Willow Weep For Me

Willow Weep For Me has been recorded hundreds of times since 1932. Being the age I am, the first recording I ever heard also happens to be the "biggest hit" version (in terms of chart success based on sales and radio play) and that was by the British folk-pop duo Chad & Jeremy in 1964. Since then it's continued to be a favorite of jazz musicians and singers alike, but this post will focus on the years leading up to Chad & Jeremy's hit, 32 years during which the song was recorded in many different styles. 

Willow Weep For Me was written by Ann Ronell around 1932. Ann was a college student in Cambridge, Massachusetts when she had the opportunity to interview the great composer George Gershwin. Gershwin hired her as a rehearsal pianist which got her foot in the door of the entertainment business where she became both a lyricist and composer. Around the same she wrote Willow Weep For Me she also wrote Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? for Disney. For a period she was involved romantically with Gershwin and there has been speculation that Willow was actually composed by Gershwin and the copyright given to Ann as a gift. This is based on the similarities of the structure of the song compared to other Gershwin works but as some have also pointed out, those similarities have more in common with what Willow evolved into and not so much with it as first presented in the early 1930's.

Willow really "took off" and became a jazz standard in the 1950's and there are so many recordings from then I can't even mention them all here. I've selected 21 recordings to highlight the evolution of the song during those years and to also showcase the different styles it enjoyed along the way.

The first recording of the song was done in October 1932 by Ted Fio Rito & His Orchestra featuring Muzzy Marcellino on vocals. Muzzy became much better well known as a whistler in later years. Remember Lassie on TV in the 50's? Remember how the show opened each week? That was Muzzy doing the whistling. How about the 1968 hit by Hugo Montenegro with the theme from the film The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly? That was Muzzy whistling. Muzzy recorded a whistling version of Willow Weep For Me in the late 50's, some 25 years after he first sang it. This first recording begins with about a minute instrumental opening and as you can hear, is a very snappy number!

 

A few weeks later the song was recorded again, on Nov. 17, 1932, by Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra with Irene Taylor doing the vocals. This time it features an instrumental opening lasting 1:45 that is full of interesting time changes and that is followed by the original opening lyrics that seem to have been discarded by every other recording since 1933.

 

The song quickly found its way across the Atlantic to England where on Jan. 24, 1933 it was recorded by (Bert) Ambrose & His Orchestra with Sam Browne on vocals. It also has a 1:45 opening and sounds like it was sourced from the first recording done by Ted Fio Rito with Muzzy Marcellino.

 

Also in 1933 the song was recorded in New York by Austrian singer Greta Keller. She discarded the long instrumental opening but did use the opening lyrics, to the best of my knowledge the last time they were recorded. This sounds like it was inspired by the Paul Whiteman/Irene Taylor recording as at certain points the orchestra changes time for like 1 bar and then reverts back to the slower tempo. It's also heard in the brief but very jazz-like violin solo and perhaps this is the first time we hear the future of the song.

 

At this point the song seems to disappear for awhile. I'm sure it was recorded, but the old shellac 78's quickly wore out and were extremely fragile and unless the song was recorded for a major label that had good storage of its masters it could easily be lost to time. As far as I can tell, the song doesn't reappear until 1941 when it was recorded by Cab Calloway & His Orchestra as a jazz instrumental featuring the sax of Hilton Jefferson....making it one of two of the most significant recordings of the song ever done. From that point forward the song was a jazz standard popular with soloists of not only the sax, but players of the piano, violin, trumpet, guitar, organ, clarinet....you name it. 

 

In January 1945 it was recorded by another jazz group, Cozy Cole & His All Stars. Up to now the music has been done by good size orchestras. With this recording we hear it being trimmed down to smaller combos. In addition to Cozy on drums some of the other musicians include Tiny Grimes on guitar, Coleman Hawkins on sax and Slam Stewart on bass using a seldom heard (in jazz) bow.

 

Next up is the other of the two most significant recordings of Willow Weep For Me. It was recorded July 25, 1946 by Stan Kenton & His Orchestra featuring June Christy on vocals. What can I say? It has an extremely innovative arrangement and June's vocals moves the song in an entirely new direction. From this point on there was no holding the song back. Anyone could take it anywhere they wanted to go with it and they did.

 

On March 18, 1949 the great unsung arranger/composer Mary Lou Williams sat down at the piano and recorded this great interpretation of the melody along with just a bass player for rhythm.

 

A couple weeks later, on April 2, another pianist, one of the greatest jazz pianists ever, Art Tatum recorded this solo improvised take on the melody. I believe this is a live recording of a performance in Los Angeles.

 

On July 15, 1950, Mabel Scott recorded the song in the R&B style of the post-war decade showcasing its blues possibilities.

 

September 3, 1954 - Billie Holiday takes it blues full circle.

 

By then Willow Weep For Me was getting recorded a lot by both vocalists and jazz performers. In 1955, saxophonist Cannonball Adderley relocated from Florida to New York City where he quickly found session work. Savoy Records brought together some musicians on June 28 for a LP project titled Bohemia After Dark. Willow was recorded that day featuring Cannonball on alto sax and Horace Silver on piano.

 

On November 12 of that same year, Dinah Washington recorded her version in an uptempo blues style.

 

On May 19, 1958 Frank Sinatra, with a great Nelson Riddle arrangement, took the song in yet another new direction with a very slow tempo.

 

Ray Charles is probably best remembered sitting at the piano singing out his many hits, but in the 50's he also included in his act a very tight jazz combo that also recorded for Atlantic and included some fine musicians such as sax players David "Fathead" Newman and Hank Crawford, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. On Nov. 5, 1958 they recorded their version of Willow featuring Newman on sax and Ray on piano. The photo below is from the Newport Jazz Festival earlier that year. Newman in the back and Ray in the front. Yes, many people forget that Ray was a very good sax player too.

 

On March 25, 1959 Ella Fitzgerald recorded her Willow with a great arrangement that included its own spurts of time changes.

 

A few years earlier she had recorded the song with Louis Armstrong. Next to Ella in the photo is the great pianist Oscar Peterson who also recorded the song in 1957.

On June 15, 1960 The Coasters recorded the song giving it a very pop feel for that period. It's really just their lead tenor, Carl Gardner. I think that's Carl in the center of the photo.

 

In 1961 The Barons gave it a rock 'n' roll vocal group workout. There were a lot of "Barons" in those days but I think these guys were from Detroit.

 

In 1962, Julie London did a nice job with it in a lounge style.

 

 In 1963 Sam Cooke gave it a contemporary pop go.

And in 1964 Chad & Jeremy had a decent pop hit with the song in the US, done in a very breezy pop style produced by Shel Talmy who was behind a lot of hits in those days working on both sides of the Atlantic. Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde had scored a hit in England and the US with Yesterday's Gone prior to Willow. They never did that well again in their native England, but in the US they followed Willow up with A Summer Song and Before And After and also make appearances on USA sitcoms The Patty Duke Show, My Three Sons, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Batman and even appeared in the western Laredo. Jeremy Clyde went on to dabble in acting up to this day, most recently appearing in episodes of Downton Abbey, The Old Guys, The Green Green Grass and My Family. He also had regular roles in the excellent 90's British sitcom Is It Legal? and the very good 80's comedy Blott On The Landscape with David Suchet of Poirot fame.

 

After Chad & Jeremy the song continued being a popular item. I could have easily posted another 21 versions of the song, but enough is enough. Wes Montgomery and his unique guitar sound did a nice job with it in 1967, Linda Ronstadt included it in her repertoire for a time. Earlier this year is was recorded by Dutch jazz sax player Susanne Alt. There are hundreds of recordings going as far back as 80 years ago this month.