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 Take to You
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've told ya I love ya, now get out!
Everything's rosy and everything's Jake,
But just how much can a good girl take?
I told ya I love ya, now get out!
There may be times I need ya, there's no doubt;
Baby, now you're something' I can do without!
The doorway was there, which is by the phone!
I've told ya I love ya, now get out!
Baby, please leave me be,
You want a puppet and there's no strings on me!
Get hep, you can leave on the five eighteen,
Now don't go 'way sayin' I've been mean;
Like any gal I can change my ways,
A round trip ticket good for sixty days!
I've told ya I love ya, now get out!
Baby, please leave me be,
You want a puppet and there's no strings on me!
Get hep, you can leave on the five eighteen,
Now don't go 'way sayin' I've been mean;
Like any gal I can change my ways,
A round trip ticket good for sixty days!
I've told ya I love ya, now get out!
Man, get lost - for now!
Anita O'Day's song "I Love You" is a sassy and humorous take on relationships and breaking up. In the song, O'Day tells her lover that she loves them but now it's time for them to leave. She talks about how everything may seem great, but there's only so much a "good girl" can take. She goes on to say that while she may need them at times, they are also something she can do without. The lyrics are filled with a sense of independence and self-assurance that many women during this time period may not have expressed.
Throughout the song, O'Day's tone is playful and sarcastic, highlighting the absurdity of a relationship where one person wants to control the other. She sings, "You want a puppet and there's no strings on me!" which shows her unwillingness to be controlled or manipulated. The line "Like any gal, I can change my ways, a round trip ticket good for sixty days!" is O'Day's way of saying that while she may have loved this man, it's time for her to move on and start anew.
Line by Line Meaning
I've told ya I love ya, now get out!
I've already expressed my love to you, so it's time for you to leave!
Everything's rosy and everything's Jake,
Things may seem great on the surface, but there's more going on beneath the surface.
But just how much can a good girl take?
Even a good girl has her limits and can only handle so much.
There may be times I need ya, there's no doubt;
Although I may need you at times, it doesn't mean I can't live without you.
Baby, now you're something' I can do without!
I've realized that I don't really need you in my life anymore.
Leave your number and go on home,
Take your contact information and leave my life.
The doorway was there, which is by the phone!
The exit is right by the phone, so make a quick exit.
Baby, please leave me be,
Please stop bothering me and let me be.
You want a puppet and there's no strings on me!
You're trying to control me, but I won't let you.
Get hep, you can leave on the five eighteen,
Be smart and take the 5:18 train to leave me behind.
Now don't go 'way sayin' I've been mean;
Don't leave with the impression that I've been unkind.
Like any gal I can change my ways,
Just like anyone else, I have the potential to make changes in my life.
A round trip ticket good for sixty days!
Take a round-trip ticket for sixty days just in case you want to come back.
Man, get lost - for now!
Leave me alone, at least for the time being.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: HERB ELLIS, JOHN FRIGO, LOU CARTER
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)