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!.
Speak Low
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Our summer day withers away
Too soon, too soon.
Speak low when you speak, love,
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift,
We're swept apart too soon.
Speak low, darling speak low,
Too soon, too soon,
I feel wherever I go
That tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here
And always too soon.
Time is so old and love so brief,
Love is pure gold and time a thief.
We're late darling, we're late,
The curtain descends, everything ends
Too soon, too soon,
I wait darling, I wait
Will you speak low to me,
Speak love to me and soon.
The lyrics are a plea for two lovers to speak in gentle whispers of love, as time is fleeting and their moments together are all too brief. The singer compares love to a pure gold which is stolen by the thief of time. The duo is running out of time, and the singer fears that tomorrow is already here. The curtain is descending, suggesting a farewell, and everything is ending too soon. The singer is hoping for the lover to speak low (softly), love to her, securing the glimpse of the fleeting moments.
Line by Line Meaning
Speak low when you speak, love,
Lower your voice when you speak of love, as if it is a secret too precious to be shouted out loud.
Our summer day withers away
Time is fleeting, and our summer day is quickly disappearing.
Too soon, too soon.
Our time together is passing too quickly, and we wish that it could last longer.
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift,
Just like ships tossed about on the waves, our moment is brief and unpredictable.
We're swept apart too soon.
We are being pulled away from each other too soon, before we've had a chance to really experience our love.
Speak low, darling speak low,
Again, lower your voice when you speak, as if the words you are saying are too sacred to be heard by anyone else.
Love is a spark lost in the dark,
Love can be fleeting and easily extinguished, like a spark that disappears in the darkness.
Too soon, too soon,
Once again, our time together is fleeting, and we wish it could last longer.
I feel wherever I go
No matter where I am or what I'm doing, I have a sense that time is running out.
That tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here
The future is always quickly approaching, and tomorrow will soon be today.
And always too soon.
No matter how much we try to hold onto time or make it slow down, it always seems to fly by too fast.
Time is so old and love so brief,
Time has been around for ages, but love is fleeting and temporary.
Love is pure gold and time a thief.
While love is precious and valuable like gold, time seems to steal it away from us too quickly.
We're late darling, we're late,
We've waited too long to express our love, and now time is running out.
The curtain descends, everything ends
Like the curtain closing on a play, everything eventually comes to an end.
Too soon, too soon,
Once again, our time is fleeting and passing too quickly.
I wait darling, I wait
Even though time might be running out, I'm still waiting for you to express your love to me before it's too late.
Will you speak low to me, Speak love to me and soon.
Will you speak of your love to me in a quiet, tender way? I hope you'll do it soon, before it's too late.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Kurt Weill, Ogden Nash
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)