50 years ago: Van & Schenck hit #1 “Ain’t We Got Fun?”

Ain’t We Got Fun? Van & Schenck

Writer(s): Gus Kahn, Raymond B. Egan, Richard Whiting (see lyrics here) Released: July 1921 First Charted: August 13, 1921 Peak: 12 US, 11 GA, 13 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: As Don Tyler says in his book Hit Parade 1920-1955, this foxtrot from the Roaring Twenties “would have made a good theme song for those hellbent on seeking the fun typical of the era.” TY1 However, it is also “a satirical social comment on the reality that people were not really having fun.” SM Men returning home after World War I “were promised a new world but it hadn’t happened.” SM While the decade was seen as a time of economic growth, there was a short depression in 1920-21. Thus the song “mixes zesty music with a nonsense lyric” RCG about “young people enjoying the times even as a bill collector knocks on the door.” RCG It says that “despite tough times, most people are resilient and cope with the bad times.” PS Sometimes they can even do it with a sense of humor, showcased by lines like “the rich get richer and the poor get children.” Arthur West first performed the song in the revue Satires of 1920 DJ and George Watts introduced it in vaudeville. TY1 Then Ruth Roye and the duo of Gus Van and Joe Schenck helped popularize it. TY1 The latter were a comedy-musical team who not only found success in vaudeville, but Broadway and radio. PM They also had the most successful chart run with the song with their #1 version in 1921. PM Two other versions charted in 1921-22: the Benson Orchestra of Chicago took it to #9 and Billy Jones hit #12. PM However, the song has been recorded by many big names over the years. Some of the artists who have recorded this song include Chet Atkins, Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards, Bob Hope, Al Jolson, Jack Kerouac, Peggy Lee, Gordon MacRae, Mitch Miler, Debbie Reynolds, Dick Van Dyke, and Margaret Whiting. LP The song even figures into literature, including Dorothy Parker’s 1929 award-winning short story “Big Blonde” and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby. SF It also showed up in the 1974 film adaptation of the latter, TY1 as well as in 1953’s By the Light of the Silvery Moon TY1 and 1951’s I’ll See You in My Dreams. The latter was a biopic about Gus Kahn, one of the song’s lyricists. DJ Eddie Cantor sang it for the 1953 soundtrack for The Eddie Cantor Story. DJ Woody Allen also used the song in the 1983 film Zelig. WK Carnival Cruise Lines also used the song in the 1990s in their commercials. DJ Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Van & Schenck DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 5. LP lyricsplayground.com SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) PS ParlorSongs.com Lessons in America’s Popular Music History RCG RimChiGuy.com The Old Songs (1900-1929) SB Songbook1.wordpress.com TY1 Don Tyler (1985). Hit Parade 1920-1955. Quill: New York, NY. Page 17. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 468. WK Wikipedia.org First posted 8/3/2012; last updated 1/28/2023.

John Lennon released Imagine

Imagine John Lennon

Released: September 9, 1971 Peak: 11 US, 12 UK, 2 CN, 12 AU, 13 DF Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.3 UK, 10.0 world (includes US and UK), 26.27 EAS Genre: rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Imagine (9/24/71, 3 BB, 2 CB, 2 GR, 1 HR, 7 AC, 1 CL, 20 AR, 1 UK, 1 CN, 1 AU, 1 DF) Crippled Inside (33 DF) Jealous Guy (11/30/85, 80 BB, 64 CB, 12 AR, 22 AC, 4 CL, 12 AR, 65 UK, 5 DF) It’s So Hard I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier (49 CL, 28 DF) Gimme Some Truth (36 CL, 24 DF) Oh My Love How Do You Sleep? (36 CL, 29 DF) How? Oh Yoko! (37 DF) Total Running Time: 39:29

Rating: 4.407 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Following Up Plastic Ono Band After the Beatles broke up, John Lennon released his first solo album, the “angsty Plastic Ono Band.“ EK That primal-scream therapy excursion with Plastic Ono Band is “a searing personal statement in which a brilliant artist bares the depths of his soul.” EK It “garnered the lion’s share of the acclaim” EK because Lennon “spoke those early critics’ language.” EK “Once Lennon had exorcised his personal demons he felt free to rant against the wrongs of the world and make a vain plea for tolerance.” PR He “softened up on his second solo album,” 500 exploring “calmer, more conventional territory.” AM “He’s still sour but it’s been tempered with a little sweetness.” JM “If Imagine doesn't have the thematic sweep of Plastic Ono Band, it is nevertheless a remarkable collection of songs.” AM It is his “most consistent solo work” TM and may be “his most important recording.” ZS Imagine is “a well-crafted collection of songs…to listen to on a Friday night.” EK “Lennon would never be able to better again.” AM The Multi-Faceted Lennon “We get to see the many sides of a complicated man come together.” JM This is “a self-portrait of a man at the same time sensitive and aggressive, insecure and bold, introspective but socially aware.” RD We see “four sides of Lennon clearly on display. We get Peacenik Lennon, Sharp-Tongued Lennon, Confessional Lennon, and Old School Rocker Lennon.” JM “The result is music defined by confrontation and conflict – yet at its core it retains a hint of touching school kid earnestness.” TM This is “self-analysis, love, venom, and politics with a backbeat.” ZS The Players Lennon is accompanied by “a stellar cast.” RD His ex-Beatle bandmate George Harrison shows up on guitar on a few songs. The album also features famed keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, who’s impressive resume includes work with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Kinks. Several different drummers worked on the album. Alan White, best known for his work with Yes, does the lion’s share of the work but studio drummer extraordinaire Jim Keltner does duty on a couple of tracks and drummer Jim Gordon, best known for Derek and the Dominos, also turns in a performance. Jazz saxophonist King Curtis also turns up on a couple of songs and Klaus Voormann, best known for working with Manfred Mann, plays bass throughout the album. Phil Spector The album was produced by Phil Spector, who’d also done the Beatles’ Let It Be. His “orchestrated but still rough production” RD made Imagine Lennon’s “most accomplished, balanced solo record.” RD Spector and Lennon recorded the album in the studio he built at Tittenhurst, his English mansion. RD The Songs Here are thoughts on the individual songs from the album. “Imagine” “Outside of the Beatles, Imagine is probably the first thing most people would connect with Lennon.” JM It “goes down as John’s best song ever.” KN It is “a beautiful, multi-layered plea for everyone to see the humanity within each other” JM and envision “a world with no gods, possessions, or classes, where everyone is equal.” AM It became “a career-defining standard” EK which was “a pretty different animal from Lennon’s more sloganeering anthems…Instead of creating an ‘us vs. them’ dichotomy, ‘Imagine’ challenges the listener to move beyond everything that our culture deems importance: materialism, nationalism, and our own concepts of heaven and hell.” EK “I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier” Peacenik Lennon makes appearances on the “hypnotic antiwar song” AM I Don't Want to Be a Soldier and “Imagine.” “Jealous Guy” Confessional Lennon “showed himself capable of insane romanticism” CL with songs like “the aching confessional” TM Jealous Guy. Underneath the sweet strings…lies a broken and scared man).” AM Keno’s Classic Rock Album Reviews speculates that it might be about Yoko Ono, Lennon’s former wife Cynthia, and his son Julian. KN “Oh Yoko” The “irresistible Oh Yoko” 500 was a tribute to “the newfound center in John’s life provided by Yoko.” RD The song “has a sense of joy to it that makes it seem way more universal than a song with the word ‘Yoko’ in the title has any right to be.” EK “Oh My Love” On Oh My Love “the melody is absolutely gorgeous, straightforward but shot through with surprise chord changes and melodic flourishes, especially in the descending lines of the verses. Couple that with the sparse lyrics that repeat variations on a theme throughout the song…and you have…a lost classic.” EK “How Do You Sleep” Sharp-Tongued Lennon “nearly ruins the album with the bullying How Do You Sleep,” EK a petty and unnecessary “evisceration of Paul McCartney.” 500 Lennon “may have been a dreamer, but he wasn’t forgiving of those whom he felt had betrayed him.” PR His bandmate “wasn’t dumping toxic waste or running a crooked old folks home; he was writing silly love songs and arguing about royalties or whatever. The song seems like a pretty egregious overreaction.” EK “Give Me Some Truth” and “Crippled Inside” Old School Rocker Lennon makes appearances with the “bitter hard rock” AM of “the stinging Give Me Some Truth” 500 and “the jaunty Crippled Inside.” AM They make for “excellent honky-tonk social critique” JM framed in “a mocking assault at an acquaintance.” AM The former “was yet another song directed at those in power.” KN

Resources and Related Links: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine KN Keno’s Classic Rock Album Reviews EK Eric Klinger, PopMatters’ Counterbalance series (2010-2012) CL Colin Larkin (1998). Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums. Virgin Books: London, England. Page 56. RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 252. JM Jason Mendelsohn, PopMatters’ Counterbalance series (2010-2012) TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. PR Paul Roland (2001). CD Guide to Pop & Rock. B.T. Batsford LTD: London. Page 153. 500 Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time ZS Zagat Survey (2003). Music Guide: 1,000 Top Albums of All Time. Coordinator: Pat Blashill. Music Editor: Holly George-Warren. Editors: Betsy Andrews and Randi Gollin. Zagat Survey, LLC: New York, NY. Page 145. Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 9/9/2013; last updated 11/24/2024.