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 Won' Dance
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I won't dance, don't ask me
I won't dance madame with you
My heart won't let me feet do things that they should do
You know what, you're lovely
You know what, you're so lovely
And you know what you do to me
I feel so absolutely stumped on the floor
When you dance, you're charming and you're gentle
Specially when you do The Continental
But this feeling isn't purely mental
For heaven rest us, I'm not asbestos
And that's why
I won't dance, why should I?
I won't dance, how could I?
I won't dance, merci beaucoup
I know that music lead the way to romance
So if I hold you in arms I won't dance
Anita O'Day's song "I Won't Dance" is a declaration of the singer's unwillingness to dance with her partner. She insists that she will not dance with him, despite his charm and gentleness, because her heart won't allow her feet to do what they should. The lyrics suggest that the singer has strong feelings for her partner, as she compares herself to an ocean wave that feels absolutely stumped on the floor.
The lyrics also mention The Continental, a dance that was popular in the 1930s and 1940s. The singer acknowledges that her partner is charming and gentle when he dances, but she insists that her reluctance to dance with him is not just a mental state, but a physical one as well. She declares that she won't dance because she knows that music leads the way to romance, and if she were to hold him in her arms, she would not be able to resist the temptation to dance with him.
The song reflects the cultural norms of the time, which often required men and women to dance as a sign of social grace and attraction. However, the singer challenges this norm by asserting her agency and independence in deciding whether or not to dance with her partner. The lyrics suggest that the singer values her own emotional well-being and is unwilling to compromise it by dancing with someone she may have feelings for.
Line by Line Meaning
I won't dance, don't ask me
I refuse to dance with you, please do not even ask
I won't dance madame with you
I cannot dance with you, sorry to say madame
My heart won't let me feet do things that they should do
I cannot bring myself to dance because of how I feel
You know what, you're lovely
You are truly beautiful and amazing
You know what, you're so lovely
I cannot stress enough how lovely you are
And you know what you do to me
Your charm affects me so much
I'm like an ocean wave that's bumped on the shore
I am overwhelmed by all these emotions inside me
I feel so absolutely stumped on the floor
I am at a loss and cannot bring myself to dance
When you dance, you're charming and you're gentle
Your dancing is captivating and mesmerizing
Specially when you do The Continental
You are exceptional when you dance The Continental
But this feeling isn't purely mental
My inability to dance is not just in my mind
For heaven rest us, I'm not asbestos
I cannot resist the charm and allure of dancing with you
I won't dance, why should I?
There is no reason for me to dance, what's the point?
I won't dance, how could I?
I cannot imagine dancing with anyone else
I won't dance, merci beaucoup
Thank you, but I will not dance
I know that music lead the way to romance
I am aware that dancing can be romantic
So if I hold you in arms I won't dance
Even if I were to embrace you, I still cannot dance
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Capitol CMG Publishing, RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: Dorothy Fields, Jerome Kern, Jimmy Mc Hugh, Oscar Hammerstein Ii, Otto Harbach
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)