Asa "Al Jolson" Yoelson (born to Jewish immigrants Moshe Reuben Yoelson and… Read Full Bio ↴Asa "Al Jolson" Yoelson (born to Jewish immigrants Moshe Reuben Yoelson and Naomi Etta Cantor - the original family name was Hesselson - in Seredžius, Lithuania on May 26, 1885 or 1886, and died in San Francisco, California on October 23, 1950) was an American singer. He was one of the most popular entertainers of the first half of the 20th century.
Early life and career
The son of the Rabbi of the Talmud Torah Synagogue (now Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah) in Washington, D.C., Jolson became a popular singer in New York City in 1898, and gradually developed the key elements of his performance: blackface makeup; exuberant gestures; operatic-style singing; whistling and directly addressing his audience.
By 1911, he had parlayed a supporting appearance in the Broadway musical La Belle Paree into a starring role. He began recording and was soon internationally famous for his extraordinary stage presence and personal rapport with audiences. His Broadway career is unmatched for length and popularity, having spanned close to 30 years (1911-1940). Audiences shouted, pleaded, and often would not allow the show to proceed, such was the power of Jolson's presence. At one performance in Boston, the usual staid and conservative audience stopped the show for 45 minutes. He was said to have had an "electric" personality, along with the ability to make each member of the audience believe that he was singing only to them. However, he is best known today for his appearance in one of the first "talkies" The Jazz Singer, the first feature film with sound to enjoy wide commercial success, in 1927. In The Jazz Singer Jolson performed the song "Mammy" in blackface. In truth, Jolson's singing was never jazz, indeed his style remained forever rooted in the vaudeville stage at the turn of 20th century.
Jolson is the first music artist to sell over 10 million records. While no official Billboard magazine chart existed during Jolson's career, their staff archivist Joel Whitburn used a variety of sources such as Talking Machine World's list of top-selling recordings, and Billboard's own sheet music and vaudeville charts to estimate the hits of 1890-1954. By his reckoning, Jolson had the equivalent of 23 No. 1 hits, the 4th-highest total ever, trailing only Bing Crosby, Paul Whiteman, and Guy Lombardo. Whitburn calculates that Jolson topped one chart or another for 114 weeks.
Among the many songs popularized by Jolson were "You Made Me Love You," "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody," "Swanee" (songwriter George Gershwin's first success), "April Showers," "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye," "California, Here I Come," "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along," "Sonny Boy" and "Avalon."
Jolson was a political and economic conservative, supporting Calvin Coolidge for president of the United States in 1924 (with the ditty "Keep Cool with Coolidge") unlike most other Jews in the arts, who supported the losing Democratic candidate, John William Davis.
Jolson was married to actress/dancer Ruby Keeler from 1928 to 1940, when they divorced. The couple had adopted a son, Al Jolson Jr., during their marriage, but when he was 14 the boy changed his name to Peter Lowe after his mother's second husband, John Lowe.
After leaving the Broadway stage, Jolson starred on radio. The Al Jolson Show aired 1933-1939, 1942-1943, and 1947-1949, and these shows were typically rated in the top ten. Jolson continued performing until his death in 1950.
The Jolson story
After the success of Warner Bros. film Yankee Doodle Dandy about George M. Cohan, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky believed that a smiliar film could be made about Al Jolson -- and he knew just where to pitch the project. Harry Cohn may have seemed to a lot of people in Hollywood like a crude, loud vulgarian, but he had one soft spot: he loved the music of Al Jolson.
Skolsky pitched the idea of an Al Jolson biopic and Cohn agreed to it. Directed by Alfred E. Green (best known today for the pre-Code masterpiece Baby Face, The Jolson Story is one of the most entertaining of the musical biopics of that era -- an era that included Yankee Doodle Dandy, Till the Clouds Roll By, Words and Music and Three Little Words. With Jolson providing almost all the vocals, and actor Larry Parks playing Jolson, The Jolson Story was released in 1946, and became one of the biggest hits of the year. Parks received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and the film became one of the highest grossing films of the year.
"The Jolson Story," and its 1949 sequel "Jolson Sings Again," led to a whole new generation who became enthralled with Jolson's voice and charisma. Jolson, who had been a popular guest star on radio since its earliest days, now had his own show, hosting the "Kraft Music Hall" from 1947-1949, with Oscar Levant as a sardonic piano-playing sidekick. Despite such singers as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como being in their primes, Jolson was voted the "Most Popular Male Vocalist" in 1948 by a Variety poll. The next year, Jolson was named Personality of the Year by the Variety Clubs of America. When Jolson appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show, he attributed his receiving the award to his being the only singer not to make a record of Mule Train, which had been a widely covered hit of that year (four different versions, one of them by Crosby, had made the top ten on the charts).
Jolson joked that he'd tried to sing the hit song. "I got the clippetys all right, but I can't clop like I used to."
Jolson's legacy is considered by many to be severely neglected today because of his use of stage blackface, at the time a theatrical convention used by many performers (both white and black), but today viewed by many as racially insensitive. Jolson was billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," which is how many of the greatest stars (including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Jackie Wilson) referred to him. Charles Chaplin wrote in his Autobiography that he was one of the most electrifying entertainers he had ever seen. A life-long devotion to entertaining American servicemen (he first sang for servicemen of the Spanish-American War as a boy in Washington, D.C.) led Jolson, against the advice of his doctors, to entertain troops in Korea in 1950 when his heart began to fail.
Death
Jolson died on October 23, 1950, in San Francisco at a card game, at the age of 64, apparently of a heart attack, and was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California, where a statue of Jolson beckons visitors to his crypt. On the day he died, Broadway turned off its lights for 10 minutes in Jolson's honor.
Al Jolson has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
1. For his contribution to the motion picture industry at 6622 Hollywood Blvd.;
2. For his contribution to the recording industry at 1716 Vine St.;
3. For his contribution to the radio industry at 6750 Hollywood Blvd.
Forty-four years after Jolson's death, the United States Postal Service acknowledged his contribution by issuing a postage stamp in his honor. The 29-cent stamp was unveiled by Erle Jolson Krasna, Jolson's fourth wife, at a ceremony in New York City's Lincoln Center on September 1, 1994. This stamp was one of a series honoring popular American singers, which included Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Ethel Merman, and Ethel Waters. Al Jolson is one of Mr. Burns' (from The Simpsons) favorite actors - he still believes that he is alive.
Jolson's song I'm Sitting on Top of the World was played during the opening montage of 1930's New York City in the 2005 remake of King Kong.
In August of 2006, Al Jolson had a street in New York named after him.
Early life and career
The son of the Rabbi of the Talmud Torah Synagogue (now Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah) in Washington, D.C., Jolson became a popular singer in New York City in 1898, and gradually developed the key elements of his performance: blackface makeup; exuberant gestures; operatic-style singing; whistling and directly addressing his audience.
By 1911, he had parlayed a supporting appearance in the Broadway musical La Belle Paree into a starring role. He began recording and was soon internationally famous for his extraordinary stage presence and personal rapport with audiences. His Broadway career is unmatched for length and popularity, having spanned close to 30 years (1911-1940). Audiences shouted, pleaded, and often would not allow the show to proceed, such was the power of Jolson's presence. At one performance in Boston, the usual staid and conservative audience stopped the show for 45 minutes. He was said to have had an "electric" personality, along with the ability to make each member of the audience believe that he was singing only to them. However, he is best known today for his appearance in one of the first "talkies" The Jazz Singer, the first feature film with sound to enjoy wide commercial success, in 1927. In The Jazz Singer Jolson performed the song "Mammy" in blackface. In truth, Jolson's singing was never jazz, indeed his style remained forever rooted in the vaudeville stage at the turn of 20th century.
Jolson is the first music artist to sell over 10 million records. While no official Billboard magazine chart existed during Jolson's career, their staff archivist Joel Whitburn used a variety of sources such as Talking Machine World's list of top-selling recordings, and Billboard's own sheet music and vaudeville charts to estimate the hits of 1890-1954. By his reckoning, Jolson had the equivalent of 23 No. 1 hits, the 4th-highest total ever, trailing only Bing Crosby, Paul Whiteman, and Guy Lombardo. Whitburn calculates that Jolson topped one chart or another for 114 weeks.
Among the many songs popularized by Jolson were "You Made Me Love You," "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody," "Swanee" (songwriter George Gershwin's first success), "April Showers," "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye," "California, Here I Come," "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along," "Sonny Boy" and "Avalon."
Jolson was a political and economic conservative, supporting Calvin Coolidge for president of the United States in 1924 (with the ditty "Keep Cool with Coolidge") unlike most other Jews in the arts, who supported the losing Democratic candidate, John William Davis.
Jolson was married to actress/dancer Ruby Keeler from 1928 to 1940, when they divorced. The couple had adopted a son, Al Jolson Jr., during their marriage, but when he was 14 the boy changed his name to Peter Lowe after his mother's second husband, John Lowe.
After leaving the Broadway stage, Jolson starred on radio. The Al Jolson Show aired 1933-1939, 1942-1943, and 1947-1949, and these shows were typically rated in the top ten. Jolson continued performing until his death in 1950.
The Jolson story
After the success of Warner Bros. film Yankee Doodle Dandy about George M. Cohan, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky believed that a smiliar film could be made about Al Jolson -- and he knew just where to pitch the project. Harry Cohn may have seemed to a lot of people in Hollywood like a crude, loud vulgarian, but he had one soft spot: he loved the music of Al Jolson.
Skolsky pitched the idea of an Al Jolson biopic and Cohn agreed to it. Directed by Alfred E. Green (best known today for the pre-Code masterpiece Baby Face, The Jolson Story is one of the most entertaining of the musical biopics of that era -- an era that included Yankee Doodle Dandy, Till the Clouds Roll By, Words and Music and Three Little Words. With Jolson providing almost all the vocals, and actor Larry Parks playing Jolson, The Jolson Story was released in 1946, and became one of the biggest hits of the year. Parks received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and the film became one of the highest grossing films of the year.
"The Jolson Story," and its 1949 sequel "Jolson Sings Again," led to a whole new generation who became enthralled with Jolson's voice and charisma. Jolson, who had been a popular guest star on radio since its earliest days, now had his own show, hosting the "Kraft Music Hall" from 1947-1949, with Oscar Levant as a sardonic piano-playing sidekick. Despite such singers as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como being in their primes, Jolson was voted the "Most Popular Male Vocalist" in 1948 by a Variety poll. The next year, Jolson was named Personality of the Year by the Variety Clubs of America. When Jolson appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show, he attributed his receiving the award to his being the only singer not to make a record of Mule Train, which had been a widely covered hit of that year (four different versions, one of them by Crosby, had made the top ten on the charts).
Jolson joked that he'd tried to sing the hit song. "I got the clippetys all right, but I can't clop like I used to."
Jolson's legacy is considered by many to be severely neglected today because of his use of stage blackface, at the time a theatrical convention used by many performers (both white and black), but today viewed by many as racially insensitive. Jolson was billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," which is how many of the greatest stars (including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Jackie Wilson) referred to him. Charles Chaplin wrote in his Autobiography that he was one of the most electrifying entertainers he had ever seen. A life-long devotion to entertaining American servicemen (he first sang for servicemen of the Spanish-American War as a boy in Washington, D.C.) led Jolson, against the advice of his doctors, to entertain troops in Korea in 1950 when his heart began to fail.
Death
Jolson died on October 23, 1950, in San Francisco at a card game, at the age of 64, apparently of a heart attack, and was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California, where a statue of Jolson beckons visitors to his crypt. On the day he died, Broadway turned off its lights for 10 minutes in Jolson's honor.
Al Jolson has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
1. For his contribution to the motion picture industry at 6622 Hollywood Blvd.;
2. For his contribution to the recording industry at 1716 Vine St.;
3. For his contribution to the radio industry at 6750 Hollywood Blvd.
Forty-four years after Jolson's death, the United States Postal Service acknowledged his contribution by issuing a postage stamp in his honor. The 29-cent stamp was unveiled by Erle Jolson Krasna, Jolson's fourth wife, at a ceremony in New York City's Lincoln Center on September 1, 1994. This stamp was one of a series honoring popular American singers, which included Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Ethel Merman, and Ethel Waters. Al Jolson is one of Mr. Burns' (from The Simpsons) favorite actors - he still believes that he is alive.
Jolson's song I'm Sitting on Top of the World was played during the opening montage of 1930's New York City in the 2005 remake of King Kong.
In August of 2006, Al Jolson had a street in New York named after him.
It's Been A Long Long Time
Al Jolson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again.
It's been a long, long time.
Haven't felt like this, my dear
Since I can't remember when.
It's been a long, long time
You'll never know how many dreams
I've dreamed about you.
Or just how empty they all seemed without you.
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again.
It's been a long, long time.
Ah, kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again.
It's been a long time.
Haven't felt like this my dear
Since I can't remember when
It's been a long, long time.
Then kiss me once again.
It's been a long, long time.
Haven't felt like this, my dear
Since I can't remember when.
It's been a long, long time
You'll never know how many dreams
Or just how empty they all seemed without you.
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again.
It's been a long, long time.
Ah, kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Then kiss me once again.
It's been a long time.
Haven't felt like this my dear
Since I can't remember when
It's been a long, long time.
The lyrics to Al Jolson's song "It's Been a Long Long Time" express a sense of longing and desire for someone who has been gone for a long time. The singer asks for kisses, first once, then twice, and again, conveying the intensity of their need for affection. They state that they haven't felt this way in a long time, emphasizing the length of time that has passed since they last experienced such emotions.
The second verse reveals just how much the absence of this person has affected the singer. They admit to having many dreams about them, but those dreams have all felt empty without that person's presence. The repetition of the refrain adds to the sense of yearning, as the singer is constantly asking for more kisses, wanting to hold onto the feeling for as long as possible.
Line by Line Meaning
Kiss me once, then kiss me twice
Give me your affection, express your love twice
Then kiss me once again.
Repeat the act of kissing me to show me how much you love me
It's been a long, long time.
It's been a while since I felt this way
Haven't felt like this, my dear
It's been a long while since I felt this way, my love
Since I can't remember when.
I cannot remember the last time I felt this way
You'll never know how many dreams
You will never know how many times I've dreamt of you
I've dreamed about you.
I have had many dreams about you and our love
Or just how empty they all seemed without you.
I have also realized how incomplete my dreams are without you
So kiss me once, then kiss me twice
I need your love, your affection, your touch twice
Then kiss me once again.
Show me your love for me one more time through a kiss
It's been a long, long time.
It's been a while since I felt this way
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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@Shadywolf09
My father is elderly. He's 78.
We watch movies together and last night, we watched The Great Ziegfeld from 1936. He absolutely loved it.
He loves old movies from the 20's to the 50's. He likes movies that remind him of his childhood or are from his childhood and a little further back (the silent era)
When we watched The Great Ziegfeld, Al Jolson was in it.
And my father said, "I know him. That's Al. He was in the Jazz Singer. Have you seen the Jazz Singer?"
I said no.
"Oh we have to watch that one. Can we watch that one? It's a great movie."
So, tomorrow, we are watching this. I came to watch a scene to get a sense of what it's about and here I am.
@thejollyrancher6713
He was an idiot. The only reason he started the blackface shtick was because it tripled his salary.
He couldn’t earn a decent living as a white dude so he moved to New York in 1908 flat broke.
In 1909 he found some shoe polish and all of a sudden he’s one of Broadway’s greatest performers of all time? Give me a break.
B class tap dancer singing retread songs with a voice nobody wanted to hear unless he looked like Bill Cosby.
And that’s the bloody truth.
@andrewbarrett1537
@@robb9702 Factually incorrect. That 1936 "March of Time" newsreel of the Original Dixieland Jass Band is fascinating, and they were a good band, and the first generally-agreed-upon 'jazz band' to record, but they were not the originators of jazz as that newsreel (which is full of many other errors) reports, nor were they the first jazz band to perform in public (although they were probably the first white jazz band to play in New York). J. Russel Robinson was not only not the leader of the band, but he wasn't even their first pianist; that was Henry Ragas, who died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, after which Robinson replaced him for a few years. I'm sure Robinson, and some of the rest of the band, figuratively held their nose at the completely made-up origin story of that band and their 'discovery' by Victor, because it was an opportunity for them to get back into the spotlight (which they did successfully in 1936-7, after which inter-band squabbles and Domenic LaRocca's martinet-like leading, and writing letters on behalf of the entire band without first getting their actual approval, broke up the band again).
Jazz, like ragtime, is a combination of black and white music that was put together initially by black people, and nationally adopted by both black and white people. It is not all black or all white. Both Europe and Africa have rich musical roots going back millenia.
Did the musics meet peacably in the context of mutual understanding? We all wish.
Actually, in the Americas the musical cultures were brought together from slaves brought here in bondage, and in Africa they were brought together under conditions of enforced colonialism. I'm not going to blame white people today for the sins of their ancestors, but it's important to keep the record straight and not repeat the mistakes (and 'mistakes' is putting it extremely gently) of the past.
Does this mean ragtime and jazz should be thrown out? Absolutely not! I think they are two of the greatest music forms ever invented. And- once they became common currency, individual musicians found ways of expressing themselves thru ragtime, and jazz.
@EmpressSerenityOfBrittany
I actually wrote a research treatise about this movie, which was lots of fun and very interesting, very abstract, yet also rather ahead of it's time.
My thesis revolved around whether the movie is racist (by today's standards, I suppose), and, surprisingly, I found a lot of symbolic and contextual evidence that Al Jolson actually donned blackface for this performance as a sign of solidarity towards black performers of his time, among whom he had many friends, and for whom he campaigned to be given better wages. Jews were similarly derided and mocked in the movie and music industry at the time, and they therefore developed a massive community of camaraderie with African-American producers, musicians, and managers.
Also, there is no context of this being a minstrel performance in it's traditional idea: minstrel shows were comedic, all about mocking and stereotyping black people as ignorant, subhuman, incapable of feeling actual emotions like love and sympathy. However, The Jazz Singer is entirely a drama about Jolson's character being forced into abandoning his Jewish identity in order to better fit into the jazz industry's many white performers. And this song is actually a rather solemn tribute to a mother with no inherently funny lyrics, sung by Jolson's character to his mother, who is in the audience in this scene.
In reality, Jolson chose blackface as his "true" face in this performance: something mocked by white people, seen as being mocked by black people; something ugly, as it were, but instead of feeling downtrodden as a result, Jolson's character is completely full of joy.
@Iceman-go1gs
This feels like a fever dream
@NieRamen
best comment ive read in this cess pool thank you
@crazando
How?
@CeeLoGreen666
the people crying are so sincere and then it flips back to a dude in lead paint and horrible lighting haha in a modern light, it looks fucking ridiculous
@Gideon13397
@@CeeLoGreen666 You're actually right. It it's funny. Great observation. 👌🏻
@renaissancechimp667
@@CeeLoGreen666 lmaooo this shit has me cracking up his facial expressions like he knows he’s taking the piss
@witch6923
Imagine being at the club in the 1920s, and the DJ drops this banger like it's nothing
@neverangel24officialytchan87
Hahahaha! 😂
@dwightlove3704
@@neverangel24officialytchan87INSTANT RUMBLE
@IPoopOnYouEveryLastOneOfYou
Before Marvin Gaye was born, you deflowered your cousin to this GI gem!