Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Big Band Tuesday #3 - Deep Purple by The Artie Shaw Orchestra, vocals by Helen Forrest

...well, installment #3 is upon us, y'all (dang...the weeks are going by quickly...when is Thanksgiving? :-] )...

Today, we bring you the loverly tune, 'Deep Purple', written by Peter DeRose, performed by the Mighty Artie Shaw Orchestra, and sung by the ethereal pipes of Miss Helen Forrest...

...is it just me, or does Artie Shaw look more than a bit like Lew Ayres? ...and speaking of Ginger, (???) (ALL conversations lead to Ginger in Hueyville, right?) - I always think about that scene in Roxie Hart where she says, "...and then, everything went - PURPLE..."  ...hmmmm...DEEP Purple, perhaps?

The first recording of this tune was by the Larry Clinton Orchestra, and vocalized by Bea Wain, and was a big hit in 1938...the version featured here was done in the early 40s, I do believe... another interesting note about this tune is that it was Babe Ruth's fav...so much so, that the composer DeRose performed it annually at the Bambino's Birthday Bash...

Several versions have been recorded over the years...Donny and Marie among others... in1963, a duo called Nino Tempo & April Stevens (which was another 'brother-sister duo') hit #1 with their version, and also won the Best Rock and Roll (???) Record for 1963...

Well, there ya go... Deep Purple... an enchanting tune that has stood the test of time...

Hope to be back soon with more information for you to glean nuggets of savory wisdom from...

Until that glorious day,

JW...OUT.

2 comments:

  1. My mom loves that song! Sometimes I hear her listening to it, it's catchy. :)

    I like Artie Shaw, he's pretty good. My two favorites from him is Stardust and Moonglow.

    Let's just say tons of music from back then was really catchy!

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  2. Yes, he has a lot of nice ones, I guess his most popular is 'Begin the Beguine'... so yeah, we'll see more of ASO on here...
    ...I forgot to mention I have not one, but TWO different sets of sheet music for this song... my wife had a friend who lived on a small college campus a few hours away, and we visit every once in awhile - and there was a yard/garage sale going on nearby... one of the 'items' for sale was a fairly good-sized box of sheet music...of course, I thought, perhaaaaps, there is a GandF tune in there...and, actually, there were a few 'associated' tunes...one, being 'the train leaving Alabam - or something like that - from 'Easter Parade'...the other was, 'The Wiffenpoof song', which, is like, 'WHA?'... but when I started reading the lyrics, it was, 'we're two little lambs who have lost our way... yep, it's Barnaby and Edwina's song from Monkey Business!!! So that alone was worth the ten-spot I paid for the lot... and with that also came the two versions of Deep Purple...think I'll get my wife to play that one...
    OK - all that to say, glad you enjoyed the selection! Hopefully the few folks reading this blog are into this... maybe I need to 'remind' folks about it over here...I want to do some reviews of 'non-Ginger' films here...of course, nothing as epic as the GingerReviews, but basic 'synopses' of Huey's fav 'other' films... so we'll see...

    Well, thanks again, GF!
    Hu
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