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!.
I Fall In Love Too Easily
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I fall in love too terribly hard, for love to ever last
My heart should be well schooled, 'cause I've been fooled in the past
And still I fall in love too easily, I fall in love too fast
I fall in love too easily, I fall in love too fast
I fall in love too terribly hard, for love to ever last
My heart should be well schooled, 'cause I've been fooled in the past
Anita O'Day's song "I Fall In Love Too Easily" is a melancholic ballad that laments about the singer's tendency to fall in love too easily, too fast, and too hard. The lyrics reveal her vulnerability and susceptibility to heartbreak, despite past experiences that should have taught her to be more guarded. The repetition of the lines "I fall in love too easily, I fall in love too fast, I fall in love too terribly hard, for love to ever last" emphasizes the depth of her emotions and the consequences of her impulsive behavior.
The phrase "my heart should be well schooled, 'cause I've been fooled in the past" reveals that the singer is aware of her past mistakes and has learned from them, yet she still succumbs to the same pattern of falling in love too easily. The song's overall message speaks to the universal experience of vulnerability and the human desire for love and connection, even when it is painful.
Overall, Anita O'Day's "I Fall In Love Too Easily" beautifully captures the contradictions and complexities of love and the human heart.
Line by Line Meaning
I fall in love too easily, I fall in love too fast
I have a tendency to fall in love quickly without much consideration or caution.
I fall in love too terribly hard, for love to ever last
My intense love often results in heartbreak because it cannot be sustained.
My heart should be well schooled, 'cause I've been fooled in the past
I should have learned from my previous mistakes and be more careful.
And still I fall in love too easily, I fall in love too fast
Despite my experiences, I continue to let my emotions take control, leading me to fall in love too easily and too quickly.
Lyrics Β© BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
jsphotos
They just DON'T make 'em like this anymore. Pure class.
Desperate Times
I love the verse! Thanks Anita, you were great and fun to hang out with back in the day!
MrMusicguyma
A great singer on a great song.
lemorab1
Thank you for this! And she sings the intro.
king of cool
Sounds like Amy winehouse was learning from this Woman, Anita O'Day.
Great work.
/ Ruusuviita
Els van Alfen
I am sure Amy adored Anita O'Day's song interpretations
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