Why Don't You Do Right?

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ella Fitzgerald (1946)
Amy Irving (1989)
Mark Murphy (2011)
Imelda May (2015)
Gabi Moreno (2015)

Why Don't You Do Right? is a 1941 blues popularized in 1943 in the swing version of Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman's orchestra . It is based on the title Weed Smoker's Dream, which was written in 1936 . Joe McCoy is usually given as the author . The number of recorded cover versions is now in the three-digit range. Well-known remakes are the use in the animation / real film mix Falsches Spiel with Roger Rabbit (1988) and a sample from the Serbian DJ Gramophonedzie from 2010.

history

The original version of the later Lee / Goodman hit was created in 1936 as a 12- bar Blues Weed Smoker's Dream , the author of which is stated to be the blues musician Joe McCoy. The original version was released as a '78 single on Decca - recorded by the Harlem Hamfats , a Chicago blues combo whose singer and guitarist McCoy was at the time. Whether McCoy wrote the piece alone or whether it was even written by him has not yet been clarified. For the music producer Iván Santiago-Mercado it is also open who was responsible for the vocals on the first recording of Weed Smoker's Dream . While some assume McCoy is, others believe the band's co-leader, trumpeter Herb Morand , to be the singer. Melodically and stylistically, Weed Smoker's Dream was a worn-out blues. As a piece aimed at a colored audience, the text contained more or less clear allusions to marijuana consumption - especially due to the choice of title (“Weed Smoker” - contemporary synonym for marijuana smokers). The focus is on the complaint about millionaires making their cut; This is connected with the request to find a way to get money.

In the following years McCoy changed the text content . The new title was the question Why Don't You Do Right? (in German: “Why aren't you doing the right thing?”) - supplemented by the addition in brackets (Get Me Some Money Too) . The new text was told from the perspective of a woman who asks her partner to go outside and bring her some money home. The new version of the song no longer contained any direct drug references. Structured more as a chronological sequence, the year in the opening line ("You had plenty of money 1922") can be understood as a reference to the Prohibition era - a time when a lot of money could be made in illegal business. In a more general sense, the new version of the song contained a woman's message to her partner not to just sit around, but to do something (for a living together). In 1941, Why Don't You Do Right? in the version of Lil Green , a colored blues singer, who interpreted the piece in the typical "Woman Blues" style. B-side of the single was Love Me, another McCoy song. The accompaniment on guitar was played by the blues musician Big Bill Broonzy ; there were also a few chords on the stride piano . The green version was released on Bluebird Records , a sub-label of RCA Victor specializing in jazz and blues .

Why Don't You Do Right achieved his breakthrough as an internationally known pop song ? two years later in the version of Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman. According to tradition, Goodman added the piece to his orchestra's repertoire because Lee liked the Green recording very much and wanted to please his band singer at the time. Goodman's first recording with Lee on vocals was made on June 27, 1942 in New York . The same year single was released on Columbia as the B-side of Six Flats Unfurnished . His big breakthrough was the song in 1943 due to the Cameo -Auftritts and Goodman band in the war mobilization - music film Stage Door Canteen .

The rhythm and delivery speed of the Goodman / Lee version - compared to those of the Harlem Hamfats and Lil Greens - were strongly adapted to the snappy, optimistic swing sound of the pop mainstream prevailing at the time . In retrospect, Why Don't You do Right? not as the biggest hit of Goodman and Lee's collaboration. However, it reached number 4 on the Billboard charts and stayed in the charts for weeks. For Peggy Lee, the piece turned out to be the end of her career as a big band singer. Columbia brought the inclusion in different compilations on the market - once as A-side with the Duke Ellington -Stück I Got It Bad (And That Is not Good) on the back, other times with Somebody Else Is Taking My Place .

Just as widespread as the appearance sequence in State Door Canteen is a second version of the song by Peggy Lee - a reinterpretation with Dave Barbour and his orchestra from 1951. Musically, the 1951 new recording stands out clearly from the version recorded with Goodman: Along with Lees After Goodman's departure, Lee and her then partner Barbour took up the title with a narrow jazz combo line-up. B-side is another popular Lee song - the Mambo piece Mañana. The new version of Lee's new record company Capitol , with which she was under contract from the early 1950s, was released.

The outstanding piece from her phase as a big band singer is Why Don't You Do Right? an integral part of various best-of albums and compilations for Peggy Lee. The piece received further attention on two occasions: On the one hand, because of its use in the animated real film mix Wrong Play with Roger Rabbit from 1988. The American actress and singer Amy Irving voiced the animated version . In 2010 the dance floor version of the Serbian DJ Gramophonedzie (Why Don't You) became a club hit and landed at number 2 on the British dance charts.

Other versions

A well-known title of the late swing era, Why Don't You Do Right? re-recorded in numerous cover versions. The stylistic spectrum ranges from classic swing and jazz to electronic reworking with the help of sample techniques - such as in the version of Gramophonedzie from 2010 listed above. Popular interpretation raw material is Why Don't You Do Right? especially in the areas of Neoswing and Neoburlesque . The number of well-known recordings was in the three-digit range in the mid-2010s. Both the iTunes Music Store and the video platform YouTube and the music reference portal Discogs list dozens of different versions.

The song was recorded relatively promptly by some interpreters in the jazz and crooning area . Helen Merrill interpreted it in 1960 on her LP Parole e musica , recorded in Rome , together with Piero Umiliani's orchestra . Further recordings in the early 1960s were made by Della Reese (album: Della Della Cha Cha Cha , 1960) and Julie London (album: Whatever Julie Wants , 1961). Ella Fitzgerald interpreted Why Don't You do Right? in a recording with jazz guitarist Joe Pass , Shirley Horn on their album You're My Thrill . The male vocalists who added the song to their repertoire include the entertainer Mel Tormé , the rock and roll singer Fats Domino and the jazz singer Mark Murphy .

In the field of pop, the piece was covered by Sinéad O'Connor (1992), Natalie Cole (2008) and the neo-rockabilly chanteuse Imelda May (2009). The new editions in the areas of Pop, Neoburlesque, Neoswing and Vintage are mostly more recent. New recordings included the American old-time band Carolina Chocolate Drops , the street jazz combo Speakeasies' Swing Band !, the hip-hop interpreter Gavlin, the neoswing formations Tony Burgos & His Swing Shift Orchestra and Charlotte Swing Band, the American jazz interpreter Eden Brent , the German jazz singer Lisa Bassenge , the New York band project Rasputina and the German sixties retro band Montesas .

In addition, there were publications that were unusual in terms of style or genre and interpretations on special occasions. Electronic music interpreter Bev Lee Harling released Why Don't You Do Right in 2013 as a single with two different remix versions. Instrumental versions - mainly from the jazz area - come from Herbie Mann and the smooth-style saxophonist Mark Maxwell. Singer Lana Del Rey recorded Why Don't You Do Right? 2015 in the program of their Endless Summer Tour. Heidi Klum interpreted the piece in 2015 as part of a Roger Rabbit performance. Finally, the original version of the Harlem Hamfats was reissued in 2013 on an album by actor and singer Hugh Laurie (known from the TV series Dr. House ) . The singer Gaby Moreno completed the vocal part .

The piece also experienced additional distribution due to its use in the two video games Mafia II and Fallout: New Vegas .

Popular cultural classification

Similar to other Peggy Lee titles - for example her world success Fever - Why Don't You Do Right? to the international hit classics of the 1940s and 1950s. The song is mentioned by name as an example of sentimental memoirs in the novel The Love You Promised Me by the Mexican author Silvia Molina. The New York Times described the song in its 2002 Peggy Lee obituary as a crucial step on the singer's path to her later solo career and rated it with the words: “She sang the Joe McCoy song with a voice that demonstrated that in hard times she could sing as well as anyone on the street; their version became one of the greatest sales successes in the country. ” The jazz critic Will Friedwald came to a more differentiated assessment in his 1992 book Swinging Voices Of America . It is true that Friedwald rates Lee's later oeuvre as really outstanding. However, Lee created the basis for this in the years of her collaboration with Benny Goodman.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b David A. Jasen, Gene Jones Spreadin 'Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880-1930 , New York, London 2005, p. 329
  2. ^ A b The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography and Videography: Observations About the Song "Why Don't You Do Right?" . Iván Santiago-Mercado, peggyleediscography.com, February 5, 2015
  3. ↑ Paul & Beth Garon Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues , City Light Books: San Francisco 2014, p. 361, footnote 20
  4. ↑ According to Gunther Schuller The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945 Oxford University Press 1989, p. 39, the melody of the two tracks is very similar: "The resemblance, in part at least ... is unmistakable".
  5. ↑ According to the biographer of McCoy's wife, Memphis Minnie , the text was “detoxified” in order to be suitable for a wider audience as well as without the man's earlier admonitions to his female counterpart, “[to] put her stuff on the market ”so that a woman could sing it. See Paul & Beth Garon Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues , p. 361, footnote 20
  6. ↑ Lil Green: Why Don't You Do Right? 1940-1942 . Review at allmusic.com, accessed on July 9, 2016
  7. ^ A b Peter Richmond Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee 2007, p. 153
  8. ↑ Lil Green - Why Don't You Do Right? / Love Me . Release details at discogs.com, accessed July 9, 2016
  9. ^ Benny Goodman And His Orchestra - Six Flats Unfurnished / Why Don't You Do Right . Release details at discogs.com, accessed July 9, 2016
  10. ^ Benny Goodman And His Orchestra - Why Don't You Do Right? / I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) . Release details at discogs.com, accessed July 9, 2016
  11. ^ Benny Goodman And His orchestra With Peggy Lee - Why Don't You Do Right / Somebody Else Is Taking My Place . Release details at discogs.com, accessed July 9, 2016
  12. ↑ Peggy Lee . John Fordham, Guardian, Jan. 22, 2002
  13. ↑ Peggy Lee - Why Don't You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too) / Mañana (Is Soon Enough For Me) . Release details at discogs.com, accessed July 9, 2016
  14. ↑ Amy Irving - Why Don't You Do Right? . Release details at discogs.com, accessed July 9, 2016
  15. ^ Grammophonedzie - 'Why Don't You' . Fraser McAlpine, BBC Radio / The Chart Blog, February 24, 2010
  16. ↑ Queries in the iTunes Music Store, YouTube and Discogs ( result ) on July 9, 2016
  17. ↑ Heidi Klum Also Lip-Synced as Jessica Rabbit . Eliza Thompson, cosmopolitan.com, November 3, 2015 (Eng.)
  18. Jump up ↑ Jazz legend: "Fever" singer Peggy Lee dies . Spiegel Online, January 22, 2002
  19. ↑ Silvia Molina: The love you promised me. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3596311095 . Passage available online at Google Books .
  20. ↑ Peggy Lee, Singer Whose Understated Style Kept Sizzling for Six Decades, Dies at 81 . Enid Nemy, New York Times, January 23, 2002
  21. ^ Will Friedwald: Swinging Voices Of America. Hannibal Verlag, Andrä-WIERT 1992, ISBN 3-85445-075-3 , pages 232-237

Web links