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.
Toot Toot Tootsie!
Al Jolson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Goodbye, oh me oh my!
Seven times he got aboard his train
And seven times he hurried back to give his love again and tell her:
Toot Toot Tootsie goodbye.
Toot Toot Tootsie, don't cry.
That little choo-choo train
Away from you, no words can tell how sad it makes me.
Kiss me Tootsie and then,
Oh baby, do it over again.
Watch for the mail;
I'll never fail,
And if you don't get a letter then you'll know I'm in jail.
Toot Toot Tootsie, don't cry.
Toot Toot Tootsie, goodbye!
When somebody says goodbye to me
Oh I'm sad as can be.
Not so with this loving Romeo.
He seems to take a lot of pleasure saying goodbye to his treasure.
Toot Toot Tootsie, bye bye bye bye bye!
Toot Toot Tootsie, don't cry.
The little choo-choo, the little train
That takes, that takes me
Away from you, no words can tell how sad it makes me.
Kiss me, kiss me Tootsie and then
Oh, do it over again.
And though I yearn
You need to learn
I'll keep playing Solitaire until I return.
Don't cry tootsie, don't cry!
Toot Toot Tootsie, goodbye!
The song “Toot Toot Tootsie” is a classic upbeat tune that has its roots in the early 20th century. The lyrics follow a man who must say goodbye to his lover, and while he is sad to leave her, he seems to take a lot of pleasure in saying goodbye to her repeatedly. The line “Seven times he got aboard his train / And seven times he hurried back to give his love again” shows how difficult it is for him to leave his lover, even though he must. The chorus, “Toot Toot Tootsie goodbye / Toot Toot Tootsie, don't cry” shows his desire for her to remain strong despite his absence. He tells her to wait for his mail and that he will never forget her.
The second verse shows the contrast between the singer’s feelings of sadness when someone says goodbye to him, and the lover’s joyful attitude towards leaving his lover. The lover finds pleasure in saying goodbye to his lover and even tells her to “don't cry!” Despite his conflicting emotions, he tells his lover that he will return, and kisses her multiple times before leaving. The final line “Don't cry tootsie, don't cry! / Toot Toot Tootsie, goodbye!” emphasizes his wish for her to remain strong while he is gone.
Overall, “Toot Toot Tootsie” is a melancholic homage to the struggle of leaving someone you love, with a slightly humorous twist in its jubilant chorus. The lyrics seem to convey a sense of hope that the lovers will be reunited eventually.
Line by Line Meaning
Yesterday I heard a lover sigh
The singer recently heard a lover sigh, indicating that there has been a recent separation or heartbreak
Goodbye, oh me oh my!
The lover said goodbye in a melodramatic way, suggesting that the separation is very emotional
Seven times he got aboard his train
The lover attempted to leave on the train seven times, indicating that he is having difficulty fully letting go of the relationship
And seven times he hurried back to give his love again and tell her:
Each time the lover attempted to leave, he returned quickly to express his love and try to salvage the relationship
Toot Toot Tootsie goodbye.
The lover is using the phrase 'Toot Toot Tootsie' as a way of saying goodbye to his love
Toot Toot Tootsie, don't cry.
The lover is asking his love not to cry
That little choo-choo train
The lover is using the train as a metaphor for his leaving the relationship
That takes me
The train represents the lover's departure from the relationship
Away from you, no words can tell how sad it makes me.
The lover is expressing how sad he is to be leaving the relationship
Kiss me Tootsie and then,
The lover is asking for a farewell kiss from his love
Oh baby, do it over again.
The lover is enjoying the farewell kiss so much that he wants it to be repeated
Watch for the mail;
The lover is promising to stay in touch with his love via mail
I'll never fail,
The lover promises to always send letters
And if you don't get a letter then you'll know I'm in jail.
The lover is promising to keep in touch and jokingly saying that the only reason she wouldn't receive a letter is because he's in jail
When somebody says goodbye to me
The singer is explaining how they personally feel when someone says goodbye to them
Oh I'm sad as can be.
The artist becomes very sad when someone says goodbye to them
Not so with this loving Romeo.
The lover is different from the artist in that he seems to enjoy saying goodbye to his love
He seems to take a lot of pleasure saying goodbye to his treasure.
The lover appears to enjoy the emotional rollercoaster of leaving and returning to his love
The little choo-choo, the little train
The lover is again referencing the train as a metaphor for their separation
And though I yearn
The lover expresses that he wants to be with the person he loves
You need to learn
The lover implies that his love needs to learn to cope with their separation
I'll keep playing Solitaire until I return.
The lover will keep himself busy with games like Solitaire while he's away, waiting to return to his love
Don't cry tootsie, don't cry!
The lover is repeating his request for his love not to cry
Toot Toot Tootsie, goodbye!
The lover is saying a final farewell to his love using the phrase 'Toot Toot Tootsie'
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave
Written by: Ernie Erdman, Gus Kahn, Dan Russo
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind