Try A Little Tenderness

80 years ago today, Try A Little Tenderness was recorded for the first time. It has remained a fairly popular song since then, being favored by both vocalists and musicians that are apt to identify themselves as being jazz.
Three Dog Night had a big pop hit with it in 1969. Their recording was very much influenced by the late 1966 recording by Otis Redding, as have most of the many recordings made since then.
The song really didn't evolve much up to 1966 and hasn't changed much since then. I think it's safe to say that Otis's recording remains the most influential and if he hadn't made it, most likely I wouldn't be writing about it now. Let's look at the song up to that point.

The song was written by New Yorker Harry M. Woods (I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover, Side By Side), and Londoner's Jimmy Campbell and Reginald Connolly. There must be a story behind that, but I don't know what it is.

The first recording of the song came out of England by the Ray Noble Orchestra with vocal by Val Rosing. It was recorded on 8 December 1932.

 

It didn't take long to find it's way across the Atlantic. In 1933 it was recorded by Bing Crosby, Ruth Etting and a non-vocal version by Eddy Duchin & His Orchestra.

 

 

I'm not sure what happened with Try A Little Tenderness over the next dozen years. I would think it was recorded several times despite recording strikes and war-time shellac shortages, but those recordings seem to have been lost to time. 

On Dec. 7, 1945, almost 13 years to the day since it was first recorded, Frank Sinatra recorded it.

In 1946 it was recorded by Mel Tormé & The Mel-Tones.

 

On 19 December 1951, it was recorded by Little Miss Cornshucks, who away from the stage was known as Mildred Cummings.

 

 

A few months prior to her recording, pianist Eddie Heywood recorded an instrumental version which helped set it off as a jazz standard.

Chris Connor, backed by the Ellis Larkins Trio, did a nice job with it in 1954.

 

In early 1958, The Platters, featuring Zola Taylor on this song, gave it some good harmony, a faster tempo and a little different sound.

 

 

Gloria Lynne did a nice version around 1960, giving the song a nice rhythmic flow.

 

In 1962 Aretha Franklin was still several years away from her Atlantic Records success. She recorded the song for Columbia on April 27.

 

So at this point we have about 30 years of Try A Little Tenderness. There were quite a few jazz recordings by then. Patti Page sang it, Sammy Davis Jr. did it, even Paul Peterson, the teen star of the Donna Reed Show, recorded it. Sam Cooke recorded it in a medley with You Send Me and For Sentimental Reasons. In 1966 two recordings were released very close to each other by acts that were managed by Phil Walden. The first one was by Percy Sledge who earlier that year wrote and sang the massive hit When A Man Loves A Woman. Percy's take on Try A Little Tenderness was a breath of fresh air for the tired old song.  

 

Near the end of the year it was recorded by Otis Redding and that recording set a new standard for the song. Not only the great vocals, but the drumming of Al Jackson, the organ playing of Booker T. Jones, some guitar licks of Steve Cropper, bass lines of Duck Dunn and the Mar-Keys horn arrangement can all be heard here and there in most of the recordings done in the past 45 years. The record helped set Otis off on a whirlwind year of success across the United States and Europe which tragically ended about a year after it was made. Most people are very familiar with the Otis Redding recording as well as some of the live performance recordings that followed, but I'm going to feature the rare Take 1 from the studio session.

 

In June 1967 Otis, backed by Booker T & The MG's, appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in California along with Big Brother & The Holding Co. featuring Janis Joplin, The Who and the Jimi Hendrix Experience......all virtually unknown in the mainstream music world at that time. Their performances were filmed and the event really became an epic moment in the history of late 20th century music, ending the chapter on the pop/beat group days, turning the page and starting a new chapter. Who can forget the film clip from it of Mama Cass sitting in the audience watching Janis Joplin sing? She had a look of disbelief on her face and for good reason.   

At Last

Etta James died early this year. She enjoyed a long recording career, cutting her first record on 25 November 1954 and releasing her final CD just over a year ago on 8 November 2011. 
In 1960 she signed with Chess Records in Chicago. Despite having 5 years under her belt as a R&B singer, Phil and Leonard Chess felt she had great pop potential and began recording her doing pop standards with a full orchestra. In October 1960, during a standard 4-song session, she recorded A Sunday Kind Of Love, At Last, Stormy Weather and Trust In Me. At Last was released as a single in early 1961. It did well on the R&B charts, but barely broke the Top 50 on the national pop charts. For some reason the recording seems to have been "re-discovered" about 20 years ago and the song became Etta's signature tune for the rest of her career.

Since her 1960 recording the song has been recorded many times by some very well known singers, all drawing inspiration from Etta's recording. In the 1960's it was done by Brenda Lee, Doris Day, Ben E. King, Mary Wells, Judy Garland, Baby Washington. Diane Schuur and B.B. King did a great version in 1994. Stevie Nicks, Celine Dion, Joni Mitchell, Eva Cassidy, Michael Bolton, Cyndi Lauper, Aretha Franklin, Beyonce Knowles, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera are just some of the people that have recorded the song in more recent times. 

It's also something of a jazz standard, with its slow - bluesy melody it's a good song for musicians to perform that gives them a chance to catch their breath. There's a recording of Miles Davis performing it on 13 September 1953 at the Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, California and that same year another jazz trumpeter, Chet Baker, recorded it. Those are the oldest jazz recordings I'm aware of.

Let's take a look at the song up to the 1960 Etta James recording. The song was written around 1941 by two very successful writers: Mack Gordon and Harry Warren. Mack Gordon is credited with writing the lyrics for songs such Chattanooga Choo Choo, Goodnight My Love, Love Thy Neighbor, Serenade In Blue, The More I See You, You'll Never Know. Composer Harry Warren has credits such as Lullaby Of Broadway, On The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, I Only Have Eyes For You, We're In The Money, September In The Rain, Jeepers Creepers, and the musical 42nd Street.
The song was originally written for Glenn Miller for use in the film Sun Valley Serenade, but only the music was used. In April 1941 production began on another film that would feature the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Orchestra Wives, and this time the song made the final cut. 

On 20 May 1942, the Miller Orchestra recorded the song for record release, sung by Ray Eberle. 

 

About a month later, on 25 June 1942, Connie Haines recorded it with the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra.

 

(Connie's mother passed away here in Clearwater, Florida a couple years ago at the age of 111!)

Also in 1942, it was recorded by Charlie Spivak & His Orchestra featuring the vocals of Garry Stevens & The Stardusters.

 

 The songs seems to have 'left the building' for about 10 years after that. In 1952 it was a hit for Ray Anthony & His Orchestra featuring vocals by Tommy Mercer & The Anthony Choir. It was the success of this record that probably prompted people like Miles Davis and Chet Baker to pick it up.

 

In 1954 it was recorded by prolific King Records keyboardist/singer Bill Doggett. Up to this point, the song was a sweet pop tune. Bill gave it a VERY soulful spin and took the song in a new direction. Many of Bill's instrumental hits have been digitally remastered and issued on CD, but not this recording. I believe Ace Records UK holds the King Records archive now, so hopefully someday we'll be able to get a clean copy of this rarity.

 

Also in 1954, in Los Angeles, Richard Berry & The Dreamers recorded it for the Flair label. Richard, about 19 at the time, did it in the R&B vocal group style of that period, again, taking the song in another new direction. Richard was an interesting man on the LA 1950's R&B / Rock 'n' Roll scene. With a wide variety of styles, good sense of humor, and a strong musical acumen, he left us with some great recordings. Ironically, Richard can be heard on the first song Etta James ever recorded, The Wallflower. And then there's the great 1954 recording by The Robins: Riot In Cellblock #9. The song opens with a siren, followed by a machine gun, then someone says "On July the 2nd, 1953 - I was serving time for arm {sic} robbery......." That was Richard. In 1954 mambo was the big thing and the following year Richard wrote a song in a calypso style called Louie Louie. A couple years later he recorded it, nothing much came of it, but there was a very thriving rock 'n' roll scene in the Seattle - Portland corridor in the late 50's/early 60's and it became a favorite of many of the bands there. As you probably know, the song became a rock standard in the 60's, has been recorded over 1,000 times, however Richard had sold the copyright in 1959 for $750. Many years later, in the mid-1980's, Richard was down on his luck, living on welfare, when he was approached by a company that wanted to use the song in a commercial. He explained that he had sold the copyright many years ago but their lawyer thought he might have a chance to regain control. The publisher settled and Richard became an instant millionaire.   

 

On 28 December 1956, At Last was recorded by Nat "King" Cole for Capitol. The music was arranged and conducted by Gordon Jenkins who had provided the music for the second ever recording of the song in 1942 by Connie Haines. Nat was a superstar at the time and his recording became very popular.

 

By 1959 it was probably inevitable that At Last would receive a rock 'n' roll treatment. This one, by The Chordells, is excellent.

 

Also in 1959 came this nice version by John Lester & The Mello-Queens.

 

and that brings us up to October 1960 and Etta James classic. 

 

Note: There were a few other songs titled "At Last" in the 50's/60's. One out of New York City in 1951 by The Majors on Derby records. Another one out of New York City in 1953 by The Velvets on Red Robin records and the 1968 Marvin Gaye recording. All different songs.

Little Girl Blue

Who's celebrating its 77th birthday today? Why the song Little Girl Blue is. People may be most familiar with this song as recorded by Janis Joplin in 1969 and this post will take a look at the song up to that point. Her recording was inspired by Nina Simone's 1958 recording as she often introduced the song during performances as being a "Nina Simone song". Janis altered the lyrics a bit and did a very soulful rendering and since then singers either do a "Janis" version or the original. Nina Simone's (1958), Anita O'Day's (1960) and Janis's (1969) recordings are probably the most interesting as the others pretty much did it straight. The song became a jazz standard in the 1950's, but I'm not even going there. I've never heard any recordings that took the song to new places. It just has a nice melody that musicians enjoy playing.

On November 16, 1935 the musical Jumbo opened in New York City at the huge Hippodrome Theatre.

 With songs by the famous Broadway team of Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart, the musical was about a financially troubled circus and featured circus acts and animals during the performance - including elephants, but with the name Jumbo you probably figured that out. Starring Jimmy Durante, Donald Noviss and Gloria Grafton, who in the role of Mickey Considine sang the song Little Girl Blue at the end of Act 1. About the first half of the song is an instrumental run through of the melody and her vocal portion of the song lasts just over a minute.

 

I'm not sure if anything happened with the song over the next ten years. If it was recorded, I'm not aware of it. In 1945 or 1946, Lena Horne recorded it, slowing down the tempo and turning it into the torch song that became its standard form until Anita O'Day's recording in 1960.

 

In 1947, Margaret Whiting recorded it for Capitol. Margaret was one of the early singers signed by Capitol Records when songwriter/singer Johnny Mercer and his two partners started it in 1942. (I believe the first two were Martha Tilton and 17-year-old Ella Mae Morse and I can't believe I haven't managed to get any Ella Mae onto this blog yet.) Martha's father, Richard Whiting, was a composer that wrote songs such as Hooray For Hollywood, Ain't We Got Fun?, On The Good Ship Lollipop.

 

On November 6, 1953, the song was recorded by Frank Sinatra. During the 50's and 60's several singers recorded LP's of nothing but Rodgers & Hart songs, their overall success contributing to the continuing popularity of Little Girl Blue. Even in the 70's both Tony Bennett and Diana Ross did R&H LP's. Anyway, what makes Frank's recording interesting is for the first time we hear the opening verse (When I was very young.......) left off the earlier recordings. It was also used by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Judy Garland. Anita O'Day, Joni James and Yvonne De Carlo all included it on their recordings, but placed it near the end of the song.

 

In August 1956 Ella Fitzgerald did her version.

 

Sarah Vaughan recorded it 29 October 1956

 

Joni James also did it in 1956.

 

Recorded by Judy Garland 6 May 1957

 

Also recording it in 1957 was Yvonne De Carlo. Yvonne was a successful film star in the late 40's and 50's but most likely is best remembered for being Lily Munster in the 60's TV comedy The Munsters.

 

Nina Simone made her first recordings in 1958 and included in that first session was her interesting take on Little Girl Blue. Not only do her vocals offer something a little new and different, her dramatic piano playing starts off with a portmanteau of the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas. It sounds like Lena Horne's 1945-ish recording was the main influence for Nina's recording.

 

Anita O'Day, with the Billy May Orchestra, gave the song an entirely new spin in 1960.

 

Sam Cooke did it in 1961.

 

 

In 1962, 27 years after the musical played in NYC, Jumbo was made into a film starring Doris Day, Martha Raye, Stephen Boyd and - just as in the 1935 musical - Jimmy Durante. It was the last film musical for Doris and the film reportedly lost $4,000,000.

 

 Keely Smith recorded it in 1963.

 

Janis recorded her Little Girl Blue on 25 June, 1969.

 

Since 1969 the song has remained popular being recorded by both singers and jazz musicians. Linda Ronstadt did it on a very successful CD in 1986 (or LP or cassette...1986 was the last year the industry did anything serious with vinyl.) It seems the song gets recorded about a half-dozen times a decade and one of the more recent popular versions was about 6 years ago done by Diana Krall. Happy 77th birthday Little Girl Blue.