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!.
You Turned the Tables On Me
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And now I'm falling for you;
You turned the tables on me
I can't believe that it's true
I always thought when you brought
The lovely present you bought
Why hadn't you brought me more,
But now if you'd come
From the five and ten cent store,
You used to call me the top
You put me up on a throne
You let me fall with a drop
And now I'm out on my own.
But after thinking it over and over,
I got what was coming to me
Just like the sting of a bee
You turned the tables on me.
The song ‘You Turned the Tables on Me’ by Anita O’Day and Oscar Peterson is a song about a relationship gone haywire. The first verse speaks about how the tables have turned and the singer is now falling for a person whom they once thought highly of. The next verse seems like it is narrating the past- such as the presents that the person used to get and how the singer would always expect to get more. But now the singer would welcome anything from the five and ten cents store. The third verse seems to be conveying the message that the person who was once on a pedestal is now out on their own, it is a breakup song, and the singer realizes that they got what they deserved, akin to the sting of a bee.
Line by Line Meaning
You turned the tables on me
You changed the dynamic of our relationship and now I am the one who is falling in love with you.
And now I'm falling for you;
As a result of your actions, I have developed feelings of romantic love for you.
I can't believe that it's true
I never expected to feel this way about you and it's taking me by surprise.
I always thought when you brought
Whenever you gave me a gift,
The lovely present you bought
The beautiful and thoughtful present you had purchased,
Why hadn't you brought me more,
I wondered why you hadn't given me more presents in the past.
But now if you'd come
But now I realize
I'd welcome anything
I would be grateful for anything you give me,
From the five and ten cent store,
Even if it was a small and inexpensive item from a bargain store.
You used to call me the top
You used to see me as someone of high importance or status.
You put me up on a throne
You treated me like royalty.
You let me fall with a drop
But then you brought me back down to earth abruptly
And now I'm out on my own.
And now I feel like I'm on my own and without your support.
But after thinking it over and over,
After reflecting on what has happened,
I got what was coming to me
I realized that I deserved to be treated the way you treated me.
Just like the sting of a bee
It hurt when you turned the tables on me, much like the pain of a bee sting.
You turned the tables on me.
You shifted the balance of power in our relationship and now I am the one who is vulnerable and exposed emotionally.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CARLIN AMERICA INC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: LOUIS ALTER, SIDNEY D. MITCHELL
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)