even educated fleas do it”.

“Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love”, with its witty and slightly risqué lyrics, became popular quickly and was recorded by a dozen different bands and singers in 1928-1929. The original recording by Irving Aaronson and his Commanders climbed to 5th place on the pop charts in January of 1929. Since then it has been covered many times, but usually in an excerpted version because of its length. However, it is worth taking the time to read all the refrains because Cole Porter’s poetic genius with rhyme and meter makes them too good to miss.

If you would like to learn more about Cole Porter and his relationship to the Worcester area, please visit the Inquiry Archives on our website: http://www.wicn.org/audio/inquiry-cole-porter-attended-worcester-academy.

“Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” by Cole Porter

Verse
When the little bluebird,
Who has never said a word,
Starts to sing "Spring, spring,"
When the little bluebell,
In the bottom of the dell,
Starts to ring "Ding, ding,"
When the little blue clerk,
In the middle of his work,
Starts a tune to the moon up above,
It is nature, that's all,
Simply telling us to fall
In love.

Refrain #1
And that's why Birds do it, Bees do it,
Even educated fleas do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
In Spain, the best upper sets do it,
Lithuanians and Letts do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it,
Not to mention the Finns,
Folks in Siam do it,
Think of Siamese twins.
Some Argentines, without means, do it,
People say, in Boston, even beans do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.

Refrain #2
The nightingales, in the dark, do it,
Larks, k-razy for a lark, do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
Canaries, caged in the house, do it,
When they're out of season, grouse do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
The most sedate barnyard fowls do it,
When a chanticleer cries,
High-browed old owls do it,
They're supposed to be wise,
Penguins in flocks, on the rocks, do it,
Even little cuckoos, in their clocks do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.

Refrain #3
Romantic sponges, they say, do it,
Oysters, down in Oyster Bay, do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
Cold Cape Cod clams, 'gainst their
wish, do it,
Even lazy jellyfish do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
Electric eels, I might add, do it,
Though it shocks 'em, I know.
Why ask if shad do it?
Waiter, bring me shad roe.
In shallow shoals, English soles do it.
Goldfish, in the privacy of bowls, do it.
Let's do it, let's fall in love.

Refrain #4
The dragonflies, in the reeds, do it,
Sentimental centipedes do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
Mosquitoes, heaven forbid, do it,
So does ev'ry katydid do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
The most refined lady bugs do it,
When a gentleman calls,
Moths in your rugs, do it,
What's the use of moth balls?
Locusts in trees do it, bees do it,
Even overeducated fleas do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.

Refrain #5
The chimpanzees, in the zoos, do it,
Some courageous kangaroos
do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
I'm sure giraffes, on the sly, do it,
Heavy hippopotami do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.
Old sloths who hang down from
twigs do it,
Though the effort is great,
Sweet guinea pigs do it,
Buy a couple and wait.
The world admits bears in pits do it,
Even Pekineses in the Ritz, do it,
Let's do it, let's fall in love.

“Call Me Irresponsible”, unequivocally associated with Frank Sinatra, actually made its debut sung by Jackie Gleason in a film released in March of 1963: Papa’s Delicate Condition. In the film Gleason played a lovable family man whose “delicate condition” referred to his penchant for imbibing alcoholic beverages and then behaving irresponsibly. Already in 1963 there was recognition that alcoholism was a serious problem and along with that there was increased discomfort with depicting the condition in a humorous light. Consequently, the movie was set at the turn of the century to distance viewers from the issue. In 1963 the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 36th Academy Awards.

Although Gleason sang it first, according to Mel Tormé in the first book he wrote, The Other Side of the Rainbow with Judy Garland on the Dawn Patrol, Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn originally composed the song for Judy Garland to sing at a CBS dinner. Apparently the song was intended to parody her famously flaky behavior. In December of 1962 Garland had just signed with CBS to do The Judy Garland Show, for which Tormé was hired as the music arranger and occasional guest star. Whether or not Garland actually sang the song at the CBS dinner, she did sing the song at the premier of her television show on September 29, 1963. Although the show received generally favorable reviews, it played opposite the powerhouse Bonanza on NBC and lasted for only 26 episodes; it was canceled after one season. Tormé described the show's rocky history in his book, which led to an unsuccessful lawsuit by the family of Judy Garland because they thought the book portrayed her in an uncomplimentary manner.

In April of 1963 Frank Sinatra recorded what might be the most well known version of “Call Me Irresponsible” on his album Sinatra’s Sinatra for Reprise Records. That album included four other songs with music written by Jimmy Van Heusen. This was not an unusual occurrence, since Sinatra and Van Heusen had been close personal friends since the 1940s, and Sinatra recorded more songs (85) written by Van Heusen than by any other composer. Sammy Cahn was a friend of Sinatra and Van Heusen, and in 1955 when both he and Van Heusen were in need of new songwriting partners, they came together to write the song “Love and Marriage”. This was a hit for Sinatra and the first song to ever win an Emmy Award. The song writing team went on to win two more Academy Awards for Best Original Song for “All the Way” (1957) and “High Hopes” (1959).

“Call Me Irresponsible” continues to hold its appeal for the current generation of jazz singers. Michael Bublé, a young musician whose singing brings to mind the Sinatra style, recorded an album for Reprise Records entitled Call Me Irresponsible that included the title cut. The album debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and moved to number 1 the second week, a rarely occurring feat, and has since become a platinum best seller.

“Call Me Irresponsible” by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn

Call me irresponsible
Call me unreliable
Throw in undependable, too.

Do my foolish alibis bore you?
Well, I'm not too clever
I just adore you.

Call me unpredictable
Tell me I'm impractical
Rainbows, I'm inclined to pursue.

Call me irresponsible
Yes, I'm unreliable
But it's undeniably true
That I'm irresponsibly mad for you.

Go on and call me unpredictable
Tell me that I'm impractical
Rainbows, I'm inclined to pursue.

You go ahead call me irresponsible
I admit I'm unreliable
But it is undeniably true
That I'm irresponsibly mad for you.

Most jazz fans think of “Fever” as Peggy Lee’s signature song and are unaware that it started life as a rhythm and blues hit. Otis Blackwell, who wrote "Fever" along with Eddie Cooley, was known as a composer of R&B and rock ‘n roll songs rather than jazz. He wrote million-selling hits for rock ‘n roll musicians such as Elvis Presley, Dee Clark, Del Shannon and Jerry Lee Lewis, including “Don’t be Cruel”, “All Shook Up”, Great Balls of Fire” and “Return to Sender”. Blackwell credited “Fever” to a pseudonym, John Davenport, the name of his stepfather, because he was under contract to RCA at the time and was concerned that RCA would not pay him royalties.

The artist who first recorded “Fever” in 1956 was an R&B singer, Little Willie John. Although he had a diminutive frame and was barely over 5 feet in height, he had a powerful and very moving singing voice. He achieved considerable popularity amongst R&B fans in the 1950s and early 1960s and had already had 3 R&B top tens before the age of 18. However, he suffered from alcoholism and his behavior could be erratic. His notoriety as a performer may have added to his instability and he was known to carry a gun. In 1965 he was convicted of manslaughter for a stabbing during an argument after a performance in Seattle, and was sentenced to a 10-year prison term. He died under mysterious circumstances in prison in 1968; the official cause was a heart attack, but it has been speculated that his death may have been due to other causes. He was just 30 years old at the time of his death. Although his life was relatively short and turbulent, his musical abilities were well respected by other R&B artists like James Brown, who opened for him in 1956-57 at the Apollo Theater, Jerry Butler and B.B. King. He also inspired younger performers like Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. He was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

From Little Willie John’s perspective, “Fever” was an important recording for him. It was his first recording to cross over to the white market and enter Billboard’s Top 100 pop charts, where it debuted at position 50 in July 1956 and peaked at the 24th spot. In the hands of another singer, “Fever” could have been treated as a gimmick song, ending up in the novelty category and in oblivion as well. However, Little Willie John’s unique R&B treatment with its underlying eroticism appealed to young black females, who boosted record sales. It clearly appealed to white audiences as well, including Peggy Lee. She reworked the lyrics, making additions and changes, and recorded it on the Capitol Records label in May of 1958. Lee applied sultry sophistication to a jazz rendition of “Fever” using only a bass, drums and finger snapping as backup, an usually sparse accompaniment for that time. Her version rose to 8th position on the pop charts in August 1958 and quickly became a jazz classic. Since then, “Fever” has been recorded by artists from nearly every musical genre except opera, including pop, rock ‘n roll, country, folk, and soul in addition to R&B and jazz.

“Fever” actually is two classics in one – the original version by Little Willie Johnson preferred by R&B connoisseurs, and Peggy Lee’s revised version with expanded lyrics that is performed by most jazz and pop artists. The original lyrics and the revised lyrics are below.

"Fever" - Original lyrics as sung by Little Willie John
You never know how much I love you
Never know how much I care
When you put your arms around me
I get a feelin' that's so hard to bear

You give me fever when you kiss me
Fever when you hold me tight
Fever (fever, burn through) in the mornin'
An' fever all through the night

Listen to me, baby
Hear ev'ry word I say
No one could love you the way I do
'Cause they don't know how to love you my way

You give me fever when you kiss me
Fever when you hold me tight
Fever (fever, burn through) in the mornin'
An' fever all through the night

Bless my soul, I love you
Take this heart away
Take these arms I'll never use
An' just believe in what my lips have to say

You give me fever when you kiss me
Fever when you hold me tight
Fever (fever, burn through) in the mornin'
Fever all through the night

Sun lights up the daytime
Moon lights up the night
My eyes light up when you call my name
'Cause I know you're gonna treat me right

You give me fever when you kiss me
Fever when you hold me tight
Fever (fever, burn through) in the mornin'
An' fever all through the night

Umm-mmm-mmm-mm-mmm-mm
Umm-umm-umm-um-um
Umm-mmm-mmm-mm-mmm-mm
Umm-umm-umm-um-um.

"Fever" - Revised lyrics by Peggy Lee
Never know how much I love you
Never know how much I care
When you put your arms around me
I get a fever that’s so hard to bear

You give me fever when you kiss me
Fever when you hold me tight
Fever in the morning
Fever all through the night

Ev’rybody’s got the fever
That is something you all know
Fever isn’t such a new thing
Fever started long ago

Sun lights up the daytime
Moon lights up the night
I light up when you call my name
And you know I’m gonna treat you right

You give me fever when you kiss me
Fever when you hold me tight
Fever in the morning
Fever all through the night

Romeo loved Juliet
Juliet she felt the same
When he put his arms around her
He said, Julie baby, you’re my flame

Thou givest fever when we kisseth
Fever with thy flaming youth
Fever, I’m afire
Fever, yea I burn forsooth

Captain Smith and Pocahontas
Had a very mad affair
When her daddy tried to kill him
She said Daddy-o don’t you dare

He gives me fever with his kisses
Fever when he holds me tight
Fever, I’m his Missus,
Oh daddy, won’t you treat him right

Now you’ve listened to my story
Here’s the point that I have made
Cats were born to give chicks fever
Be it Fahrenheit or centigrade

They give you fever when you kiss them
Fever if you live and learn
Fever till you sizzle
What a lovely way to burn
What a lovely way to burn
What a lovely way to burn

“You are My Sunshine” is widely considered the third best-known song in the world, right after “Happy Birthday” and “White Christmas”. It is less well known that the song may have been “stolen” from its actual composer.

The familiar version of the song’s early history is as follows. The Pine Ridge Boys, who did not claim to have written the song, first recorded it in August of 1939. The Rice Brothers Gang recorded it again in September 1939 and Paul Rice did claim to have written the song in 1937. "Where I got the idea for it," he said, "a girl over in South Carolina wrote me this long letter, about 17 pages. And she was talking about I was her sunshine, and I got the idea for the song and put a tune to it."

Late in 1939 Jimmie Davis, a popular country music singer who later became Governor of Louisiana, purchased the song from Rice, the acknowledged composer of the song, for $35. The Rice Brothers’ bass player, Reggie Ward, when interviewed by a newspaper reporter in 1956, reported that “they asked me to sign as a witness the typed document transferring all rights to Davis and Mitchell.” Purchasing songs from other composers and publishing them under one’s own name was a common practice pre-World War II. Davis published the song in 1940 with “ words and music by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell”, who was a long-time collaborator of Davis. Davis recorded the song in February of that year, and that brought it to the attention of country music fans. It placed among the top five country music recordings in 1940 and became a major financial and political success for Davis. He used “You are My Sunshine” as a campaign song, singing it at all his political rallies when he ran for governor, and in 1977 it was designated a Louisiana state song.

Although Louisiana claimed it, the song’s birthplace actually may have been Georgia. Davis and Mitchell generally receive the credit for having written “You are My Sunshine”, but there are people in Georgia who recall hearing the song before 1937. In particular, they recall hearing George Riley Puckett, a well-known country music pioneer from Georgia, performing the song in the early 1930s and also recall that there was a musician who played both with him and Paul Rice: Oliver Hood of LaGrange, Georgia. Oliver Hood was a quiet, self-taught musician and music teacher who wrote many songs, but did not think of them as having commercial potential, much less copyrighting them. Hood’s descendants claim that he wrote the words to “You are My Sunshine” on a brown paper sack that they still possess and that he first performed the song at a VFW convention in LaGrange in 1933. After “You are My Sunshine” rose to the top of the music charts, Hood began copyrighting his songs, but none achieved the popularity and financial success of that song. Until his death in 1959 he considered the song to have been stolen from him. Professor Wayne W. Daniel of Georgia State University, who extensively researched the history of American country music, wrote in Pickin’ on Peachtree: A History of Country Music in Atlanta, Georgia (University of Illinois Press, 1990): "Mr. Hood was a musician and music teacher widely known in the west Georgia area. Surviving family members and musical associates are adamant in their assertion that Mr. Hood wrote the song.” He further states: "So like some of the words ascribed to Shakespeare, the authorship of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ will probably never be decided to everyone’s satisfaction."

Just as controversy didn’t hurt Shakespeare’s popularity, it hasn’t hurt “You are My Sunshine” either. After Bing Crosby and Gene Autry both recorded the song in 1941, its place was ensured as part of the traditional country music and jazz repertoire. Since then, it has been recorded by blues, soul and rock ‘n roll artists as well, and featured in numerous films, television and radio shows and commercials. It even has served as the anthem for a number of sports teams.

You are My Sunshine
The other night dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head and I cried.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
I'll always love you and make you happy,
If you will only say the same.
But if you leave me to love another,
You'll regret it all some day:
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
You told me once, dear, you really loved me
and no one else could come between.
But now you've left me and love another;
you have shattered all my dreams:
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away.

TAKE THE `A` TRAIN

You must take the `A` train
to go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem.

If you miss the `A` train
you`ll find you`ve missed the quickest way to Harlem.

Hurry, get on, now it`s coming.
Listen to those rails a thrumming.

All board! Get on the `A` train.
Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem.

Instead of ending up in Harlem, “Take the ‘A’ Train” nearly ended up in the trash. Legend has it that after Billy Strayhorn wrote the song, he tossed it in the wastebasket, declaring that it sounded too much like a Fletcher Henderson composition. Duke Ellington’s son Mercer retrieved it, saving from oblivion what later became the theme song of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. That was only another twist of fate in the life of a song born of chance and circumstance. At the end of 1940 a long-running negotiation between the radio networks and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) regarding increases in licensing fees reached a crisis. The radio stations refused to increase their music broadcasting payments to ASCAP and, during a 10-month period in 1941, ASCAP members could not broadcast their songs on the radio. At the time, that was tantamount to banning all popular music from radio and was a disastrous situation for Duke Ellington, who, as a member of ASCAP, virtually lost his repertoire. He needed radio broadcasts to promote record sales in order to pay his orchestra’s salaries, but, as of January 1, 1941, his music was banned from the radio. He turned to Strayhorn and son Mercer, who were not ASCAP members, for a new set of songs. The young composers took full advantage of this unanticipated opportunity to write for the Ellington Orchestra; within a few days Strayhorn produced songs that included “Take the ‘A’ Train, “Chelsea Bridge” and “Daydream”, and Mercer wrote “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be” and “Blue Serge”. The prolific songwriting during this short period kept the Ellington Orchestra solvent during the radio ban.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra initially recorded “Take the ‘A’ Train” in February 1941, and it rose to number 11 in the pop charts by July of that year. The original recording is still definitive, with the Ray Nance trumpet solo considered one of the most admired and copied trumpet solos in jazz. It was so successful that Nance repeated the solo verbatim in future performances. When Cootie Williams replaced Nance in the Ellington band in the 1960s, he repeated Nance’s solo note for note.

The Sugar Hill mentioned in the lyrics is a neighborhood in the northern part of Harlem where wealthy African-Americans moved in the 1920s. A number of artists and musicians who played important roles in the Harlem Renaissance, including Duke Ellington, owned homes there. One of the anecdotes about how "Take the 'A' Train" got its title is that it was based on directions Ellington gave to Strayhorn to get to his apartment via the subway. However, there is some disagreement regarding who composed the actual lyrics for the song. Strayhorn is given credit for the lyrics as well as the music by a number of sources, including liner notes on Duke Ellington Orchestra recordings of the song. However, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and others credited Joya Sherrill with writing the lyrics in 1944. Sherrill was a 17-year old living in Detroit and is said to have written the lyrics while listing to the song on the radio at her home. Apparently, when Ellington heard her sing, her poise and singing ability caused him to hire her as a singer and adopt her version of the lyrics. She did sing with the Ellington band from 1944-1948, but her role as lyricist is less easily verifiable.

No matter who composed the lyrics, it does not diminish the impact the song has had on jazz. To quote Quincy Jones, “Take the ‘A’ Train” was the Holy Grail. It identifies a population, it identifies a lifestyle because it’s the Harlem Renaissance. It’s unbelievable. It covers everything—and it says it all in 32 bars.”