All or nothing at all
All or Nothing at All is a pop song written by Arthur Altman (music) and Jack Lawrence (lyrics) and released in 1939. It was the first big hit of the singer Frank Sinatra .
background
Most popular was Frank Sinatra's recording of the song with the Harry James Orchestra in August 1939, recorded in the studio and for the radio at the World's Fair in Flushing, NY.
Siegfried Schmidt-Joos wrote about Sinatra's recording: In All or Nothing at All [...] he showed a sensitivity for textures, a creative skill and a sensitivity for the lyrics that would become typical of the later Sinatra style. When All Or Nothing At All, recorded on August 31, 1939, came onto the market without mentioning the singer, the jazz magazine Down Beat wrote that the Harry James Orchestra was really just beginning: The band has still a long way to go .
No more than 8,000 copies of the shellac record were subsequently sold in the United States. The recording was in 1943 during the recording ban of Columbia re-released, this time under the name Frank Sinatra, with Harry James . On July 10, 1943, it reached position one on the American charts.
More cover versions
The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra also covered the song in 1939; in later years Billie Holiday ( Verve 1956) and John Coltrane ( Ballads , 1962) took him on. The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 276 (as of 2015) cover versions in the field of jazz , including the interpretation by Chris Connor , Joey DeFrancesco , Freddie Hubbard ( Open Sesame 1960), Al Jarreau , Diana Krall , Hank Jones & Frank Wess and Mark Turner are worth highlighting. In 2012 Randy Brecker received a Grammy nomination in the category Best Solo Jazz Improvisation for his interpretation of All or Nothing at All .
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Michael Lasser: America's Songs II: Songs from the 1890s to the Post-War Years . 2014, p. 167
- ↑ Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Vladimir Bogdanov: All Music Guide to Jazz: The Definitive Guide to Jazz Music . 2008
- ^ A b Siegfried Schmidt-Joos: My Back Pages: Idols and Freaks, Death and Legends in Pop Music . 2004, p. 278.
- ↑ It is possible that the song of the same name, recorded in 1937 by Tempo King and His Kings Of Tempo (with Marty Marsala , Joe Marsala , Eddie Condon and Stan King ), is not the pop song discussed. Behind the pseudonym Tempo King hid several jazz musicians who imitated Fats Waller's popular style. From August 1936, the studio band Tempo King's Kings of Rhythm recorded a total of 55 tracks for the Victor sub-label Bluebird Records , from June to December 1937 for Vocalion. In addition to the Marsala brothers, Condon and King, Mort Stuhlmaker and George Yorke were members of the combo. Perhaps the drummer Stan King was hiding behind the pseudonym Tempo King.
- ↑ a b Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)
- ^ All or Nothing at All jazzstandards.com
- ^ List of Grammy nominees 2012