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!.
Easy Come Easy Go
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
If love must have it's day, then
As it came, let it go.
No, no remorse, no regrets
We should part exactly as we met
Just easy come, easy go.
But now that it ends, let's be friends
And not two strangers
Easy come, easy go, here we are,
So darling au revoir
It's easy come, easy go.
The song Easy Come, Easy Go by Anita O'Day is a heartbreakingly simple tune that explores the notion of letting go of love easily. The lyrics suggest that if love is meant to be, it will find its way back to you, but if it is not, then you should just let it go. The singer asserts that there should be no remorse or regret when parting with a lover, and that one should separate from their romantic partner the same way that they met – without any hard feelings or resentment. O'Day urges the listener to approach heartbreak with a sense of ease and detachment, as everything in life is fleeting.
The song's opening line "Easy come, easy go, that's the way, If love must have it's day, then as it came, let it go." suggests that love is something that comes and goes, like the tide. Love is not a permanent fixture in one's life, but rather a fleeting emotion that can be gone as quickly as it came. The singer encourages the listener to not hold on to something that is not meant to be, and to move on gracefully. She suggests that even though they never thought there would be any romantic dangers, breaking up is still a natural part of life.
In the end, the song's message is one of acceptance and humility, urging the listener to let go of their ego and any sense of entitlement they may have regarding love. Instead, they should approach love with open arms and an open heart, accepting its fleeting nature and being grateful for any happiness it brings them.
Line by Line Meaning
Easy come, easy go, that's the way,
We should accept that sometimes things do not work out as planned.
If love must have it's day, then
If love has to end, then let it end.
As it came, let it go.
Let us move on and not dwell on the past.
No, no remorse, no regrets
We should not feel bad about what happened.
We should part exactly as we met
We should not let our differences affect our relationship.
Just easy come, easy go.
We should let go of any negative feelings and look forward to the future.
We never dreamt of romantic dangers
We did not anticipate the pitfalls that come with romantic relationships.
But now that it ends, let's be friends
Let's not let the end of our romance ruin our friendship.
And not two strangers
Even though we are no longer together, we should not treat each other like we don't know each other.
Easy come, easy go, here we are,
We should acknowledge that our relationship has come to an end.
So darling au revoir
We should say goodbye.
It's easy come, easy go.
We should not make things more difficult than they need to be.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: EDWARD HEYMAN, JOHN W. GREEN, JOHNNY GREEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Le Scott
One of Anita's best...Giuffre's semi-classical/jazz arrangements blend in perfectly ...