She's Funny That Way (song)
(I Got a Woman Crazy for Me) She's Funny That Way is a pop song written by Neil Morét (music) and Richard A. Whiting (lyrics) and released in 1928.
background
Neil Morét worked as a manager at the Remick music publishing house, where he was a mentor for the previously unknown composer Richard Whiting, who was here for the only time in his career as a songwriter . In terms of lyrics, the song written in E major in the form AABA is a torch song , but it is written from the perspective of the man. The song begins with the man devaluing himself ( I'm not much to look at / I'm nothing to see ), but at the end of each verse, he affirms the lover's happiness ( I've got a woman crazy ' bout me / She's funny that way ). While in most Torch songs the woman is portrayed as betrayed or mistreated and the man is the source of the evil, here the man is portrayed as honorable and loyal; he admits that he is leaving her because he feels she is unworthy of her, but he is smart enough to think better of it ( she'd be unhappy without me I know ).
First recordings and later cover versions
The song She's Funny That Way was first introduced with the recording of Gene Austin for Victor Records . Austin reached # 3 on the American charts with the song. Benny Goodman played the song with Margaret Whiting , the songwriter's daughter, for Brunswick Records . Other musicians who covered the song from late 1928 included the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra ( OKeh ), Ted Wallace ( Banner ), Jean Goldkette ( Victor ), Ted Lewis ( Columbia , # 15 in the US charts), Jimmie Noone ( Vocalion ), Emmett Miller (OKeh), in England Carol Gibbons and Philip Lewis , in Paris Sam Wooding ( Pathé ) and in Berlin Ben Berlin . Even Connie Haines , Martha Stewart , the Ben Bernie Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra (Brunswick 4132, with Scrappy Lambert ), Ford Gray, and Ford Gray took on the song end of the 1920s. The most successful recording of the song came from Frank Sinatra in the 1950s.
The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 276 (as of 2015) cover versions in the field of jazz , of which the recordings a. a. by Billie Holiday / Lester Young (Vocalion 1937), Lester Young (1946, Aladdin ), Erroll Garner (1949), Billie Holiday ( Clef , 1952), Count Basie / Oscar Peterson (1974), Kurt Elling (1998), Earl Hines / Joe Venuti (1999), Doc Cheatham / Nicholas Payton (1997) and by Bob Brookmeyer (1998) are noteworthy. She's Funny That Way was incorporated into a medley by Charles Mingus in 1965 ( My Favorite Quintet ). The song was also used in several feature films; u. a. in The Postman Always Rings Twice ( The Postman Always Rings Twice , in 1946, directed by Tay Garnett ). Frank Sinatra sang him in Meet Danny Wilson (1952); Frankie Laine and Billy Daniels in Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (1952, directed by Richard Quine ). Erroll Garner's version (with John Simmons (bass) and drummer Alvin Stoller ) was used in the Woody Allen film Deconstructing Harry (1997).
Notes and individual references
- ^ A pseudonym of Charles N. Daniels, who also wrote the songs Moonlight and Roses and Sweet and Lovely .
- ^ A b c d Marvin E. Paymer, Don E. Post: Sentimental Journey: Intimate Portraits of America's Great Popular Songs . 1999, p. 137 f.
- ↑ Philip Furia, Michael Lasser: America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley . 2006, p. 65.
- ↑ Information at Jazzstandards.com
- ↑ a b Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)
- ↑ Published by Welte-Mignon Roll 75413. Ford Gray was probably a pseudonym for the Piano Roll publisher Howard Lutter.
- ^ Gene Santoro: Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus
- ^ Adam Harvey: The Soundtracks of Woody Allen: A Complete Guide to the Songs and Music . P. 52.