Mean to Me
Mean to Me is a popular piece of music written by Fred Ahlert (music) and Roy Turk (lyrics); the song was released in 1929, charted several times, and became the jazz standard .
Features of the song
In Mean to Me , the singer complains to the person he loves about the thoughtless mistreatment; there is never a call and there is even scolding in the presence of third parties. It is not entirely clear whether these complaints are meant seriously or are not more of a kind of teasing among lovers. The text plays with the double meaning of 'mean to me': once in the sense of 'mean to me' and once in the sense of 'what you mean to me'.
The 32-bar song is in the song form AA'BA "and has a" rhythmic and melodic structure. "The major theme appears cheerful with the main motif ascending in sequence. In the A parts, the basic chord scheme II-VI, but this is slightly modified each time; the B part starts on the subdominant and leads via its minor parallel to the dominant . According to Alec Wilder , the bass line is unusually innovative for a song from the late 1920s.
First shot
Ruth Etting sang the original version in 1929. “In the verse (which is usually no longer sung today) and in the presentation of the topic, she woos and woos for her loved one with understatement. But after an interlude with a sobbing coffeehouse violin, she seems to be fighting back tears. ”The record sold more than a million times; the song came in at number 3 in the American charts.
Other versions
In the same year other interpretations by Annette Hanshaw and Helen Morgan were published; Morgan's version came to number 13 on the American charts. Billie Holiday recorded the song in 1937 with Teddy Wilson ; this version was at number 7 on the American charts for four weeks. As a result of this interpretation - according to Marcus A. Woelfle “a high point in the collaboration between the singer and the similarly minded tenorist Lester Young , who played one of his best solos here” - jazz musicians discovered the potential of the song. The recordings by Sarah Vaughan (1945 with Dizzy Gillespie , 1950 with Budd Johnson ) are musically outstanding . Ella Fitzgerald recorded the song in her 1962 album Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson for Verve with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra , which won a Grammy Award for Best Female Solo Vocal Performance in 1963 ; another recording by her with pianist Oscar Peterson was made in 1975 ( Ella and Oscar ; Pablo Records). Even Linda Ronstadt recorded the song with Nelson Riddle for her album Lush Life on (1984). Rachel Gould enriched the song with blues elements in 1993 . Mention should also be made of interpretations by Betty Carter and Helen Humes , but also instrumental versions by Nat Adderley , Curtis Counce and Barney Kessel with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne .
Use in film and on stage
The song has been used several times in feature films and documentaries:
- Love Me or Leave Me (1955, interpreted by Doris Day )
- Lady Sings the Blues (1972, Diana Ross )
- Stepping Out (1991, Liza Minnelli )
- Made (2001, Dean Martin )
- Bukowski: Born into This (2004, Diane Schuur )
The song is also part of the musical Ain't Misbehavin ' , which has been performed repeatedly since 1978.
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Schaal (Ed.): Jazz standards. The encyclopedia. 3rd, revised edition. Bärenreiter, Kassel u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1414-3 .