Few female jazz singers matched the hard-swinging and equally hard-living Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance and talent in all areas of jazz vocals. Her improvising, wide dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her more than just another big-band canary. At a time when most female vocals tended to emphasize the sweet timbres of their voice, she chose to emphasize a path blazed by the one major jazz singer who emphasized message over medium - Billie Holiday. Like Holiday, O'Day combined the soaring freedom of jazz instrumentalist with the storytelling lyricism of a poet.
After making her solo debut in the mid-'40s she incorporated bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best vocal LPs of the era.
During the late Forties, she recorded two dozen sides, mostly for small labels. The quality of these singles varies: O'Day was trying to achieve popular success without sacrificing her identity as a jazz singer. Among the more notable recordings from this period are "Hi Ho Trailus Boot Whip", "Key Largo", "How High the Moon", and "Malaguena". O'Day's drug problems began to surface late in 1947, when she and husband Carl Hoff were arrested for possession of marijuana and sentenced to 90 days in jail. Her career was back on the upswing in September of 1948, when she sang with Count Basie at the Royal Roost in New York City, resulting in five airchecks. What secured O'Day's place in the jazz pantheon, however, are the seventeen albums she recorded for Verve between 1956 and 1962.
Her first album, Anita O'Day Sings Jazz (reissued as The Lady Is a Tramp), was recorded in 1956 for the newly established Verve Records (it was also the label's first LP). The album was a critical success and further boosted her popularity. In October of 1952 O'Day was again arrested for possession of marijuana, but found not guilty. The following March, she was arrested for possession of heroin. The case dragged on for most of 1953; O'Day was finally sentenced to six months in jail. Not long after her release from jail on February 25, 1954, she began work on her second album, Songs by Anita O'Day (reissued as An Evening with Anita O'Day). She recorded steadily throughout the Fifties, accompanied by small combos and big bands. In person, O'Day was generally backed by a trio which included the drummer with whom she would work for the next 40 years, John Poole.
As a live performer O'Day also began performing in festivals and concerts with such musicians as Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, Dinah Washington, George Shearing, Cal Tjader, and Thelonious Monk. She appeared in the documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day, filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival which increased her popularity. The following year O'Day made a cameo appearance in The Gene Krupa Story , singing "Memories of You". Late in 1959 she toured Europe with Benny Goodman; according to her autobiography, when Goodman's attempts to upstage her failed to diminish the audience's enthusiasm, he cut all but two of her numbers from the show.
After the Goodman fiasco, O'Day went back to touring as a solo artist. She recorded infrequently after the expiration of her Verve contract in 1962 and her career seemed over when she nearly died of a heroin overdose in 1968. After kicking the habit, she made a comeback at the 1970 Berlin Jazz Festival. She also appeared in the films Zig Zag (1970) and The Outfit (1974). She resumed making live and studio albums, many recorded in Japan, and several were released on her own label, Emily Records.
O'Day spoke candidly about her drug addiction in her 1981 memoir, High Times, Hard Times.
Her version of the standard, "Sing, Sing, Sing" was remixed by RSL and was included in the compilation album Verve Remixed 3 in 2005.
2006 saw her first album release in 13 years, entitled Indestructible!.
'S Wonderful/They Cant Take That Away from Me
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That you thrill me through, with a tender pash,
When you said you care, 'magine my emoshe
I swore then and there, permanent devoshe,
You made all other men seem blah
Just you alone filled me with ahhhhhhhh......
's wonderful, 's marvellous
's awful nice, 's paradise,
's what I love to see.
You've made my life so glamorous,
You can't blame me for feeling amorous!
Oh 's wonderful, 's marvellous,
That you should care for me!
's magnificque, 's what I seek
You should care for me.
's elegant, 's what I want,
's what I love to see.
My dear, it's four leaved clover time,
From now on my heart's working overtime,
's exceptional, 's no bagatelle,
That you should care for...
That you should care for...
That you should care for me...
The lyrics to Anita O'Day's "S Wonderful / They Can't Take That Away From Me" speak to the joy and excitement of being in a new, thrilling romantic relationship. The singer describes how her partner thrills her with a "tender pash" and how she feels a permanent devotion to them after they express their care. The singer can't get enough of her partner and views them as exceptional, filling her life with glamour and love.
The lyrics are full of playful language and clever wordplay, such as the use of "devoshe" instead of "devotion" and "ahhhh" instead of a more concrete descriptor. The repeated use of "'s" instead of "is" adds both a rhythmic and poetic element to the lyrics. Overall, the song captures the feeling of being "head over heels" in love and finding joy in every moment with a new partner.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't mind telling you, in my humble fash
I don't mind telling you, albeit humbly,
That you thrill me through, with a tender pash,
You excite me with tender kisses,
When you said you care, 'magine my emoshe
When you said you care, imagine my emotions
I swore then and there, permanent devoshe,
I pledged my permanent devotion to you then and there
You made all other men seem blah
Other men seem uninteresting compared to you
Just you alone filled me with ahhhhhhhh......
Only you bring me true happiness
's wonderful, 's marvellous
It's wonderful, it's marvelous
You should care for me!
You should love me!
's awful nice, 's paradise,
It's terribly nice, it's paradise,
's what I love to see.
It's what I love to see.
You've made my life so glamorous,
You've made my life so glamorous,
You can't blame me for feeling amorous!
You can't blame me for feeling romantic!
Oh 's wonderful, 's marvellous,
Oh, it's wonderful, it's marvelous
That you should care for me!
That you should love me!
's magnificque, 's what I seek
It's magnificent, it's what I seek
You should care for me.
You should love me.
's elegant, 's what I want,
It's elegant, it's what I desire,
's what I love to see.
It's what I love to see.
My dear, it's four leaved clover time,
My dear, it's a miraculous time,
From now on my heart's working overtime,
My heart is working extra hard to love you,
's exceptional, 's no bagatelle,
It's exceptional, it's no small matter,
That you should care for...
That you should love for...
That you should care for...
That you should love for...
That you should care for me...
That you should love me...
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: GEORGE GERSHWIN, IRA GERSHWIN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Do It Now! video's yeah!
This one of my favorite albums. Great songs, singer and players.
Christelle0478
S'wonderful what a marvelous song!!!
Roseanna Vitro
Anita O'Day was an original!