Ethel Waters - Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue? - 1981

I think I first became acquainted with Ethel Waters when I got a 2 disc CD called Women in Blues. On that CD there is a track called My Handyman by Ethel Waters. It is a racy double entendre song where every line about what the handyman did for her also had sexual innuendo.

I then learned more about her when watching Ken Burns' Jazz series. Around that time is when I picked up a couple Ethel Waters records, this being one of them. The cool thing about this record is that the recordings are from TV broadcasts (or as the jacket reads
telecasts") as well as unreleased 78's. This came out back in the early 80's so I'm sure by now some of these have been released on other various compilations. However because that is the source, you won't find "My Handyman". I think that would have been a little too racy for TV in the 50's.

Some of her best recordings are from the 20's and 30's. She has a few records that have been inducted in to the Grammy hall of fame from that period. She however did enjoy a resurgence in popularity in the lat 40's and 50's. I'm guessing that part of that was due to her Oscar nomination in 1949 for Best Supporting Actress in Pinky.

the following year she was in the play and film The Member of The Wedding. Below is a clip of her singing "Eyes On The Sparrow" from the film.



She won a New York Drama critics award for this role.

For more on her life check out the wikipedia entry.

As far as this record goes there are quite a few good tracks. I really like the opening track, "Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue?". The piano has a nice saloon quality and the recording is very intimate.

I also really like the song "The Birth of The Blues" and Ethel does a nice version here. You'll notice that I like her blues songs and if they have blue in the title I tend to like the song. Hence i also recommend "The Blues In The Night' and another good track. Again I like the live back saloon quality of the recording and the arrangement. Very simple and real.

I like "That's What Harlem Means to Me" I think mostly because it reminds me of the Sinatra song "That's What America Means to Me". I'm sure the two songs are related, but I'm not sure how. If you have any insight on that history, please let me know.

Another favorite for me is "The Sunny Side Of The Street". It is a good song to start off your day literally on a good note.

One other song that seems like a good theme for this weekend in Southern California is "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". I say that because I write this on a Saturday morning, the smoke from the fires around Los Angeles is horrible. It makes me think that I wish I had a song called "Smoke Gets In Your Lungs" because it would be even more fitting. But "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" will have to do.

And the last song to point out is another blue song. The last track "I've Got A Right To Sing The Blues" is another really good track.

Enjoy!

01 Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue_.m4a
02 Young At Heart.m4a
03 My Gal Sal.m4a
04 How Are Things In Glocca Marra_.m4a
05 Eli, Eli.m4a
06 The Birth Of The Blues.m4a
07 My Man.m4a
08 Come Rain or Come Shine - The Man I Love - The Floodgates Of Despair.m4a
09 The Blues In The Night.m4a
10 That's What Harlem Means To Me.m4a
11 I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good.m4a
12 Easter Parade.m4a
13 You're Just In Love.m4a
14 I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart - Music Maestro Please.m4a
15 The Sunny Side Of The Street.m4a
16 A Porter's Love Song To A Chambermaid.m4a
17 You Took Advantage Of Me.m4a
18 Yesterdays.m4a
19 Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.m4a
20 I've Got A Right To Sing The Blues.m4a

Ethel Waters - Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue part 1.zip
Ethel Waters - Who Said Blackbirds Are Blue part 2.zip

Hollywood Sings - 1982

This one digs deep into the past with a bunch of songs from old Hollywood movies. I think a lot of these songs are probably not too easy to find. I could be wrong, but who knows.

Some of the more interesting tracks are Jimmy Stewart singing. I bet a lot of you didn't know Jimmy Stewart sang. In the early 30's when sound was still such a novelty just about every star in Hollywood was made to sing at some point. Jimmy was no exception. Another one in the same vain is Rudolph Valentino. I never knew he sang, but here you have it.

The other fantastic one is the Marx Brothers song "Hurray for Captain Spaulding" from Animal Crackers.

Many of the others are interesting and are from films that I haven't seen and chances are you haven't seen either so they are probably new. Have fun with this one walking through Hollywood history.

Enjoy!

01 Happy Feet - Paul Whiteman's Ryhth Boys (Bing Crosby, Harry Barris, Al Rinker).m4a
02 Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye - Al Jolson.m4a
03 Johnny - Marlene Dietrich.m4a
04 Day After Day - James Stewart.m4a
05 Can Broadway Do Without Me_- Clayton, Jackson & Durante.m4a
06 If You Haven't Got Love - Gloria Swanson.m4a
07 Doin' The New Low Down - Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson.m4a
08 Keep Your Sunny Side Up - Janet Gaynor.m4a
09 Kashmiri Love Song (Pale Hands I Love) - Rudolph Valentino.m4a
10 Broadway Melody - Charles King.m4a
11 Puttin' On The Ritz - Harry Richman.m4a
12 How Long Will It Last - Joan Crawford.m4a
13 Hooray For Captain Spaulding - Groucho and Zeppo Marx with Margaret Dumont.m4a
14 Just Like A Butterfly That's Caught In The Rain - Helen Morgan.m4a
15 I Love Louisa - Fred Astaire.m4a
16 We Can't Get Along - Ginger Rogers.m4a
17 You've Got That Thing - Maurice Chevalier.m4a
18 Beyond The Blue Horizon - Heannette Macdonald.m4a
19 The White Dove - Lawrence Tibbett.m4a
20 Yes, Yes, My Baby Said Yes, Yes! - Eddie Cantor.m4a

Hollywood Sings Part 1.zip
Hollywood Sings Part 2.zip

Ethel Waters - Greatest Years - 1972

There's plenty written about Ethel Waters written and so I don't think I should even attempt to do her justice with my paltry knowledge. What I will say is that I love her. Finding this record was a real treasure. It is a wonderful collection of her work. This collection was put together in 1972 and contains a great selection of her work. It is a great window into jazz and blues of the late 20's an early 30's.

The first time I ever heard Ethel Waters was on a Women in Blues collection. I contained the song "My Handy Man" which is a pretty sexy song filled with double entendres under the guise of talking about a handy man. Some of the lines are so racy I think it will surprise the uninitiated.

On this record she sings "River, Stay Away From My Door" which is a song Sinatra sang. I grew up listening to the Sinatra version and it was always one of my favorites. While Frank makes the song swing, Ethel gives the song a lot more heart and soul.

This is a two record set and contains 42 songs in addition to the two I've mentioned. They all sound pretty great. I'm sure these have been remastered and released on other CD collections somewhere, but these rips have plenty of flavor and character that give the feeling that probably is a little closer to listening to the original recordings than any remastered CD ever will.

Enjoy!

01 Brother You've Got Me Wrong.m4a
02 Sweet Georgia Brown.m4a
03 Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night.m4a
04 You Can't Do What My Last Man Did.m4a
05 Sweet Man.m4a
06 Shake That Thing.m4a
07 I've Found A New Baby.m4a
08 Sugar, That Sugar Baby O'Mine.m4a
09 Heebie Jeebies.m4a
10 My Special Friend Is Back In Town.m4a
11 Jersey Walk.m4a
12 Lonesome Swallow.m4a
13 Guess Who's In Town.m4a
14 My Handy Man.m4a
15 West End Blues.m4a
16 Organ Grinder Blues.m4a
17 My Baby Sure Knows How To Love.m4a
18 True Blue Lou.m4a
19 Waiting At The End Of The Road.m4a
20 Trav'lin All Alone.m4a
21 Porgy.m4a
22 You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me.m4a
23 Three Little Words.m4a
24 When Your Lover Has Gone.m4a
25 Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone.m4a
26 River, Stay 'Way From My Door.m4a
27 Love Is The Thing.m4a
28 Don't Blame Me.m4a
29 A Hundred Years From Today.m4a
30 I Just Couldn't Take It Baby.m4a
31 Come Up And See Me Sometime.m4a
32 You've Seen Harlem At Its Best.m4a

Here's 4 zip files that contain everything.
Ethel Waters - Part 1.zip
Ethel Waters - Part 2.zip
Ethel Waters - Part 3.zip
Ethel Waters - Part 4.zip