'40s singers still my favorites

| Friday, January 17, 2003

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

As a young person growing up in the 1930s and '40s, I was much influenced by the radio. I listened to lots of Big Band music featuring the bands of Glenn Miller, Harry James, Kay Keyser and all the others. Sometimes, when I had an extra nickel, I would drop it into the jukebox at Paul Guy's Cafe to listen to Benny Goodman and his female vocalist, Peggy Lee, as they played and sang "Why Don't You Do Right." I liked Peggy Lee and later was surprised to learn that my wife knew her when they both lived in Fargo, N.D.

There were so many good female vocalists back then. I remember Martha Tilton (the liltin' Miss Tilton), and Francis Langford, who traveled with Bob Hope as they entertained the troops during World War II. There were Connie Francis and Dinah Shore, who sang with a bit of a Southern accent.

Who can ever forget the Andrews sisters? Patty, Maxine and Laverne, the best female trio of all. Oh, how they sang, "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree," "Bei Mir Bist Du Shoen," and "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B." There was another female trio that came along later, the McGuire Sisters, but they couldn't compare with Patty, Maxine and Laverne.

Probably the best scat singer ever was Ella Fitzgerald. I remember her singing "My Melancholy Baby" and "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You." She sometimes would sing duets with Louis Armstrong, myfavorite male singer of that era. Then there was the incomparable Billie Holliday, the great blues singer, who died all too soon after a tragic life. She sang "Lover Man" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me."

Jo Stafford and Rosemary Clooney ("How Much is That Doggie in the Window?") were the best of the standard song singers. Doris Day and Patti Page ranked right up there with them. Helen O'Connell and Bea Wayne had very distinctive voices. They were tops in the mid and late 1930s.

Betty Hutton, an actress who also sang, was a very extroverted singer. She didn't sing sweet love songs, but she could knock you out with novelty songs.

Here are two that I almost forgot — Kay Starr and Teresa Brewer. Kay had a very robust voice that carried a song well. Teresa gave you the impression that she was a little girl doing the singing. Her voice had a distinctive quality.

Lena Horne was a particular favorite of mine. Like Billie Holliday, she had a tough time of it because of her race, but there was never a sweeter voice. Joni James wasn't on the scene very many years, but she had a great voice.

Well, that's about all of them I can think of. Someone will probably write me and say, "Hey, you forgot to mention so and so. She was the best of them all." Now, don't ask me to name my favorite of these 20 or so singers. That would put me on the spot. Today, I might say it was Peggy Lee, but then tomorrow, I might choose Teresa Brewer or Lena Horne.

Britney Spears knows how to belt out a song, but she can't touch one of these 1940s favorites.

Walter Higbee is a retired college educator living in Spearfish. Write him at the Rapid City Journal, Box 450, Rapid City, SD 57709.