BODY AND SOUL
EPISODE 6

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 Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail.”

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra “Cotton Tail” (1940)

Bern Hoffman, Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Jules Munshin “New York, New York” (1949)

Benny Goodman & His Orchestra “King Porter Stomp” (1935)

Peggy Lee “Aren’t You Kind of Glad We Did?” (1946)

It’s Peggy Lee,” a recording she made with Dave Barbour & His Orchestra in 1946, “Aren’t You Kind of Glad We Did?” It was recorded a year before the song was included in the musical comedy “The Shocking Miss Pilgrim,” where Betty Grable and Dick Haymes sang it together. Like other songs in the film, “Aren’t You Kind of Glad We Did?” was a George and Ira Gershwin collaboration that was not completed during George’s lifetime. Brother Ira wrote a lyric for the tune that had been composed in the previous decade. Peggy Lee was certainly one of the first singers, if not the first, to record a version. She released it as the B-side to the top 10 single “It’s All Over Now.”

Benny Goodman & His Orchestra before that, a classic recording from 1935, “King Porter Stomp,” first recoded a decade earlier by Jelly Roll Morton. Goodman’s version had a chart by Fletcher Henderson, a trumpet solo from Bunny Berigan, and became one of the preeminent hits of the ’30s swing era.

We heard music from the 1949 film version of “On The Town,” composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and performed in the movie by Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Jules Munshin. The short prelude that opens the song and the film was sung by Bern Hoffman.

And Duke Ellington & His Orchestra at the top of the show, the 1940 classic recording of Ellington’s song “Cotton Tail,” with Ben Webster on saxophone.

From Studio C Chicago, this is "Body and Soul."  I'm Andy Miles.  Lots of good stuff on the way, including Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Artie Shaw, music from two Academy Award-winning films of the ’40s, and this from The Andrews Sisters.

The Andrews Sisters “One Meat Ball” (1944)

Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra “New Orleans” (1932)

Mildred Bailey & Her Orchestra “Rockin’ Chair” (1937)

Dooley Wilson “As Time Goes By” (1942)

It’s one of the most famous songs of 1940s cinema, '“As Time Goes By,” performed by Dooley Wilson in the 1942 film “Casablanca.” The song was actually introduced in a Broadway musical a decade earlier, and first popularized by Rudy Vallée. After the song was revived in “Casablanca,” Wilson was unable to record and release a version due to the American Federation of Musicians strike. Vallée’s 11-year-old recording was dusted off for reissue, and shot to the top of the charts. The recording we heard was the one used in the film, later released on the box set “Warner Brothers: 75 Years of Film Music.” The piano was played not by Dooley Wilson, who was a drummer, but by Warner Brothers pianist Jean Vincent Plummer, and the orchestration was provided by Max Steiner.

A 1937 hit for Mildred Bailey & Her Orchestra before that, “Rockin’ Chair,” one of 18 top 20 singles Bailey released in the later ’30s.

From earlier in the decade, we heard Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra with their recording of “New Orleans.” The vocalist on the track is Jimmy Rushing.

And The Andrew Sisters at the top of the set, “One Meat Ball," one of six top 20 singles the trio released in 1945, and the 51st top 20 single of their career. The song dates back to the mid-19th century when it had the title “The Lone Fish Ball” and was brought to popularity in the 1940s in the American folk music revival.

And you're listening to "Body and Soul" from Studio C Chicago.  I'm Andy Miles. More movie music now; it’s the instrumental theme to Alfred Hitchcock’s Academy Award-winning film “Rebecca.”

Franz Waxman “Rebecca” (1940)

The King Cole Trio “All For You” (1942)

Ella Mae Morse “Cow Cow Boogie” (1942)

Xavier Cugat & His Orchestra “Miami Beach Rumba”

“Miami Beach Rumba” is the song; it comes from Xavier Cugat. The year was 1947.

Ella Mae Morse before that with her 1942 number one hit single “Cow Cow Boogie.” She’s backed by Freddie Slack & His Orchestra, and the record was just the second the fledgling Capitol Records released, and their first million-seller. The song rightfully belonged to a different Ella: Ella Fitzgerald. Making her screen debut, Fitzgerald sang it for the Abbott and Costello movie “Ride ’Em Cowboy,” but it was cut from the film. She does perform her hit “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” in the film, and elsewhere another song gets its introduction, the beautiful “I’ll Remember April,” performed by singing cowboy Dick Foran in the role of Bronco Bob Mitchell. And Fitzgerald did enjoy success with “Cow Cow Boogie” when she teamed with The Ink Spots for a hit 1943 recording; it topped the U.S R&B chart.

We also heard Nat King Cole’s “All For You,” which likewise topped the R&B chart in 1943, becoming the second in a run of four R&B number ones that launched Cole’s hugely successful recording career. At that time he was working as The King Cole Trio.

At the top of the set it was music from Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” which earned its composer, Franz Waxman, a Best Original Score Oscar nomination in 1940. The film itself took Best Picture honors that year, beating out another Hitchcock film, “Foreign Correspondent,” as well as a pair of Bette Davis vehicles, “All This and Heaven Too” and “The Letter.”

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: a set of music from 1945, starting with Perry Como.

Perry Como “Temptation” (1945)

Sarah Vaughan & Dizzy Gillespie All Star Quintet “Lover Man” (1945)

Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra with Billy Usher “There’s No You” (1945)

Bing Crosby “Baia” (1945)

It’s Bing Crosby singing the song’s title as it fades out, and concluding a set of music from 1945. It was Crosby’s seventh top 10 single of that year; he’d score another seven before year’s end, including three number ones, “White Christmas” among them.

Tommy Dorsey and his band before that, “There’s No You,” with a Billy Usher vocal. Two of the Dorsey band’s alumni, singers Jo Stafford and Frank Sinatra, each recorded 1944 versions of the song, when it was newly published. Stafford’s went top 10.

We heard Sarah Vaughan & Dizzy Gillespie All Star Quintet with their classic version of “Lover Man.” One of those all-stars was Charlie Parker, who released a solo version the following year. For Vaughan, that was one of her very first recordings as a solo artist; she had left Billy Eckstine’s band late the previous year. Gillespie and Parker had also spent time on the bandstand with Eckstine’s innovative group.

And Perry Como at the top of the set, “Temptation,” also from 1945. It was the 10th top 20 record of Como’s young recording career, and the first of them to turn gold. The song got its start a dozen years earlier when Bing Crosby introduced it in the musical “Going Hollywood.” Crosby also put out a 1945 version. You might also know the song from its use in “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Muppet Show,” or University of Michigan football games.

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 Artie Shaw’s “I Got Sun in the Morning.”

Artie Shaw “I Got Sun in the Morning” (1940)

Ethel Waters “Taking A Chance on Love” (1943)

Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra “Flying Home” (1940)

Myra Taylor “Tell Your Best Friend Nothing” (1946)

That’s the singer Myra Taylor out of Kansas City, Missouri, a 1946 recording of “Tell Your Best Friend Nothing.” She’s backed on the record by Jimmy Keith's Orchestra.

We heard Ethel Waters “Taking A Chance on Love,” a song she introduced in the Broadway musical “Cabin in the Sky.” When “Cabin in the Sky” was turned into a 1943 screen musical she sang it there too. Dooley Wilson, whom we heard earlier in the show, starred alongside Waters in the Broadway production. The film version, directed for MGM by Vincent Minelli making his directorial debut, co-starred Lena Horne and featured performances from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

And Artie Shaw and His Orchestra at the top of the set, “I Got Sun in the Morning,” with vocal by Mel Tormé & His Meltones. Tormé was just 21 years old in 1946, the year Musicraft released that recording, and the song was brand new, having made its debut that year in the Broadway musical “Annie Get Your Gun,” where Ethel Merman sang it in the role of Annie Oakley. Irving Berlin was the composer.

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 1945 film “The Clock,” also directed by Vincent Minnelli. The music for the romantic drama was composed by George Bassman and performed here by the MGM Studio Orchestra.

MGM Studio Orchestra conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret “Main Title/End Title (from ‘The Clock’)” (1945)

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