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!.
If I Love Again
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Brought such a flame to me
And let it die
And if another love should find my heart
It will remind my heart of your goodbye
With every new love you
In others eyes, its you I see
If I love again
Though its someone new
If I love again
It'll still be you
In someone else's firm embrace
I'll close my eyes but see your face
If I love again
I'll find other charms
But I'll make believe, you are in my arms
And though my lips whisper
"I love you"
My heart will not be true
I'll be loving
Every time I love again
Anita O'Day's song 'If I Love Again' speaks about the experience of lost love and the lasting impact it has. The lyrics express the singer's confusion over why her previous lover had come into her life only to leave her with a love that was left unrequited. O'Day speaks of the fire the lover had ignited within her, but then let die, leaving her with nothing but the memories of what could have been. However, the singer loves the idea of love and is not hesitant about moving forward with another lover, even though the memory of the previous one still lingers. Every new love is a reminder of what could have been with the previous lover and of the goodbye, she had to say.
Further, the lyrics explain how even though the singer finds new love, they are merely a substitute for the previous lover, who still holds a special place in her heart. No matter who the singer loves next, she always sees the previous lover's face in the new one's eyes. Even in the new lover's embrace, she'll reminisce the old love. Thus, the new love is merely a make-believe where the singer imagines the previous lover to be in her arms. The singer's lips may whisper, "I love you," but her heart will always belong to the previous lover.
Line by Line Meaning
I often wonder why he came to me
I constantly question why he chose to come into my life
Brought such a flame to me
He brought a passionate love into my life
And let it die
But ultimately, he allowed that love to fade away
And if another love should find my heart
If I happen to fall in love again
It will remind my heart of your goodbye
It will inevitably make me think of the pain of our past goodbye
With every new love you
Whenever I love someone new
Will come back to me
I will think of you once again
In others eyes, its you I see
When I look at my new love, I see you in their eyes
If I love again
If I am to give love another chance
Though its someone new
Even if it is a new person
It'll still be you
You will still always be on my mind
In someone else's firm embrace
Even as I hold someone else tightly
I'll close my eyes but see your face
I will close my eyes and imagine your face
If I love again
If love ever finds me again
I'll find other charms
I will discover new things to love about someone else
But I'll make believe, you are in my arms
But I will pretend that I am holding you instead
And though my lips whisper 'I love you'
Even though I will say 'I love you'
My heart will not be true
My heart will not be fully committed to that love
I'll be loving
Because I will always be loving you
Every time I love again
Every time love comes my way
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: MURRAY JACK, BEN OAKLAND, JACK MURRAY
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)