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!.
Let's Fall in Love
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Why shouldn't we fall in love?
Our hearts are made of it
Let's take a chance
Why be afraid of it?
Let's close our eyes
And make our own paradise
Still we can try
To make a go of it
We might have been meant for each other
To be or not to be, let our hearts discover
Let's fall in love
Why shouldn't we fall in love?
Now is the time for it
While we are young
Let's fall in love
We might have been meant for each other
To be or not to be, let our hearts discover
Let's fall in love
Why shouldn't we fall in love?
Now is the time for it
While we are young
Let's fall in love
The lyrics of "Let's Fall In Love" by Anita O'Day are a call to give love a chance, despite its uncertainty. The opening line, "Let's fall in love, why shouldn't we fall in love?", sets the tone for the rest of the song. The lyrics assert that falling in love is a natural human disposition, and we should not be afraid to explore it. The second line, "Our hearts are made of it," emphasizes the idea that love is an essential component of human nature.
As the lyrics progress, we see the singer urging the listener to take a leap of faith and make a paradise of their own. The line, "Let's close our eyes and make our own paradise," implies that love is a journey that requires us to trust and surrender ourselves to the unknown. "Little we know of it, still we can try, to make a go of it," she sings, indicating that love is not always predictable, but we have to take a chance on it.
The lyric "We might have been meant for each other" suggests that there's an element of destiny in love. The singer offers a choice to listeners to either explore their mutual compatibility or miss out on the chance to discover something special. "Now is the time for it, while we are young. Let's fall in love," she repeats. The song underscores that love should not wait, and the time to take action is now.
Line by Line Meaning
Let's fall in love
Let's start a romantic relationship
Why shouldn't we fall in love?
What's stopping us from being together?
Our hearts are made of it
Love is a fundamental part of our being
Let's take a chance
Let's be brave and pursue this connection
Why be afraid of it?
There's no reason to fear love
Let's close our eyes
Let's allow ourselves to be vulnerable
And make our own paradise
Together we can create a perfect world
Little we know of it
We're not experts at love yet
Still we can try
But we can still give it our best shot
To make a go of it
To try to make this relationship work
We might have been meant for each other
Perhaps our connection is destiny
To be or not to be, let our hearts discover
Let's explore whether we're meant to be together or not
Now is the time for it
This is the perfect moment to start our love story
While we are young
We should enjoy this experience while we're still in our prime
Let's fall in love
Let's start a romantic relationship
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cole Porter
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Tom Smith
Anita my favorite female jazz singer bar none... just fantastic 👏💞🎙️🎼🎵🎶
gillian67ec
Mine too!
MidnightJazzer
fantastic show my father Mundy on guitar did with Anita, Marty & Vinny horrible audio though, not the guitar or other instrumentalist fault,,,the hole thing!
Marla Lukofsky
fantastic.
MrJimmyd61
And you gotta love the guitar distortion that guy is getting......this is tough!
Staffan Lindström
Great!
Spin
🖤🖤🖤
kevin dwyer
ANITA!!
Joe Hallen
I LOVE ANIT O*DAY & SHES DDG AKA DROP DEAD GORGEOUS HERE IN 1958 @ AGE 39 & CAN SHE SCAT!!!
Leo Yaus
I saw Anita at the Jazz Club in Hongkong in the 90s