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!.
Boogie Blues
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don't the moon look lonesome shinin' thru the trees?
Don't your arms look lonesome when your baby back's up to leave?
Well I'm goin' up on the mountain to call that baby of mine
Said I'm goin' up on the mountain to call that baby of mine
But something tells me he's not coming back this time
I'm goin' up to the country can't take you
Nothin' up there a man like you could do
He's got fins like a fish
Sheep like a frog
When he loves me I hallo oh, hot dog
Love that man better than I do myself
But I'm all alone, all alone on the shelf, on the shelf
The lyrics of Anita O'Day's Boogie Blues revolve around loneliness, separation, and unrequited love. The opening lines of the song express a sense of loneliness as the singer sees the moon shining through the trees and wonders if it too is lonely. The second line suggests that the person left behind after a breakup feels the same way - lonely and abandoned. The singer then declares that they are going up the mountain to call their lover but admits that something tells them that he won't be coming back this time.
The following lines express the singer's desire to go to the country but without their former lover. The person's intentions are to leave everything behind, including him. They emphasize that there's nothing for him there and that he might as well not come. The final lines of the song express the singer's deep love for her ex but also her feelings of abandonment and isolation. She loves him more than she loves herself, but she still feels all alone on the shelf.
Overall, Boogie Blues is a song about love, loss, and the pain of separation, showing that sometimes in a relationship, only one person wants to be together. The song's lyrics are expressed poetically and powerfully, conveying a sense of emotional depth that is felt in the melody and rhythm.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't the moon look lonesome shinin' thru the trees?
Do you not feel lonely and abandoned when the moon is shining through the trees?
Don't your arms look lonesome when your baby back's up to leave?
Do you not feel empty and lonely when your lover leaves you?
Well I'm goin' up on the mountain to call that baby of mine
I am going up to the mountain to call my lover.
Said I'm goin' up on the mountain to call that baby of mine
I already said I am going up to the mountain to call my lover.
But something tells me he's not coming back this time
I have a feeling that my lover will not return this time.
Would like to go to the country can't take you
I would like to go to the country, but I cannot take you with me.
I'm goin' up to the country can't take you
I am going up to the country, but I cannot take you with me.
Nothin' up there a man like you could do
There is nothing up there that a man like you can do.
He's got fins like a fish
He is a great swimmer.
Sheep like a frog
He is agile and quick, like a frog.
When he loves me I hallo oh, hot dog
I am ecstatic and thrilled when he shows me love and affection.
Love that man better than I do myself
I love that man more than I love myself.
But I'm all alone, all alone on the shelf, on the shelf
Even though I love him, I am alone and discarded, like an object on a shelf.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: GENE KRUPA, RAY BIONDI
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Johnnyc drums
Lady, you so good, and a priv. to meet you back in the Eighties.
With my little sister, a jazz aficionado too.
rob carroll
whoa
waitaminute72
👀❤❤