Tea for Two

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Tea for Two is a song from the Broadway musical No, No, Nanette , composed by Vincent Youmans (music) and Irving Caesar (text) , which after isolated publication in 1925 became the jazz standard and was covered by many performers across all styles . In 1963, the ASCAP counted the song among the sixteen most successful musical works of all time.

History of origin

Lyricist Irving Caesar was asked by composer Vincent Youmans at night in 1924 to urgently write a text to an existing melody. Caesar (1895–1996) spontaneously developed a temporary text dummy. He used the song Bridge offered for the price of a one standard in 18th century England exclamation mobile tea vendor, the two pots of tea. Caesar probably did not know this expression, because he uses the phrase for a romantic meeting of two people over tea. The next day he developed the text further. He asked for the melody in the second section (bars 9 to 16) to be expanded to accommodate more syllables, making the somewhat monotonous rhythm up to then with its dotted quarter notes plus eighth notes more effective.

In the musical, the title is placed in the second act when Nanette and Tom ponder their future.

The song, which consists of 32 bars, is based on a minimum of tones and intervals , so that the simple, economical melody only comprises an interval of nine tones. Her refrain consists almost entirely of dotted quarter and eighth notes. The monotony that actually results from this is masked by an intense repetition. In addition, abrupt key changes between A flat major and C major create tension.

premiere

The musical was first performed in Detroit in April 1924, followed by Chicago, and only then did the musical get to New York. on September 16, 1925 at the Globe Theater , where there were 321 performances. The sheet music for the musical had previously been published on May 14, 1925.

Record recordings

Benson Orchestra of Chicago - Tea for Two
Marion Harris - Tea for Two

Due to the large number of cover versions, the song has become an evergreen . The musically important versions are mentioned below. The first record was made by the Benson Orchestra of Chicago , which recorded the song as an instrumental title on August 28, 1924 ( Victor # 19438). After publication in January 1925, the title reached number 5 on the charts . The next version of the record comes from soprano Helen Clark together with Lewis James and was created on September 22, 1924 as a duet suitable for musicals (Victor # 19463). All in all, the title came into the charts in six other versions, with the vocal version by Marion Harris , created on October 15, 1924, doing best with rank 1 (3 weeks). The instrumental version of Ben Bernie with his orchestra reached number 10 in the American charts in 1925.

Red Nichols & His Five Pennies made their first major jazz recording on February 14, 1930 (Brunswick # 4724); In the same year, the cover version of the Ipana Troubadours, created on December 27, 1929, reached number 15 in the American charts. Art Tatum brought out two versions, the first of which was made on March 21, 1933; its version from April 12, 1939 was able to work its way up to rank 18 in the American charts. Fats Waller records a piano solo on June 11, 1937 (Victor # 25618). Django Reinhardt recorded his first versions in Paris on December 21, 1937. Teddy Stauffer recorded the title in Switzerland in 1941. Tenor saxophonist Lester Young recorded the song several times, first on July 15, 1942 with Nat King Cole on piano; on November 28, 1952 was a version with Oscar Peterson ( Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio ). The Barney Bigard Trio ( Signature # 28116) followed with a recording on January 22, 1944, Gene Krupa and His Orchestra with Anita O'Day on October 23, 1945. Doris Day sang the song in the film of the same name on September 1, 1950 came into the cinemas (German title: Bewitching Woman ), but has nothing in common with the musical content. The LP for the film with the title Tea for Two ,sung by Day,was released on September 4, 1950. It is thanks to Doris Day that the jazz title has been transformed into a hit.

The original was not a cha-cha-cha ; it was only in the version of April 23, 1958 (Decca # 30704) that became known with the band led by Warren Covington by Tommy Dorsey , the title became the signature tune for Cha-Cha-Cha and created with Tea for Two Cha, Cha after publication in September 1958 No. 7 on the American and No. 3 on the British pop charts.

The song also served as a basis for improvisation in modern jazz ; John LaPorta recorded him with Lennie Tristano , but also Dave Brubeck , Thelonious Monk or Ran Blake in a duo with Jaki Byard . The singers Ella Fitzgerald and Anita O'Day created exemplary interpretations.

Vincent Youmans did not fully experience the development of his composition into a world hit because he died of tuberculosis in Denver in 1946 at the age of 48 . His partner Caesar, however, was able to participate in this success, because he was 101 years old and only died in New York in 1996.

Trivia

In October 1927, the conductor Nikolai Malko bet with the composer Dmitri Shostakovich for 100 rubles that it would not be possible to orchestrate a piece in less than an hour. Shostakovich accepted the bet and wrote an orchestral version of the song in 45 minutes. His version, Tahiti Trot op. 16, premiered on November 25, 1928 in Moscow and has been very popular ever since.

The song has a meaning in the French film comedy Drei Bruchpiloten in Paris : It serves as the theme tune for two British Air Force pilots who had to land in France during the German occupation.

statistics

The ASCAP lists 80 cover versions, of which the version recorded by the Comedian Harmonists on December 17, 1934 is worth mentioning. Music researcher Hermann Rauhe found another aspect that made the minimalist work Tea For Two an evergreen; the melody changed the rhythm every few years. "When the piece was written in 1924, it was a foxtrot rhythm, five years later rumba, slow waltz, tango and so on." In particular, the cha-cha-cha version of the Dorsey Orchestra must not be forgotten. Art Tatum's version ranks # 226 in Songs of the Century .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Schaal: Jazz-Standards , p. 491 ff.
  2. ↑ Dietrich Schulz-Köhn: I Got Rhythm: 40 jazz evergreens and their history . 1990, p. 335.
  3. ↑ James J. Fuld: The Book of World Famous Music . 2000, p. 572 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ one of them as a duo with Michel Warlop
  5. ^ Joseph Murrells: The Book of Golden Discs ., 2nd edition. Barrie and Jenkins, London 1978, ISBN 0-214-20512-6 .
  6. ^ David Roberts: British Hit Singles & Albums. 19th edition. Guinness World Records, London 2003, ISBN 1-904994-10-5 .
  7. ^ Kai Sichtermann, Kultsongs & Evergreens , 2010, p. 94
  8. ↑ ASCAP entry for Tea for Two
  9. ↑ Andreas Schmauder, Somewhere on the World , 1999, p. 60
  10. ↑ Anatomy of the earwig . In: SPIEGEL special 12/1995 of December 1, 1995, p. 21 ( online ).