50 years ago: Etta James “At Last” released

At Last Etta James

Writer(s): Harry Warren (music), Mack Gordon (lyrics) (see lyrics here) Released: November 15, 1960 First Charted: January 9, 1961 Peak: 47 US, 30 CB, 30 HR, 2 RB, 69 UK, 72 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.6 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 76.9 video, 330.31 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The song “At Last” was written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, who also wrote “Chattanooga Cho Choo.” It was initially intended for the film Sun Valley Serenade, but studio head Darryl Zanuck thought there were already “too many big ones in this. Let’s save one for the next.” WK The vocal version of the song by John Payne and Lynn Bari was deleted from the film, but an instrumental version by the Glenn Miller Orchestra remained. The vocal version was then introduced in the 1942 movie Orchestra Wives. This one also featured the Glenn Miller Orchestra, this time with vocals by Ray Eberle and Lynn Bari. Miller took a newly recorded version of the song, which still featured Eberle on vocals, to #2 on the Billboard charts that year. A decade later, Ray Anthony’s Orchestra would take it to #2 again on the Billboard charts with Tommy Mercer on vocals. The song’s most noted version, however, was recorded by R&B singer Etta James in 1960. It is “the definitive version and her crowning achievement.” NRR Her version was based on an arrangement by Riley Hampton that improvised on the original melody. WK “One is most struck by James’s throaty vocal…but she never oversells the vocal. Instead she works her voice well with the timbre of the music, interjecting just enough romantic longing.” NRR The song marked a change of labels for Etta James from Modern to Chess/Argo. It was also a change of direction for her. As she said, “I was no longer a teenager. I was twenty-two and sophisticated.” NRR She’d previously had hits with what she called “quickie teenage rockin’, humping and bumping ditties.” NRR Leonard Chess thought she “was a classy ballad singer and saw pop crossover potential in her; it was his decision to back her with violin orchestrations for the song.” SF Harvey Fuqua, formerly of the Moonglows and her boyfriend at the time, started playing standards for her and she “saw in that music the mysterious life that my mother had led when I was a little girl.” NRR Celine Dion reached #16 on the adult contemporary chart with her version from her 2002 album A New Day Has Come. Beyoncé portrayed Etta James in the 2008 film Cadillac Records and performed the song on the soundtrack. It won a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. It also reached #67 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #79 on the R&B chart. She also sang it during Barack and Michelle Obama’s first dance at the Neighborhood Ball on the night of his Presidential inauguration. Resources: NRR National Recording Registry essay by Cary O’Dell SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/14/2022; last updated 11/4/2022.

 

Today in Music (1959): The Flamingos “Eyed” the charts

I Only Have Eyes for You The Flamingos

Writer(s): Harry Warren (m)/Al Dubin (l) (see lyrics here) First Charted: May 4, 1959 Peak: 11 US, 10 CB, 5 GR, 11 HR, 3 RB, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 19.76 video, 81.39 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: This Tin Pan Alley standard dates back to 1934 when it was introduced in the Busby Berkeley movie musical Dames by Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. Cabaret singer Mary Cleere Haran called the song “one of the loveliest love songs written about big-city romance.” SS Ben Selvin took the song to #2 and Eddy Duchin and Jane Froman also charted that year with #4 and #20 versions respectively. PM A quarter century later, the Flamingos’ recorded it ““with elegant vocalizations and the otherworldly doo-bop-sh-bop.” RS500 It became “one of the most memorable hits of the doo-wop era.” TB “There’s nothing about [their version of] this record that really relates to Ben Selvin’s or anybody else’s.” DM The song is marked by “its warm, ethereal backing vocals, the gently nagging, piano-led arrangement, and, most importantly, [Sollie] McElroy’s lilting lead vocal about a love that ‘must be a kind of blind love.’” TB “Dubbed ‘The Sultans of Smooth,’ this Chicago quintet” RS500 formed in 1950, becoming “one of the greatest vocal groups of the doo-wop era.” RS500 In fact, in the liner notes for Rhino’s Doo-Wop Box, Bob Hyde said they were “possibly the finest R&B vocal group ever to record.” SS They displayed broad influences including “gospel..and the silken pop harmonices of the Mills Brothers and Four Freshmen as well as R&B-oriented groups.” DM By the end of the ‘50s, they’d “honed their onstage dance routines in the manner of 1960s groups like the Temptations” TB and, in fact, were a “clear influence on the Motown Sound” TB of that decade. In 1975, Art Garfunkel recorded a version which hit the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was a #1 song on the adult contemporary chart and in the UK. It was also recorded by George Benson, Jerry Butler, the Lettermen, Johnny Mathis, and Frank Sinatra. The Fugees sampled the song on “Zealots” for their 1996 album The Score. SF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for The Flamingos DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Pages 348-9. RS500 Rolling Stone (2011). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 305-6. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 37. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 517. WK Wikipedia First posted 4/13/2020; last updated 1/17/2024.

On This Day (1941): Glenn Miller hit #1 with “Chattanooga Choo Choo”

Chattanooga Choo Choo Glenn Miller with Tex Beneke & the Four Modernaires

Writer(s): Mack Gordon, Harry Warren (see lyrics here) Recorded: May 7, 1941 First Charted: September 13, 1941 Peak: 19 US, 12 HP, 12 GA (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.2 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 21.05 video, 13.69 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The team of Mack Gordon and Harry Warren wrote the song while travelling on the Southern Railway. “Chattanooga Choo Choo” didn’t refer to a particular train, but Chattanooga, Tennessee, had been on the route for most trains passing through the American South since 1880. WK The song was used in the film Sun Valley Serenade, a story about a train travelling south from New York. SS Tex Beneke and Paul Kelly from Glenn Miller’s band sang the song in the film with the Modernaires – but actress Dorothy Dandridge lent her pipes to the song in the film as well. SS It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song from a movie in 1941. A week after finishing work on the movie, the band went into the studio to record “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” SS It became Miller’s biggest hit after “In the Mood.” In Recorded Music in American Life, William Howland Kenney notes how the song resonated with GI’s coming home. It reminded them “of the excitement of entering Penn Station, ticket in hand for a trip home, getting a shine, hopping board and…eat[ing] and drink[ing] while watching the Carolina countryside flash by.” SS “Chattanooga” achieved the distinction of being the first record to be formally certified as a million seller. PM although Gene Austin’s “My Blue Heaven” had accomplished the feat a dozen years earlier. SS To celebrate the event, RCA Victor presented a gold-laquered facsimile disc to Miller on February 10, 1942. TY Years later the Recording Industry Association of America picked up on the idea and awarded gold records to million-sellers. SS In addition to Miller’s #1 version of the song in 1941, it found success in 1962 with Floyd Cramer’s #36 version and again in 1978 when the female disco quartet Tuxedo Junction took the song to #32. JA Others who rcorded the song include the Andrews Sisters, George Benson, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Harry Connick Jr., Ray Conniff, John Denver, Bill Haley & the Coments, the Muppets, Oscar Peterson, Elvis Presley, and Hank Snow. WK “It remains a vocal-group standard.” JA Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 35. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 603. TY1 Don Tyler (1985). Hit Parade 1920-1955. Quill: New York, NY. Page 105. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 311. WK Wikipedia Related Links: Last updated 9/5/2023.