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 Never Had a Chance
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I thought you cared for me
But now I see I never had a chance
I never had a chance
Though you never told me so
Somehow I know I never had a chance
I knew we'd have to part
But I could never reach your heart
My dream about romance ended in a friendly chat
But more than that I never had a chance
I guess there's nothing to do and nothing to say
But simply go on my way and call it a day
I guess I'm ready to go right back on my shelf
Because at last I've learned, where you're concerned
I've just been fooling myself
I never had a chance
Though you never told me so
Somehow I know I never had a chance
My dream about romance ended in a friendly chat
But more than that I never had a chance
Never had a chance
The lyrics to Anita O'Day's "I Never Had a Chance" narrate the tale of a person who falls in love with someone who never reciprocated their feelings. The opening lines, "I never had a chance, I thought you cared for me, but now I see I never had a chance," encapsulate the heartbreak the singer undergoes while trying to win the love of the person they admire. In the succeeding lines, the singer acknowledges that they knew that they would eventually have to part and that their aspirations of romance were mere dreams that would not transpire into reality. Furthermore, they recognize that they could touch the other person's lips, but not their heart, implying that though they were physically close, there was an emotional distance.
The final verse of the song elucidates resignation, acceptance, and a realization of self-delusion. The singer states that there is nothing left to do or say, and they have to move on from the one-sided love they have been fostering. They express that they are ready to "go right back on my shelf," suggesting that they have learned to let this love go, and it won't affect them anymore. The song's final refrain stresses the point that the singer knew all along, that they never had a chance with the person they loved, and it was always a one-sided affair.
Overall, the melancholic tone of the song conveys the sorrow and anguish of unrequited love. The lyrics, coupled with the heartrending melody, are a testimony to the fact that though love can be beautiful, it can also be challenging and leave us longing for something that we may never attain.
Line by Line Meaning
I never had a chance
From the beginning, I had no opportunity to be with you
I thought you cared for me
I had believed that you had feelings for me
But now I see I never had a chance
I realize now that there was never a possibility for us to be together
Though you never told me so
You never explicitly said that there was no chance between us
Somehow I know I never had a chance
I had a feeling deep down that we could never be together
I knew we'd have to part
I was aware that we would eventually have to separate
For I could always reach your lips
We were physically close, but emotionally distant
But I could never reach your heart
I was never able to form a true emotional connection with you
My dream about romance ended in a friendly chat
My long-held hopes for romance with you were shattered by a casual conversation
But more than that I never had a chance
In addition to the failed romance, I know that there was never a chance for us to be together
I guess there's nothing to do and nothing to say
There is no action to be taken and no words to be spoken in this situation
But simply go on my way and call it a day
I need to move on and accept that our relationship was never meant to be
I guess I'm ready to go right back on my shelf
I am prepared to resume my life without pursuing a connection with you
Because at last I've learned, where you're concerned
I have finally realized that in regards to you,
I've just been fooling myself
I had been deluding myself into thinking that we had a chance
Lyrics © IMAGEM U.S. LLC
Written by: IRVING BERLIN
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)