Goodman was regarded by some as a demanding taskmaster, by others an arrogant and eccentric martinet. Many musicians spoke of The Ray, Goodman's trademark glare that he bestowed on a musician who failed to perform to his demanding standards. Anita O'Day and Helen Forrest spoke bitterly of their experiences singing with Goodman. "The twenty or so months I spent with Benny felt like twenty years," said Forrest. "When I look back, they seem like a life sentence." He could also be incredibly self-absorbed; it is reported that when eating an egg onto which a ketchup bottle cap had fallen, Goodman simply ate around it. At the same time, there are reports that he privately funded several college educations and was sometimes very generous, though always secretly. When a friend asked him why one time, he reportedly said, "Well, if they knew about it, everyone would come to me with their hand out."
Some suggest that Elvis Presley had the same success with rock and roll that Goodman achieved with jazz and swing. Without Goodman there would not have been a swing era. It is true that many of Goodman's arrangements had been played for years before by Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. While Goodman publicly acknowledged his debt to Henderson, many young white swing fans had never heard Henderson's band. While most consider Goodman a jazz innovator, others maintain his main strength was his perfectionism and drive. Goodman was a non - pariel virtuoso clarinetist and -along with only Artie Shaw, amongst the most technically proficient jazz clarinetists of all time.
Goodman is also responsible for a significant step in racial integration in America. In the early 1930s, black and white jazz musicians could not play together in most clubs or concerts. In the Southern states, racial segregation was enforced by the Jim Crow laws. Benny Goodman broke with tradition by hiring Teddy Wilson to play with him ] in the Autumn of 1936. He then added Lionel Hampton on vibes in December, 1936, and in the early Summer of 1939 he augmented the famous "quartette" with pioneering jazz guitarist Charlie Christian to his band and small ensembles, who played with him until his untimely death from tuberculosis less than three years later. To give an understanding of American history at this time, Goodman's integration of popular music happened ten years before Jackie Robinson entered Major League Baseball. "[Goodman's] popularity was such that he could remain financially viable without touring the South, where he would have been subject to arrest for violating Jim Crow laws." By the mid- Summer of 1941, Benny had hired the incomparably rhythmic and show-man drummer, legendary "Big Sid" Catlett, the (later) famous John Simmons on bass, and still possessed the incomparable Charlie Christian on electric guitar -plus Cootie Williams was in the middle of his one-year contract... This amounted to virtually one-quarter of the orchestra of black heritage, but of course -following Jimmy Munday and Fletcher Henderson (who also joined the band as pianist for 6 months in July, 1939) it was really an orchestrated white extension of black big band jazz -only, curiously -better.
How Deep Is the Ocean
Benny Goodman Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'll tell you no lie
How deep is the ocean?
How high is the sky?
How many times a day do I think of you?
How many roses are sprinkled with dew?
To be where you are?
How far is the journey
From here to a star?
And if I ever lost you, how much would I cry?
How deep is the ocean?
How high is the sky?
How far would I travel
To be where you are?
How far is the journey
From here to a star?
And if I ever lost you, how much would I cry?
How deep is the ocean?
How high is the sky?
How high is the sky?
In the song "How Deep is the Ocean," Benny Goodman and His Orchestra sing about the depth of their love for someone. The lyrics express the desire to quantify the love they feel, using the vastness of the ocean and the sky as metaphors for the magnitude of their emotions. The song poses a series of questions about the extent of their love, from the frequency of their thoughts to the distance they would travel to be with the person they love. The final lines of the song convey the fear of losing that love and the incomprehensible amount of grief that would accompany such a loss - again using the ocean and sky as symbols for the bottomless depth of their love and pain.
The lyrics of the song are simple but effective in conveying the intense emotions that come with being in love. The use of tangible comparisons, such as roses sprinkled with dew and the distance to a star, ground the abstract concept of love in concrete terms. The repetition of the questions throughout the song also adds to the sense of longing and uncertainty that comes with being in love.
Line by Line Meaning
How much do I love you?
I'm trying to convey the depth of my love for you.
I'll tell you no lie
I'm being honest and sincere about my feelings.
How deep is the ocean?
I'm comparing the depth of my love to the vastness of the ocean.
How high is the sky?
I'm comparing the extent of my love to the vastness of the sky.
How many times a day do I think of you?
I think about you constantly and I'm trying to convey that.
How many roses are sprinkled with dew?
I'm trying to convey how much I think about you with a poetic comparison.
How far would I travel
I'm willing to go to great lengths to be with you.
To be where you are?
I want to be wherever you are because I love you so much.
How far is the journey
I'm acknowledging that getting to you may require a long and arduous journey.
From here to a star?
I'm using a distant star as a comparison to illustrate the challenging journey to be with you.
And if I ever lost you, how much would I cry?
The thought of losing you is unbearable and I would be devastated if it ever happened.
How deep is the ocean?
Again, I'm comparing my love for you to the vastness of the ocean because it expresses the depth of my feeling.
How high is the sky?
Reiterating my comparison between my love and the sky, because it shows how vast and extensive my love is.
How high is the sky?
A repetition of the previous line to emphasize the magnitude of my love.
Lyrics © IMAGEM U.S. LLC
Written by: IRVING BERLIN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@rhythmfield
Beautiful vocal performance
@marklentine8793
Thank you so much! Though born in ‘61…I grew up with big bands…and I love this recording. I think I first heard it in a compilation album called, “Echoes of the ‘30s.” Thanks so much…
@rhythmfield
Thanks for the background information on the song in your video description, I really appreciate it when people take the time and bother & don’t just throw the song onto YouTube thoughtlessly.
@Cont0rt
There's still a lot of effort that goes into transferring it from a 78. It isn't thoughtless to throw it up by itself considering the amount of money it costs to get the things necessary to play the record itself, let alone transferring it and putting it into video form. You also need to clean the record physically and clean up the transferred audio with editing software to make it sound good too.