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 Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Oh, why did I go there
I should have stayed down in New Orleans
And never gone nowhere
A girl with sweet talk from Kansas City
Her words were sweet like wine
She bought him diamonds and limousines
When night comes a-creepin'
For me there's no sleeping
What she sews, she'll be reapin'
'Cause she done me wrong
I cried my heart out in Salt Lake City
The day I heard the news
He left me deep in my solitude
With a Salt Lake City blues
With a Salt Lake City blues
In Anita O'Day's song "I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City," she sings about losing her lover to another woman in Salt Lake City. She regrets going to Salt Lake City and wishes she had stayed in New Orleans, where her lover had wanted her to stay. The woman who took her lover from her was from Kansas City and had a way of speaking that was sweet like wine. She bought him fancy things like diamonds and limousines and ultimately stole him away.
The lyrics reveal a sense of heartbreak and betrayal as O'Day grieves the loss of her lover. She is unable to sleep at night and believes that the woman who took her lover will face consequences for her actions. The final line, "With a Salt Lake City blues," furthers the sense of sadness and longing that O'Day is conveying.
The song has a classic jazz sound, with O'Day's vocals being accompanied by horns and a piano. The tempo is slow and melancholic, adding to the overall tone of the song. The lyrics are a prime example of the classic love-triangle trope that is so common in music.
Line by Line Meaning
I lost my sugar in Salt Lake City
I lost my significant other in Salt Lake City
Oh, why did I go there
Regretful of visiting Salt Lake City
I should have stayed down in New Orleans
New Orleans would have been a better choice
And never gone nowhere
Never leave the comfort of home
A girl with sweet talk from Kansas City
A woman from Kansas City with persuasive conversation
Her words were sweet like wine
Her words were enjoyable to listen to
She bought him diamonds and limousines
She used material possessions to win him over
She stole that man o' mine
She took away the singer's lover
When night comes a-creepin'
When darkness falls upon the singer
For me there's no sleeping
The singer is unable to sleep
What she sews, she'll be reapin'
The woman who took her lover will face the consequences of her actions
'Cause she done me wrong
The woman who took her lover did wrong by the singer
I cried my heart out in Salt Lake City
The singer was deeply saddened in Salt Lake City
The day I heard the news
The day she found out her lover was taken
He left me deep in my solitude
The singer was left alone in her sadness
With a Salt Lake City blues
Feeling depressed after her experience in Salt Lake City
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: JOHNNY LANGE, LEON RENE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Aceiseverywhere
on Who Cares?
Let it rain and thunder
Let a million firms go under
I am not concerned with, stocks and bombs that I've been burned with
I love you and you love me
And that's how it will always be
And nothing else can ever mean a thing
Who cares what the public chatters?
Love's the only thing that matters
Who cares if the sky, cares to fall
in the sea
Who cares how history rates me?
As long as your kiss intoxicates me
Oh why should I care?
Life is one long jubilee
As long as I care for you
And you care for me!
Who cares if the sky, cares to fall
in the sea
Who cares what banks fail in Yonkers?
As long as you've got a kiss that conquers!
Oh why should I care?
Life is one long jubilee
So long as I care for you
and you care for me!
(These lyrics might be wrong, sorry)