Can't We Be Friends?

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Can't We Be Friends? is a pop song written by Kay Swift (music) and James Warburg (text, under the pseudonym Paul James ) and published in 1929.

background

Libby Holman

Composer and pianist Kay Swift wrote Can't We Be Friends? with her husband James P. Warburg (1896–1969) for the first edition of the music revue The Little Show. which premiered on April 30, 1929 at New York's Box Theater. Was presented Can not We Be Friends? by Libby Holman . Worked on this show a. also Fred Allen , Clifton Webb , George S. Kaufman , Arthur Schwartz , Howard Dietz and Ralph Rainger . Libby Holman's later signature tune Moanin 'Low was also presented there, as well as the Schwartz-Dietz song I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan . The song, written in F major in the form AABA , has the form of a "Russian Gypsy ballad"; the jazz impression is created by an unusual opening chord (G9) and a Neapolitan sixth chord . "In the tradition of the Torch song , the lyrics proclaim a self-fulfilling prophecy:"

I should have seen it,
Now it's too late!
I thought I'd found the man of my dreams.
Now it seems this is how the story ends
He's goin 'to turn me down and say
Can't We Be Friends?

First recordings and later cover versions

Among the musicians who covered the song from 1929 onwards were Libby Holman, who recorded the song for Brunswick on June 5, 1929 , Leo Reisman (Victor), Red Nichols (Brunswick, with Scrappy Lambert , vocals), Smith Ballew (OKeh ), The Georgians (Harmony), in Paris Sam Wooding and Ray Ventura (Odeon), in London Jack Hylton .

The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 196 (as of 2015) cover versions in the field of jazz , u. a. by Benny Goodman , Casa Loma Orchestra , Woody Herman and His Orchestra , Bob Crosby , Art Tatum , Ella Fitzgerald , Muggsy Spanier , Tommy Dorsey , Eddie Condon , Mildred Bailey / Ellis Larkins , Jess Stacy , Sonny Stitt , Red Norvo , Lester Young , Dizzy Gillespie / Roy Eldridge , Hal McKusick , Gene Ammons and Sarah Vaughan . Bing Crosby took the male point of view in his version of the song (Columbia 2001D). Trumpeter Harry James played Can't We Be Friends? in the soundtrack of the music film Young Man with a Horn (1950), which made the song a popular standard among jazz trumpeters in the following years .

Web links

  • Inclusion in the catalog of the German National Library: DNB 359437680

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Vicki Ohl: Fine and Dandy: The Life and Work of Kay Swift . 2008, p. 61.
  2. ^ A b c Marvin E. Paymer, Don E. Post: Sentimental Journey: Intimate Portraits of America's Great Popular Songs . 1999, p. 148.
  3. ^ David A. Jasen: Tin Pan Alley: An Encyclopedia of the Golden Age of American Song . 2004, p. 201.
  4. ↑ a b Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)
  5. ↑ Colin Bratkovich: Just Remember This. 2014, p. 426.