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!.
The Party's Over
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
They've burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away
It's time to wind up the masquerade
Just make your mind up
The piper must be paid
The party's over, the candles flicker and dim
It seemed to be right just being with him
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end
Take off your makeup, the party's over
It's all over, my friend
The party's over, it's time to call it a day
They've burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end
Take off your makeup, the party's over
It's all over, my friend
It's all over, my friend
The lyrics of Anita O'Day's song The Party's Over express the melancholy experience of waking up from a dream-like state and realizing that reality has set in. The first few lines unravel the fact that the party has ended and it's now time to call it a day. The lyric "they've burst your pretty balloon" seems to suggest that something beautiful has been ruined, or that a dream-like state of mind has been punctured by the unmerciful reality of daybreak. Additionally, the metaphorical statement that "they've taken the moon away" could also imply that the magic and allure of the night has ended and everything is now bereft of the enchantment it held previously.
The idea of wearing masks for a masquerade ball is further explored in the song when she sings "It's time to wind up the masquerade." This line seems to imply that at some point or another, everyone in the party was pretending to be something they're not, with their masks on. The line that comes next, "Just make your mind up, the piper must be paid" suggests that it's time to face the consequences of whatever actions were taken while the masks were on, and come out of the artifice.
Finally, the line "It's all over, my friend" makes it clear that time has passed, and there is no real way to go back to the state of being one inhabited when the dream was alive. The song is full of melancholy nostalgia for something that seems so long ago, and it perfectly captures the sense of loss and sadness that comes with waking up from a dream.
Line by Line Meaning
The party's over, it's time to call it a day
The celebration has ended, and it's time to conclude and go home.
They've burst your pretty balloon
Your excitement and joy have been crushed.
And taken the moon away
The sense of magic and wonder that you once had has vanished.
It's time to wind up the masquerade
It's time to bring the deception and false appearances to a close.
Just make your mind up
You must decide and commit to a course of action.
The piper must be paid
You must face the consequences of your actions, whether positive or negative.
The candles flicker and dim
The atmosphere and mood are becoming subdued and melancholy.
You danced and dreamed through the night
You entertained illusions and escaped from reality.
It seemed to be right just being with him
At the moment, it appeared to be the right choice to be with him.
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end
It's time to face the reality of the situation and move forward.
Take off your makeup, the party's over
It's time to remove the facade and reveal your true self.
It's all over, my friend
The experience has come to an end, and it's time to move on.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ADOLPH GREEN, BETTY COMDEN, JULE STYNE
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)