Darn That Dream

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Darn That Dream is a composition by Jimmy Van Heusen with the text by Eddie DeLange from 1939, which became the jazz standard .

Features of the song

Darn That Dream is a 32-bar ballad in the song form AA'BA '. The song follows the uncomplicated AABA form, but builds on a difficult to sing melody and a chromatic harmony.

DeLange uses this melody for a song text in which a dream is cursed that is dreamed every night and in which the beloved shows affection but which does not come true: “You say you love me and you hold me tight. But when I wake up, I won't find you. "

DeLange begins all four sections with the word “Darn”, which can mean either “darned” or “damned”, followed by “this dream”, then “your lips” or “your eyes”, “that one my mind pursued ”and finally“ this dream ”again. DeLange ends each A section with the line "Oh, damn, that dream," the song's catchphrase. In the end, he brings the whole situation in mind: The narrator “cannot understand that you don't care. To change the mood I'm in, I'd welcome a pretty old nightmare. ”This drastic change of mood from deep disappointment to weird humor coincides with the key change of the melody in the bridge (from G major to E flat major ).

History of the song

The ballad was for the Broadway - musical Swingin 'the Dream written, a musical, "swinging" version of William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream ( Midsummer Night's Dream ) is. The song appears there several times. In the world premiere he was played by Louis Armstrong (as Bottom), Maxine Sullivan (as Tatiana, the elf queen), Bill Bailey and the three elves, played by the Dandridge Sisters Dorothy Dandridge , Vivian Dandridge and Etta Jones, accompanied by the Benny Goodman Orchestra, sung. The show was very expensive due to the star cast and disappeared after only 13 performances because it was not economically viable. But Goodman took the title into his repertoire and recorded it as a record. Within a short time the potential of the piece, which hit the charts three times in 1940, became apparent:

Further recordings followed by Doris Day and Billie Holiday (1940), soon also by Dinah Washington .

Career in jazz

The song became a jazz standard by 1950 at the latest when it was recorded with Kenny Hagood and the Metronome All Stars , better known as Miles Davis Nonet (re-released on the album Birth of the Cool ). It is not so much the singing of Hagood, who, in Hans-Jürgen Schaal's opinion, does not interpret the song very differently than Billy Eckstine would have done, that enhances the potential of the song, but the arrangement of Gerry Mulligan . He was then played by Dave Amram and - in an arrangement by Jimmy Heath - Chet Baker . He was also recorded by pianists such as George Shearing , Erroll Garner , Thelonious Monk , Ahmad Jamal , Red Richards , Bill Evans and Rein de Graaff . After a recording by the quintet by Clifford Brown and Max Roach in 1954, the piece became a "must" for musicians such as Kenny Dorham , Hank Mobley and Dexter Gordon . In 1992 Paul Motian recorded it with his Electric Bebop Band .

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to KJ McElrath in his analysis for jazzstandards.com
  2. ↑ not to be confused with Etta Jones , who was a child at the time
  3. ↑ Swingin 'the Dream (IDBD)