Baby Face (song)
Baby Face is a song written by Harry Akst (music) and Benny Davis (lyrics) and released in 1926.
background
The Tin Pan Alley song quickly became popular in vaudeville theaters, sung by Eddie Cantor , Al Jolson, and other singers after the Jan Garber orchestra ( Victor Records , co-writer Benny Davis vocalist) recorded the song . The song written in C major (in the form ABA'C ) is a tradition in the English music hall , with easily understandable melody and text; the melody of the chorus consists of a minor third (GEG) followed by a descending scale , starting with C major, where each note is repeated and this pattern then repeats one notch higher.
First recordings
In addition to Jan Garber, the first musicians to record the song from 1925 included the orchestra of Ben Selvin , Lou Gold & His Orchestra (with Arthur Fields , vocals), Whispering Jack Smith The Buffalodians (with Harold Arlen , vocals), in Berlin the Truso groups.
Later cover versions
With the cover version of Art Mooney , the song experienced a comeback; During this time Baby Face was also covered by Butch Stone , Bobby Hackett and Les Brown . In later years he interpreted a. a. also Kid Ory , Kurt Edelhagen , Papa Bue Jensen , Chris Barber , Kid Sheik Cola , George Lewis and the Dutch Swing College Band . Disko Graf Tom Lord lists in the field of jazz total of 92 (as of 2015) cover versions . Little Richard (1958) and Bobby Darin (1962) were successful with the song in the US charts. The song was also used in several films; Mary Eaton sang him in the Florence Ziegfeld production Gloryfying the American Girl (1930). Al Jolson was vocal double for Larry Parks in Jolson Sings Again (1949); Julie Andrews interpreted him in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967, directed by George Roy Hill ).