BODY AND SOUL
EPISODE 4

From Studio C Chicago, this is “Body and Soul,” a show that covers the waterfront of 1930s and ’40s jazz and swing, blues, Broadway, popular song, country, rhythm & blues, movie music, and more.  I'm Andy Miles, and this is Julia Lee.

Julia Lee “Lotus Blossom” (1945)

T-Bone Walker featuring Freddie Slack “I Got A Break, Baby” (1942)

Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys “It’s Mighty Dark To Travel” (1948)

Charles Trenet “Que Reste-T-Il De Nos Amours?” (1943)

It’s Charles Trenet with his 1943 recording of his own song, whose French title translates to “What Remains of Our Loves,” but was popularized in the United States with the title “I Wish You Love,” more than a decade after its 1942 introduction in Nazi-occupied France.

Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys before that, “It’s Mighty Dark To Travel,” released by Columbia Records in 1948.

We heard T-Bone Walker featuring Freddie Slack, a 1942 recording called “I Got a Break, Baby,” which Capitol Records issued in 1945. Freddie Slack played piano on the record, alongside the guitarist-vocalist Walker.

And Kansas City blues singer Julia Lee at the top of the show, “Lotus Blossom,” released by Premier Records in 1945. The song was also known by the title “Marijuana.” Soon after its release, Lee, who was already in her early 40s, signed with Capitol Records where she enjoyed a run of R&B hits in the late ’40s. She left the label in the early ’50s and died in 1958.

From Studio C Chicago, this is "Body and Soul."  I'm Andy Miles.  Lots of good stuff on the way, including Mahalia Jackson, Fred Astaire, Benny Goodman, Benny Carter, and this from Ray Charles.

Ray Charles “This Love of Mine” (1949)

Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra “Jeep’s Blues” (1938)

Mahalia Jackson “I’m Going To Live The Life I Sing About” (1941)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe “The Devil Has Thrown Him Down” (1943)

That’s Sister Rosetta Tharpe with her 1943 recording of “The Devil Has Thrown Him Down.”

Mahalia Jackson before that, “I’m Going To Live The Life I Sing About” from 1941.

We heard “Jeep’s Blues” from Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra, a song Duke Elllington wrote with the saxophonist Hodges in mind. Hodges had joined Ellington’s band in 1928 and, like many of Ellington’s band members, formed his own bands and recorded under his own name, never straying far from Ellington’s band. The side we heard came out in 1938, by which point Hodges was an established name in jazz and had begun influencing a new generation of saxophonists, including Charlie Parker and, later, John Coltrane.

And “This Love of Mine” at the top of the set, a B-side from The McSon Trio in 1949 with vocal and piano by 19-year-old Ray Charles, who soon after began recording under his own name. At the beginning of the decade, Frank Sinatra had popularized the song with Tommy Dorsey’s band, even getting a rare songwriting credit, as lyricist. His daughter, Nancy, later did a recording of it herself.

From Studio C Chicago, this is "Body and Soul," a show devoted to two great decades in American music: the '30s and the '40s.  Next up: Walter Huston.

Walter Huston “September Song” (1938)

Ike Quebec “Blue Harlem” (1944)

Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra “Cherokee” (1939)

Shirley Ross “It Never Entered My Mind” (1940)

We began and ended that set with music from Broadway. Shirley Ross right there, singing “It Never Entered My Mind” from the Rodgers and Hart musical “Higher and Higher,” which opened at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre in the spring of 1940 and closed 83 performances later, in August of that year. The only hit to come from the score was the song we heard. Ross came into the show as a fairly prolific Hollywood screen actress, but made few films after the Broadway show closed, and appeared in her final film just five years later, in 1945.

We heard Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra with their hit recording of “Cherokee,” when Barnet was at the peak of his fame as a bandleader, in 1939, by which point the white saxophonist had integrated his band with a number of black musicians, including trumpeter Roy Eldridge, and played to record-breaking crowds at Harlem’s Apollo Theater.

Tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec was in that set with his 1944 recording of “Blue Harlem.” Quebec was from New Jersey, and had a saxophone-playing brother who recorded with Thelonious Monk. Ike himself encountered Monk while serving as a talent scout for Blue Note Records. He also played studio sessions and live dates with Roy Eldridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, and Coleman Hawkins.

At the top of the set it was Walter Huston, singing Kurt Weill’s “September Song,” which Huston introduced on the Broadway stage in 1938. Brunswick Records put out the recording during the show’s five month run, helping “September Song” become a standard in the American popular songbook; it was the only tune from the show to have such a lasting impact. Huston also appeared as an actor in Hollywood films, including “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” which his son, John Huston, directed.

We also heard Bette Davis and Gregory Peck in the hammy conclusion of a Lux Radio Theatre presentation of "Now, Voyager," over the Columbia Broadcast System, February 11th, 1946.  Davis had starred in the 1942 Warner Brothers melodrama and received a best actress nomination for her portrayal of the dreary neurotic turned self-confident romantic Charlotte Vale. Peck had only appeared in four films when he was paired with the great actress in this CBS Radio production, the most recent of those movies being Hitchcock's "Spellbound."  I'll conclude this broadcast with music from that film's excellent score. 

And you're listening to "Body and Soul" from Studio C Chicago.  I'm Andy Miles.  One last full set on the show; it starts with the NBC Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini & Benny Goodman with their 1942 recording of “Rhapsody in Blue,” the intro and theme.

NBC Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini & Benny Goodman “Rhapsody in Blue (Intro & Theme)” (1942)

Fred Astraire “Cheek To Cheek” (1935)

Pete Johnson’s Band “627 Stomp” (1940)

Benny Carter & His Orchestra “Poinciana” (1944)

The song is “Poinciana”; the 1944 recording is from Benny Carter & His Orchestra, one of a handful of versions that helped popularize the song at that time. In the late ’50s jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal became forever associated with “Poinciana” when he made it his theme song.

Pete Johnson’s Band before that, the 1940 recording “627 Stomp.” Johnson was a Kansas City boogie-woogie pianist who often performed with the Kansas City singer Big Joe Turner, whose first single had “627 Stomp” as its B-side.

We heard Irving Berlin’s “Cheek To Cheek” from the man who introduced the song, Fred Astaire. Backed by the bandleader Leo Reisman, Astaire recorded the song in 1935 for the movie “Top Hat,” which he co-starred in with Ginger Rogers. The movie’s record-breaking success required the presence of police officers at Radio City Music Hall, and “Cheek To Cheek” gave Astaire his biggest hit record to date. 1935 recordings by Guy Lombardo and The Boswell Sisters helped further popularize the song, which became the number one song of the year.

And at the top of the set, we heard the NBC Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini & Benny Goodman with their 1942 recording of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” condensed to a 3-minute, 22-second running time, in order to fit on one side of a 78 RPM record. The full composition had its premiere in 1924, with Igor Stravinsky, John Phillip Souza, and the stride pianist Willie “The Lion” Smith all in attendance.

And that brings us to the end of another edition of "Body and Soul" from Studio C Chicago.  I'm Andy Miles.  Thanks for being here.  

I've got one last song on the show; it's music from the Hitchcock film “Spellbound,” released in 1945 with music by Miklós Rózsa. The Oscar-winning score begins with solo Theremin, played by the Los Angeles-based Thereminist and practicing podiatrist Dr. Samuel Hoffmann.

Miklós Rózsa “Spellbound” (1945)

VISIT THE MAIN “BODY AND SOUL” PAGE