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!.
Memories of You
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
At Sunrise,
Every sunset too,
Seems to be
Bringing me
Memories of you.
Here and there,
Scenes that we once knew,
And they all
Just recall
Memories of you.
How I wish I could forget
Those happy yesteryears
That have left a rosary of tears.
Your face beams
In my dreams,
Spite of all I do!
Everything
Seems to bring
Memories of you.
How I wish I could forget
Those happy yesteryears
That have left a rosary of tears.
Your face beams
In my dreams,
Spite of all I do!
Everything
Seems to bring
Memories,
All those memories of you.
The lyrics of Anita O’Day’s song Memories of You revolves around a theme of nostalgia and longing for a past love. The song portrays the singer's lamentations over the memories of her former lover that seemingly haunt her continuously. The opening lines of the song, “Waking skies at sunrise, every sunset too”, describe the way nature is a constant reminder of her former love. She goes on to say “Seems to be bringing me memories of you”, saying that everything she experiences, even the beautiful sights of nature, brings back memories of her past relationship.
The next verse goes on to assert that it is not just the natural surroundings, but everywhere she goes, every little thing that she sees reminds her of her former lover. These memories are not just recollections of specific moments, but instead, they are part of every little detail of her past relationship which are still so vivid in her mind. She then wishes to forget those memories of the past, yet they continue to haunt her dreams with “Your face beams in my dreams, spite of all I do”. The song concludes with the melancholic refrain that everything and anything she experiences brings memories of her lover.
Overall, the song's tone is one of sadness and heartbreak over a love lost. The lyrics are a poignant reflection of how certain memories are difficult to shake off, even when you long to forget them.
Line by Line Meaning
Waking skies at Sunrise,
Every morning when the sky starts to brighten up with the rising sun, it reminds me of you.
Every sunset too,
Just like sunrise, every evening when the sun sets, it also reminds me of you.
Seems to be bringing me
Everything around me appears to be triggering my memories of you.
Memories of you.
All the sweet and cherished moments that we had together.
Here and there, everywhere,
No matter where I go or what I do, memories of you are always present, everywhere.
Scenes that we once knew,
Images of the places and moments we have shared together.
And they all just recall,
All those places and moments just keep bringing back sweet memories of you.
Memories of you.
All the sweet and cherished moments that we had together.
How I wish I could forget
Sometimes, I wish I could just forget about all the happy moments we had together.
Those happy yesteryears
The good old days when we were both happy and carefree.
That have left a rosary of tears.
However, these memories now bring tears to my eyes when I recall them.
Your face beams in my dreams,
Even in my dreams, I can still see your smiling face.
Spite of all I do!
Despite trying to forget, the memories hold fast to my mind and heart.
Everything seems to bring
No matter what I do or where I go, everything around me still reminds me of you.
Memories of you.
All the sweet and cherished moments that we had together.
All those memories of you.
Every moment spent together, every smile, and every happy memory we had together.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Andy Razaf, Eubie Blake
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Michael Beal
What an amazing performance AND arrangement. I’ve played this song many times and her interpretation is my favorite interpretation of her era, and may be the best I’ve ever heard.
MrJan3327
she sings like nobody else
Sizzurp
Love the band
Carmen Bautista
❤️
T.S. T.
Oh, so sweet...
MzFlowerchild
Wonderful tune from Ms O'Day, great sound, thank you for sharing & for keeping the music alive.