I'm beginning to see the light

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I'm Beginning to See the Light is a 1944 song composed by Duke Ellington , Johnny Hodges and Harry James , with lyrics from Don George. Different versions of the piece were a number one hit in the United States and Australia in 1945 .

Origin of the song

In 1944, the two band leaders Duke Ellington and Harry James worked with Johnny Hodges on a melody for the piece I'm Beginning to See the Light , for which Don George wrote the lyrics, which in the same year also wrote the lyrics for Ellington's I Ain't Got Nothin 'But the Blues contributed. The band vocalist when the song was first recorded was 17- year-old Joya Sherrill , who had just joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra ; Soloists here were Johnny Hodges and trombonist Lawrence Brown .

Ellington biographer James Lincoln Collier pointed out that I'm Beginning to See the Light takes the form of the classic American popular song.

“But more than most composers of popular songs, [Ellington] tended to write more consecutive melodies, made up of quite different, even contrasting, phrases, producing more the effect of speech or dialogue. When well done, this system of writing inevitably produces a more interesting and melodically richer tune, although one perhaps correspondingly less acceptable to the ordinary ear. "

Don Georges lyrics for I'm Beginning to See the Light created romantic ideas like lantern-shine and rainbows in my wine . George used a list of " light " metaphors to do this . Ellington's piece was difficult to translate into text at times , as each A section consisted of the same phrase repeated three times before the melody eventually changed. George increased this musical insistence by repeating the same rhyme in the first three stanzas of each section:

"I never cared much for moonlit skies,
I never winked back at fireflies,
but now that the stars are in your eyes,
I'm beginning to see the light."

The text ends with the re-ignition of one of the oldest songwriting clichés by interweaving the metaphors “light” and “heat”:

"But now that your lips are burning mine, I'm beginning to see the light."

First recordings and successes

The first recording was made by Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra with singer Joya Sherrill, recorded in New York City on December 1, 1944 and released by RCA Victor . This recording hit the American charts, where it stayed for twelve weeks and climbed to number 6. The 1945 recording of co-composer Harry James and his orchestra and singer Kitty Kallen was a number one hit in the United States for two weeks and stayed in the charts for a total of 19 weeks. In the same year there was a cover version of Ella Fitzgerald with the Ink Spots , which also hit the American pop charts, stayed there for six weeks and reached number 5. In Australia, their version became a number one hit.

Development as a jazz standard

After I'm Beginning to See the Light established itself as a pop song, it was repeatedly picked up by jazz musicians and ultimately became a popular jazz standard .

Billy Eckstine recorded the song several times, with Billy May , Quincy Jones , Bobby Tucker and with Gil Asky . Ella Fitzgerald also sang it with the Basie band ( Ella and Basie ! , Verve 1963), with arrangements by Quincy Jones. The Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker recorded the song in 1953. Other instrumental versions by musicians such as Don Byas , Oscar Pettiford , Art Tatum , Chico Hamilton and Red Norvo followed . The vocalists who performed the song include Peggy Lee , Frank Sinatra and in 2004 Al Jarreau .

Use on stage and in film

Jo Stafford and Paul Weston parodied the song in Darlene Remembers Duke in the 1960s . I'm Beginning to See the Light was sung on the Broadway show Sophisticated Ladies in 1981 . The version of Harry James can be heard in the film Skip My Dog (2000), that of Duke Ellington in the film Matrix (1999).

Web links

literature

  • Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 5th, revised and supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-15-010464-5 .
  • Philip Furia: The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America's Great Lyricists . Oxford University Press; Reprint edition.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f “I'm Beginning to See the Light” at Jazz Standards
  2. ^ RCA Victor Records in the 20-1500 to 20-1999 series
  3. ↑ See Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890–1954 .