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 The Moon Turns Green
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That happiness wasn't to be,
I got a shock and I changed my mind,
A miracle happened to me.
If the moon turns green and shadows get up and walk around,
And clouds come tumbling to the ground,
I wouldn't be surprised,
If the stars turn blue and Willows that weep begin to sing,
And winter changes into Spring,
I wouldn't raise my eyes,
'Cause didn't you fall in love with me?
I thought I was foolish to think of romance
With someone so charming as you,
Thought I was hoping without any chance.
But ev'ry hope came true.
If the moon turns green and rivers begin to flow up stream,
And this is all a crazy dream,
I wouldn't be surprised,
'Cause anything can happen if you can fall in love with me.
Anita O'Day's song If The Moon Turns Green speaks to the surprise of love and how it can completely alter one's outlook on life. In the beginning of the song, the lyrics refer to the singer's previous feelings of despair where happiness "wasn't to be" and "fate was unkind." However, their entire perspective changed with the arrival of love, referred to as a miracle.
The song then goes on to speak metaphorically about the incredible things that could occur, yet the singer wouldn't be surprised because they fell in love. "If the moon turns green and shadows get up and walk around" is unlikely, but not impossible, as the love they found itself is just as improbable. The line "I thought I was foolish to think of romance with someone so charming as you," reveals the singer's disbelief at finding love with someone out of their reach.
However, with the hope and joy that love brings, the impossibility of the other events doesn't seem to matter. The song ends on the line "Because anything can happen if you can fall in love with me," emphasizing that the power of love can accomplish the impossible.
Overall, the song speaks to the transformative nature of love and how it can bring immense joy and hope into one's life, even when all seemed lost.
Line by Line Meaning
Just when I thought that fate was unkind,
After feeling like fate was against me,
That happiness wasn't to be,
And that I would never find happiness,
I got a shock and I changed my mind,
Something unexpected happened that changed my perspective,
A miracle happened to me.
And it felt like a true miracle.
If the moon turns green and shadows get up and walk around,
Even if the most impossible things were to happen,
And clouds come tumbling to the ground,
Like the sky falling,
I wouldn't be surprised,
It wouldn't shock me,
'Cause didn't you fall in love with me?
Since you fell in love with me, anything is possible.
If the stars turn blue and Willows that weep begin to sing,
Even if the world were to change dramatically,
And winter changes into Spring,
Like the seasons being turned upside down,
I wouldn't raise my eyes,
I wouldn't be surprised or flinch,
'Cause didn't you fall in love with me?
Knowing that anything can happen because you fell in love with me.
I thought I was foolish to think of romance
I used to believe that romance was foolish,
With someone so charming as you,
Especially with someone as charming as you,
Thought I was hoping without any chance.
I thought I was hoping without any realistic possibility.
But ev'ry hope came true.
But to my surprise, all my hopes came true.
If the moon turns green and rivers begin to flow up stream,
Even if the impossible becomes possible,
And this is all a crazy dream,
And what's happening around us feels like a wild dream,
I wouldn't be surprised,
I wouldn't be shocked or thrown off,
'Cause anything can happen if you can fall in love with me.
Because anything is possible when you're in love with me.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BERNIE HANIGHEN, PAUL COATES
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)