Eva Cassidy was the third of four children born to Hugh and Barbara Cassidy. From an early age, she displayed artistic and musical talent. When she was nine years old, her father taught her to play the guitar, and she began to play and sing at family gatherings.
While a student at Bowie High School, she did sing with a local band, called Stonehenge, and received considerable praise.
At the age of eighteen, Cassidy began her professional career, singing and playing guitar in a Washington, D.C., area band, called Easy Street. This band performed in a variety of styles, at weddings, corporate parties, and pubs.
During the summer of 1983, Cassidy sang and played guitar, six days per week, at Wild World, in Maryland. Her brother Dan was also a member of this working band.
Throughout the 1980s, Cassidy worked with a number of other bands, including the soul and Motown-oriented band The Honeybees, and the techno-pop band Characters Without Names, later called Method Actor.
During this period, Cassidy also worked as a propagator at a plant nursery and as a furniture painter in Annapolis, Maryland. In 1986, she met (bassist and recording engineer) Chris Biondo, who encouraged her and helped her find work as a backup singer for various acts. In 1990, Biondo and Cassidy hired the so-called "Eva Cassidy Band", composed of Chris Biondo, Lenny Williams, Keith Grimes and Raice McLeod, and she began to perform frequently in the Washington area.
In 1992, Biondo played a tape of Cassidy's voice for Chuck Brown. Best known as the "Godfather of Go-go", Brown is also a jazz and blues vocalist. This led to the first commercial recording of Cassidy, the duet album with Chuck Brown, The Other Side; which featured performances of classic songs such as "Fever", Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" and Cassidy's signature tune "Over the Rainbow". The album was released and distributed by Liaison Records, the label that also released Brown's Go-go albums. The duet CD attracted the attention of various record companies, but the offers all required Cassidy to pigeonhole herself within a single style (e.g., pop or jazz), something she adamantly refused to do.[citation needed]
In 1993 Eva Cassidy was first honored by the Washington area music community when she was awarded two Wammie awards for "Female Vocalist Roots/Traditional R&B" and "Vocalist Jazz/Traditional." The next year she was chosen to perform for the awards ceremony.
In January 1996, Cassidy recorded the album Live at Blues Alley, about which The Washington Post later commented that "she could sing anything and make it sound like the only music that mattered". [1] Cassidy was unhappy with her singing on the album, because she had a bad cold on the night of the recording; she began recording a studio album which was eventually released as Eva by Heart posthumously in 1997.
During a promotional event for the Live at Blues Alley CD in July 1996, Cassidy noticed an ache in her hips, which she attributed to stiffness from painting murals. The pain persisted, and, a few weeks later, Cassidy was diagnosed with melanoma. By the time of her diagnosis, the cancer had spread throughout her body. Cassidy's health rapidly deteriorated, and her final performance was in September 1996. At the performance, she had used a walker to reach the stage, sang "What a Wonderful World" in front of an audience of friends, and was subsequently admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital.[citation needed]
Eva Cassidy died on November 2, 1996, at the age of 33. She was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Washington Area Music Association.
It Don't Mean a Thing
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
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Doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah
It don't mean a thing, all you gotta do is sing
Doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah
It makes no difference if it's sweet or hot
Just give that rhythm everything you got
Oh
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
Doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
Dooo-ah dooooo-ah
Don't mean a thing all you gotta do is sing
Dooooo-ah Doo-ah
It makes no difference if it's sweet or hot
Just give that rhythm everything you got
Oh
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
Doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah
The song "It Don't Mean a Thing" by Eva Cassidy is a cover of the original song written by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills. The song stresses on the importance of swing in music, and that without it, music is incomplete. "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing" repeats throughout the song, emphasizing the significance of swing.
The lyrics suggest that the quality of music has nothing to do with its sweetness or intensity, but it entirely depends on the rhythm and swing. The singer urges the listeners to give their best to the rhythm to create swing to make the song complete. The use of the phrase "Doo-ah" in between the lyrics creates a melody that aligns with the significance of swing in music.
Moreover, the song's upbeat nature and the lively music convey the singer's message of the significance of swing effectively. The song serves a reminder that music is not just any sound but a combination of melody, harmony, and rhythm that creates an emotion and experience.
Line by Line Meaning
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing
The value of something, such as music, is determined by its ability to maintain a lively and infectious rhythm.
Doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah doo-ah
Non-lyrical vocalizations that emphasize the importance of maintaining a swing rhythm.
It don't mean a thing, all you gotta do is sing
Musical skill is not necessary to enjoy and appreciate swing music; singing along and feeling the rhythm is enough.
It makes no difference if it's sweet or hot
Whether the music is slow and melodious or fast and energetic is inconsequential as long as it maintains a lively rhythm.
Just give that rhythm everything you got
To fully experience and enjoy swing music, it's essential to put all your energy into keeping the rhythm lively and exciting.
Oh
An interjection that expresses joy and excitement, commonly used in musical contexts.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Duke Ellington, Irving Mills
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind