Oh, What It Seemed to Be

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Oh, What It Seemed to Be is a pop song written by George David Weiss , Bennie Benjamin and Frankie Carle and released in 1945. The song was one of the successful titles of 1946 and was recorded by 17 well-known bands, singers and combos that year.

background

Oh, What It Seemed to Be was created in late 1945 as a collaboration between Frankie Carle and songwriters Ben Benjamin and George Weiss.

First recordings and later cover versions

The band leader Frankie Carle had a number one hit in the US with the ballad Oh, What It Seemed to Be (Columbia 36892) ; the band vocalist was his daughter Marjorie Hughes . Carle then continued his chart success in 1946 with Rumors Are Flying (also by Weiss / Benjamin) and Surrender . Oh What It Seemed to Be became Carle's theme song.

Johnny Mercer appeared in a duo with Joan Edwards on the radio show Your Hit Parade in April 1946 ; Frank Sinatra was also successful with his version of the song (Columbia 36905, with Axel Stordahl's studio orchestra ). Musicians who covered the song in the United States from 1945 onwards included the orchestras of George Paxton , Charlie Spivak (Victor, with Jimmy Saunders, vocals), Les Brown (with Doris Day ), Buddy Rich (with Dorothy Reid), Bob Crosby , Harry James (with Buddy DeVito), Woody Herman , Erskine Hawkins (with Jimmy Mitchell), Paul Whiteman (with Martha Tilton ), also Jo Stafford / Carl Kress and Dinah Shore . In 1945 the song was recorded in Zurich by Ernst Höllerhagen , in 1946 in Hilversum by Jan de Vries & The Decca Melodians and in Prague by Kamil Běhounek (with Eva Janotova).

The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 22 (as of 2016) cover versions in the field of jazz , including a. also by Jackie Gleason , Mat Mathews , Bill Cyrils , Jim Cullum , Ray Anthony and by Fabrizio Bosso / Gianni Basso .

Web links

  • Inclusion in the catalog of the German National Library: DNB 355566834

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Michael Lasser: America's Songs II: Songs from the 1890s to the Post-War Years . 2014, p. 202
  2. ↑ William Edward Burghardt Du Bois: The Crisis - Volumes 53-54, 1946, page 148
  3. ↑ Gene Catrambone: The Golden Touch: Frankie Carle , 1981
  4. ↑ Michael Whorf: American Popular Song Composers: Oral Histories, 1920s-1950s. 2012
  5. ^ William Emmett Studwell: They Also Wrote: Evaluative Essays on Lesser-Known Popular American Songwriters Prior to the Rock Era . 2000
  6. ↑ Glenn T. Eskew: Johnny Mercer: Southern songwriter for the World . 2013, page 233
  7. ↑ a b Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)