Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly-recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin-color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. He rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation during the Little Rock Crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man.
Armstrong was born and brought up in New Orleans, a culturally diverse town with a unique musical mix of creole, ragtime, marching bands, and blues. Although from an early age he was able to play music professionally, he didn't travel far from New Orleans until 1922, when he went to Chicago to join his mentor, King Oliver. Oliver's band played primitive jazz, a hotter style of ragtime, with looser rhythms and more improvisation, and Armstrong's role was mostly backing. Slow to promote himself, he was eventually persuaded by his wife Lil Hardin to leave Oliver, and In 1924 he went to New York to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. At the time, there were a few other artists using the rhythmic innovations of the New Orleans style, but none did it with the energy and brilliance of Armstrong, and he quickly became a sensation among New York musicians. Back in Chicago in 1925, he made his first recordings with his own group, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and these became not only popular hits but also models for the first generation of jazz musicians, trumpeters or otherwise.
Other hits followed through the twenties and thirties, as well as troubles: crooked managers, lip injuries, mob entanglements, failed big-band ventures. As jazz styles changed, though, musical purists never lost any respect for him -- although they were sometimes irritated by his hammy onstage persona. Around the late forties, with the help of a good manager, Armstrong's business affairs finally stablilized, and he began to be seen as an elder statesman of American popular entertainment, appearing in Hollywood films, touring Asia and Europe, and dislodging The Beatles from the number-one position with Hello Dolly". Today many people may know him as a singer (a good one), but as Miles Davis said: “You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him."
The 62-year-old Armstrong became the oldest act to top the US charts when "Hello Dolly" reached #1 in 1964. Four years later Satchmo also became the oldest artist to record a UK #1, when "What a Wonderful World" hit the top spot.
Dardanella
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I love your harem eyes,
I'm a lucky fellow to capture such a prize,
Oh, Allah knows my love for you
And he tells you to be true, Dardanella,
Oh, hear my sigh, my Oriental,
Oh, sweet Dardanella, prepare the wedding wine,
There'll be one girl in my harem, when you're mine.
Just like the children of the Orient.
Oh, sweet Dardanella
My star of love divine.
Down beside the Dardanella Bay,
Where Oriental breezes play,
There lives a lonesome maid Armenian.
By the Dardanelles with glowing eyes
She looks across the seas and sighs
And weaves her love spell so sirenian.
Soon I shall return to Turkestan
I will ask for her heart and hand.
Oh, sweet Dardanella,
I love your harem eyes,
I'm a lucky fellow to capture such a prize,
Oh, Allah knows my love for you
And he tells you to be true, Dardanella,
Oh, hear my sigh, my Oriental,
Oh, sweet Dardanella, prepare the wedding wine,
There'll be one girl in my harem, when you're mine.
We'll build a tent
Just like the children of the Orient.
Louis Armstrong’s song, Dardanella, romanticises the beauty and allure of a Middle Eastern or Oriental woman named Dardanella, who possesses “harem eyes” that make the singer feel like a “lucky fellow”. He professes his undying love for her and even implores Allah to make her stay true to him. The song also puts forth the idea of building a tent near the beach and starting a harem with Dardanella as the head. All these lyrics conjure up an image of the exotic east that enchanted the American imagination in the early twentieth century.
Dardanella, which first appeared in 1919, played a crucial role in the popularisation of jazz music. It was also one of the earliest gramophone records to sell over 5 million copies worldwide. Various other artists covered the song, including Beniamino Gigli and Fud Livingston; even the Beatles played an instrumental version of it. Although the song celebrates the beauty of a Middle Eastern woman, Dardanella is a name stemming from the Dardanelles - a strait in Turkey. It is believed that a Turkish girl inspired the song.
Apart from Armstrong’s version of Dardanella, there’s a rare recording of the song featuring an American jazz singer Cliff Edwards, nicknamed 'Ukulele Ike'. He recorded the song in 1920, a year after the original release. Edwards also appeared on TV and various radio shows, one of his famous recurring roles being voicing Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney’s movie Pinocchio. The song's testament to the timelessness of love earned the honour of being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh, sweet Dardanella,
Addressing the subject of the song, a woman named Dardanella, expressing affection
I love your harem eyes,
Complimenting Dardanella's eyes as beautiful or alluring like those of a harem girl
I'm a lucky fellow to capture such a prize,
Feeling fortunate to have won the affection of Dardanella, perceiving her as a prize to be won
Oh, Allah knows my love for you
And he tells you to be true, Dardanella,
Claiming that his love for Dardanella is divinely inspired and that his beloved should remain faithful to him
Oh, hear my sigh, my Oriental,
Appealing to Dardanella, referring to her as Oriental, a term commonly used to describe Middle Eastern or East Asian cultures, expressing longing or sadness
Oh, sweet Dardanella, prepare the wedding wine,
Requesting that Dardanella prepare for their impending marriage
There'll be one girl in my harem, when you're mine.
Promising to have only one woman in his harem, focusing all of his attention on Dardanella after they are married
We'll build a tent
Just like the children of the Orient.
Describing how they will live after the marriage, referring to the traditional nomadic tents of Middle Eastern cultures
Oh, sweet Dardanella
My star of love divine.
Addressing Dardanella again, expressing admiration for her as the divine source of his love
Down beside the Dardanella Bay,
Where Oriental breezes play,
Describing the romantic setting where Dardanella lives, near the Dardanelles Strait, that separates Europe and Asia
There lives a lonesome maid Armenian.
Introducing a new character, a lonely Armenian woman who lives in the same area as Dardanella
By the Dardanelles with glowing eyes
She looks across the seas and sighs
And weaves her love spell so sirenian.
Describing how the Armenian woman yearns for love across the sea, casting a mystical, alluring spell on those who hear her sing
Soon I shall return to Turkestan
I will ask for her heart and hand.
Revealing the singer's plan to return to his home in Central Asia to propose to the Armenian woman and win her affection
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: FELIX BERNARD, FRED FISHER, JOHNNY BLACK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Sunshiney Day
Wow I have had this on cassette for the past 40 years without ever seeing them sing it! Thank you!
Ramon Ki Ré
Two of the greatest legendary talents, singing a legendary song. Absolute Heaven!
Raymond Jacobs
The magic that Bing and Satch had stemmed from a close, longtime friendship they had. In fact, Bing served as a pallbearer at Satchmo's funeral.
Old Toby
He was? Huh. Never knew about that. If so, that'd probably be the first time he'd been a pallbearer to his friend since Russ Columbo's funeral almost 40 years before that
John Benn
WOW
Wonderful music from two of the genuine superstars ever.
From a 71yo Aussie fan.
Kimberly Cummings
Love this! We buried my sweet 92 yr. old grandmother yesterday and her name was Dardanella :)
Stephen Adams: Musical Interpretations and Satire
That’s great!
kitty cats
Their voices compliment each other so beautifully. Love them both. Bing stiff dancing is so awkward and funny for such a cool dude and satchmo is the king of jazzzzzzzz.
Old Toby
Oh, you should really watch some of the stuffs he did with Fred Astaire...
Robert Duis
Lessons in TIMING by these two HERO'S.