Pennies from Heaven (song)
Pennies from Heaven is a pop song written by Arthur Johnston (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics) in 1936 for the music film of the same name . It was introduced there by Bing Crosby . The song was a big hit in 1936 and became the jazz standard after 1947 .
background
Johnston's melody, which is consistently in C major , is composed in the song form AB-A'-C and is based on a simple chord progression (I - II7 - V7 - I, which is modified in the second A part). Burke used the percussive repetitions in the melody in his lyrics to write a song about rain. In a fairytale-like performance, the clouds were not filled with drops of water, but with coins, so that it rained pennies from the sky. With short vowels and sharp consonants ("Ev'ry time it rains / it rains pennies from heaven") Burke reinforced the rainy character of the melody.
Crosby recognized the qualities of the ballad during filming and made Pennies from Heaven the movie's theme song.
reception
Crosby's recording of Pennies from Heaven with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra for Decca Records was featured on the radio show Your Hit Parade for 13 weeks. In the American charts, this version was number 1 for ten weeks. In 2004 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame .
The song was nominated for an Oscar for "best movie song" in 1937 (which The Way You Look Tonight received).
More cover versions
Just two weeks after Crosby, Louis Armstrong (who made another musical contribution to the movie Pennies from Heaven , Skeleton in the Closet ) went into the studio to record the song; Louis Prima followed. Other versions of Pennies from Heaven hit the American pop charts in 1936 and 1937 :
- Hal Kemp and His Orchestra (# 8)
- Hildegarde (# 16)
- Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra (# 19 with Bob Eberle )
- Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra (# 2, 1937)
- Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra (# 3 with Billie Holiday , also)
Some of these versions have already been interpreted at a moderate pace, such as those by Wilson and Holiday. Even Count Basie and Nat Gonella took Pennies from Heaven to 1937; Duke Ellington and Django Reinhardt also had the song in their repertoire at the time. By Louis Armstrong's appearance in the Town Hall in 1947, where he also interpreted Pennies from Heaven , the song was brought back to mind; he has now also been recorded by Charlie Ventura , Tadd Dameron , Charles Mingus , Woody Herman , Charlie Parker and June Christy . Recordings by Lester Young , Oscar Peterson , Dave Brubeck , Sarah Vaughan and Eddie Lockjaw Davis / Shirley Scott are particularly noteworthy.
The song also became the pop standard. Frank Sinatra recorded Pennies from Heaven twice, first in 1956 with Nelson Riddle for his album Songs for Swingin 'Lovers , in 1962 with Count Basie for Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First. Even Andy Williams , Dean Martin , The Skyliners and Michael Bublé (with Paul Anka ) took up the song. Shirley Bassey performed the song on The Muppet Show .
Parodies
In 1957 Louis Prima edited the song and scatted "shoobie doobie doobie… sunshine and ravioli… pizzioli"; this version appeared as Penne from Heaven. Another parody is Benny's from Heaven. Its new text comes from Eddie Jefferson , who, like James Moody, read this version. It was about a "second lieutenant named Spears" who came home, "after staying overseas three years," and now found a baby at home who, as his wife explained, had come from heaven. This parody is also in Roger Cicero's repertoire . Dean Martin opened his shows since the 1960s with a medley that included the parody Bourbon from Heaven.
Further use in the film
The BBC made Pennies from Heaven the title of a television series in 1978 (film adaptation 1981); there the recording of a cover version by Arthur Tracy from 1937 was used. Billie Holidays' interpretation was used in the 1994 film Corrina, Corrina . Louis Primate's 1936 version was used in the 2003 film Buddy, and in 2008 in the animated film Igor and Rose Murphy's rendition of Pennies from Heaven was used in the 2011 feature film The Artist .
literature
- Ted Gioia : The Jazz Standards. A guide to the repertoire. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4 .
- Susan Sackett : Hollywood Sings! An Inside Look at Sixty Years of Academy Award-Nominated Songs. Billboard Books, New York NY 1995, ISBN 0-8230-7623-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d song portrait (jazzstandards.com)
- ^ A b Philip Furia, Michael Lasser: America's Songs. The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. Routledge, New York et al. a. 2006, ISBN 0-415-97246-9 , p. 135.
- ^ A b Ted Gioia: The Jazz Standards. 2012, p. 334.
- ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online February 9, 2014).
- ↑ Concert on May 25, 2013 in the fish auction halls .
- ^ Concert London 1983 .
- ↑ Original soundtrack, Corrina Corrina
- ↑ Elf: Music From The Major Motion Picture.