Wilson was born in Austin, Texas in 1912. He studied piano and violin at Tuskegee Institute. After working in the Lawrence "Speed" Webb band, with Louis Armstrong and also "understudying" Earl Hines in Hines's Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra, Wilson joined Benny Carter's Chocolate Dandies in 1933. In 1935 he joined the Benny Goodman Trio (which consisted of Goodman, Wilson and drummer Gene Krupa, later expanded to the Benny Goodman Quartet with the addition of Lionel Hampton). The trio performed during the big band's intermissions. By joining the trio, Wilson became the first black musician to perform in public with a previously all-white jazz group.
Noted jazz producer and writer John Hammond was instrumental in getting Wilson a contract with Brunswick, starting in 1935, to record hot swing arrangements of the popular songs of the day, with the growing jukebox trade in mind. He recorded fifty hit records with various singers such as Lena Horne and Helen Ward, including many of Billie Holiday's greatest successes. During these years he also took part in many highly regarded sessions with a wide range of important swing musicians, such as Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Charlie Shavers, Red Norvo, Buck Clayton and Ben Webster.
Wilson formed his own short-lived big band in 1939, then led a sextet at Café Society from 1940 to 1944. He was dubbed the "Marxist Mozart" by Howard "Stretch" Johnson due to his support for left-wing causes (he performed in benefit concerts for The New Masses journal and for Russian War Relief, and chaired the Artists' Committee to elect Benjamin J. Davis).[1] In the 1950s he taught at the Juilliard School. Wilson can be seen appearing as himself in the motion picture The Benny Goodman Story (1955).
Wilson lived quietly in suburban Hillsdale, NJ in the 1960s and 1970s. He performed as a soloist and with pick-up groups until the final years of his life. Teddy Wilson died on July 31, 1986.
He rests at Fairview Cemetery in New Britain, CT
[edit] Discography
Wilson at a Benny Goodman rehearsal, 1950
* Teddy Wilson Featuring Billie Holiday (1949)
* I Got Rhythm (1956)
* Pres and Teddy (1956)
* With Billie in Mind (1972)
* Live at Santa Tecla (1976)
* Teddy Wilson Trio Revisits the Goodman Years (1980)
As sideman:
* Billie Holiday, The Quintessential Billie Holiday, vols. 1 - 9 (1933-1942)
* Benny Goodman, The Complete RCA Victor Small Group Recordings (1935-1939)
* Benny Goodman, The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert (1938)
Died July 31, 1986(1986-07-31) (aged 73)
Hillsdale, New Jersey
Genres Jazz
Associated acts Louis Armstrong
Earl Hines
Billie Holiday
Lester Young
Lena Horne
Benny Goodman
Somebody Loves Me
Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I wonder who
I wonder who she can be;
Somebody loves me
I wish I knew,
Who can she be worries me
I shout, hey! maybe,
You were meant to be my loving baby;
Somebody loves me
I wonder who,
Maybe it's you.
"Somebody Loves Me" is a song about the feeling of being loved by someone, without knowing their identity. The song opens with the lyrics "Somebody loves me, I wonder who" which sets up the tone of a mystery, and the singer is curious to find out the person behind the expressions of love. This theme is repeated when the singer sings "Somebody loves me, I wish I knew, who can she be, it worries me".
The singer is on a lookout to find his love, and whenever he sees a girl who passes by, he wonders if she is the one who loves him. He calls out to them with a shout "Hey! maybe, you were meant to be my loving baby;", but despite the possible candidates, he remains unsure about who the person is who loves him. The last lines of the song "Somebody loves me, I wonder who, maybe it's you" suggest the possibility of the unnamed person being the one who loves him.
Overall, the lyrics of "Somebody Loves Me" convey a sense of longing for love and the curiosity about the identity of the one who loves him.
Line by Line Meaning
Somebody loves me
I am feeling loved by someone.
I wonder who
I am curious about the identity of this person who loves me.
I wonder who she can be;
I am questioning the gender of the person who loves me.
Somebody loves me
I keep on experiencing this overwhelming feeling of being loved.
I wish I knew,
I want to find out who this person is.
Who can she be worries me
The thought of not knowing who loves me is causing concern.
For every girl who passes me
Every time I see a girl, I begin to wonder if she's the one who loves me.
I shout, hey! maybe,
I audibly vocalize my thoughts, contemplating if any one of these girls is the one who loves me.
You were meant to be my loving baby;
I visualize and speak out loud to these girls as if they were my significant other.
Somebody loves me
I can't shake off this feeling that someone out there in the world loves me.
I wonder who,
Despite all my ponderings and castings of suspicions, I have not been able to identify the person who loves me.
Maybe it's you.
I am suggesting that maybe the listener is the one who loves me.
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, Songtrust Ave, Broma 16
Written by: Buddy DeSylva, Ballard MacDonald, George Gershwin
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Cocktail Piano
Wonderful
Sugar Bear Mosher
he sort of sounds like Earl Hines in this recording, anyone else agree?
umbrellashotgunman
Heh, pretty much every Swing-Age pianist sounded a bit like Earl, except for maybe Fats.