These Foolish Things
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These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) – music by Jack Strachey and lyrics by Eric Maschwitz
Excerpts from the Wikipedia profile, adapted:
These Foolish Things is one of a group of ‘Mayfair Songs’, like A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. Eric Maschwitz wrote the song [lyrics] under his pen name, Holt Marvell. The copyright was lodged in 1936 and it was written for Joan Carr for a late-evening review broadcast by the BBC. Maschwitz was romantically linked to the Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong while working in Hollywood, and the lyrics of “These Foolish Things” are evocative of his longing for her after they parted and he returned to England. The name of an American, Harry Link, sometimes appears as a co-writer, but his input was probably limited to changes to suit the US market.
When the song was written, Maschwitz was Head of Variety at the BBC. It is a list song (Maschwitz calls it a ‘catalogue song’ in his biography), in this case working through the various things that remind the singer of a lost love. The lyrics – the verse and three choruses – were written by Maschwitz during the course of one Sunday morning at his flat in London. Within hours of crafting the lyrics, he dictated them over the phone to Jack Strachey and they arranged to meet the same evening to discuss the next step. Strachey suggested an alternative title, These Little Things, but this was not taken up.
Jazzstandards.com says:
Singer/actress Dorothy Dickson introduced “These Foolish Things” in the 1936 British musical comedy Spread it Abroad. A modest hit, the production opened at London’s Saville Theater on the first of April and ran for 209 performances.
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Leslie Hutchinson - recorded 11 January 1936. This was the first recording of the song. Citing Lives of the Great Songs by Tim De Lisle (1994), and the 1957 memoir by Eric Maschwitz, No Chip on My Shoulder, Wikipedia says:
Despite being featured in Spread it Abroad, a London review of 1936,[9] it aroused no interest until the famous West Indian pianist and singer, Leslie Hutchinson (‘Hutch’) discovered it on top of a piano in Maschwitz’s office at the BBC. ‘Hutch’ liked it and recorded it, whereupon it became a great success and was recorded by musicians all over the world.[10]
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Carroll Gibbons & his Orchestra, vocal by Turner Layton – 1936
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Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra, vocal Billie Holiday
From billieholidaysongs.com: Session #8 New York, 30 June 1936, Teddy Wilson & his Orchestra (Brunswick) — Jonah Jones (tp) Johnny Hodges (as) Harry Carney (bs) Teddy Wilson (p) Lawrence Lucie (g) John Kirby (b) Cozy Cole (d) Billie Holiday (v)
The session number 8 signifies the eighth recording session of Holiday’s career. The first two were in 1933, followed by four in 1935. This track is from the second of five Teddy Wilson led 1936 sessions she participated in.
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Benny Goodman and his Orchestra with vocalist Helen Ward – 1936
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Greta Keller – 1936
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Benny Goodman Sextet – 1940. I don’t know the lineup was for this particular recording. Personnel in the Goodman Sextet on recordings from 1939-41 included: Benny Goodman (clarinet); Charlie Christian (electric guitar); George Auld (tenor saxophone); Cootie Williams (trumpet); Count Basie, Johnny Guarneri (piano); Lionel Hampton (vibraphone); Artie Bernstein (bass); and Gene Krupa, Nick Fatool (drums).
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Benny Goodman – a later instrumental version, live. Date unknown.
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A cigarette that bares a lipstick’s traces
An airline ticket to romantic places
Still my heart has wings
These foolish things remind me of you
A tinkling piano in the next apartment
Those stumblin’ words
That told you what my heart meant
A fairground’s painted swings
These foolish things remind me of you
You came, you saw, you conquered me
When you did that to me
I knew somehow this had to be
The winds of March that make my heart a dancer
A telephone that rings but who’s to answer
Oh, how the ghost of you clings
These foolish things remind me of you
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Lester Young – recorded: NYC April 18, 1944 — Lester Young – Tenor Sax, Billy Butterfield – Trumpet, Hank D’Amico – Clarinet, Dexter Hall – Guitar, Johnny Guarnieri – Piano, Billy Taylor – Bass, Cozy Cole – Drums
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Frank Sinatra – 1945 and 1961
30 July 1945 – arrangement by Axel Stordahl
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12 September 1961 – arr. Axel Stordahl
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Bing Crosby with John Trotter and his Orchestra – 1946
The provider, RDoyleMatthews, indicates that this is a 2012 remaster by himself, and correctly identifies the original recording as the B-side of the single They Say It’s Wonderful (Decca – 18829).
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(above) Billie Holiday performs at the Tiffany Club in Los Angeles on 18 March 1952
Billie Holiday — Session #67 Los Angeles, after 21 April 1952, Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra (Clef) — Charlie Shavers (tp) Flip Phillips (ts) Oscar Peterson (p) Barney Kessel (g) Ray Brown (b) Alvin Stoller (d) Billie Holiday (v)
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Jimmy Smith – 1958
Opening track from the Softly As A Summer Breeze album. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on 14 Oct 1958. Jimmy Smith (organ); Kenny Burrell (guitar); Philly Joe Jones (drums)
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Dave Brubeck Quartet – University of Rome concert - 1959
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Chet Baker Sextet – from the album Chet is Back! – 1962
Chet Baker (tromba); Bobby Jaspar (flauto e sax tenore); Rene Thomas (chitarra); Daniel Humair (batteria);
Benoit Quersin (basso); Amedeo Tommasi (piano)
From a review of the 2003 reissue of Chet is Back! at amazon.com:
Chet Baker, the James Dean-meets-Miles Davis trumpeter moved to Rome in 1962. He gets arrested for buying dope, learns Italian in jail, and records a jazz album with the future spaghetti western composer, Ennio Morricone…the highlight of this set are the four vocal tracks released for the first time in the U.S. Morricone’s ethereal string arrangements are the perfect backdrop to Baker’s effeminate, but effective vocals, delivered in charming and grammatically incorrect Italian, with lyrics by the stenographer who worked at Baker’s trial! –Eugene Holley, Jr.
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Thelonious Monk – from Solo Monk, 1964
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Bobby Watson – saxophone solo - 1991
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Max Raabe & Palast Orchester – a February 2009 performance — from the DVD, Heute Nacht Oder Nie: Live in Berlin (2010)
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Oct 14, 2011 @ 08:41:58
American and European vocalists sing different tunes for the middle eight, but the same words.
Oct 14, 2011 @ 10:05:26
Hi John,
Thanks. The only version by a European I’ve heard is that by Greta Keller, but I hadn’t noticed the difference until you mentioned it. Keller clearly sings a different middle eight (more often known as the bridge or release in the US, I think) than does Helen Ward in a recording of the same year. The melodies differ, and the Goodman arrangement with vocals by Ward has an eight bar bridge whereas Keller’s middle “eight” is shorter. Five bars?
Can you recommend another European example, for illustration? — Jim
Oct 14, 2011 @ 12:33:12
I have original Boosey & Hawkes sheet music (therefore English), copyright 1936 which I bought in a music shop in London in the eighties I guess. The lyrics are Maschwitz but the music is accredited to only Jack Strachey, no other name. The written tune of the middle eight is what the European singers sing and is different from, say, the tune on Wikifonia. I think. I believe Bryan Ferry does a modern version of the “English” tune, possibly following Dorothy Dickson, but I haven’t heard the latter. I’ll listen to Brian Ferry again to see if my point is proven and get back to you.
Oct 15, 2011 @ 02:52:52
I’ve just listened to Bryan Ferry. He sings the song in a stilted rather than smooth style but his definitely sings the middle eight like my “English” sheet music!
Oct 15, 2011 @ 10:38:26
John,
When you said European, did you mean British versions as well? The recording by Carroll Gibbons & his Orchestra, vocal by Turner Layton, has the original middle eight. I’ll check around for some other examples when I find the time. There must have been two distinct sheet music versions. One influential arrangement (Goodman?) might have changed the way it was played in the US, through record and sheet music sales, radio, etc. — Jim
P.S. Mina’s 2005 recording, and the live February 2009 performance by Max Raabe & Palast Orchester (DVD: Heute Nacht Oder Nie: Live in Berlin, released 2010) each use the “Goodman” eight bar bridge.
At least two British versions (Gibbons and Ferry) use a four bar middle section, while Greta Keller’s is basically the same but seems to extend to another bar.
Oct 31, 2011 @ 10:42:20
Dear people,
The English original version has a middle 4, not 8, which is why the Americans changed it: basically all they did was stretch the original 4 out to 8 bars, thereby making it draggy and boring. Sometimes not very good at ‘thinking out of the box’ stuff, our Transatlantic friends.
Oct 31, 2011 @ 11:53:46
Alan,
Right. My calling it a “four bar middle eight” (now modified) in the previous comment was not due to confusion, as it might have seemed. It is understood that the middle section is of variable length. I’ve adopted the habit of calling it either a bridge or release, terms which I think are more commonly used in the US. “Middle eight” as the general term is more confining, or “boxed” if you will. I’ve never heard of it being called a “middle 4.”
I recall, vaguely, reading that the term “release” is preferred by some to indicate a greater contrast in the B section (AABA 32 bar form) than one would normally find in a “bridge.” But all of these terms are often used interchangeably. One site indicates that other terms used to indicate the same thing include channel, inside, and break. Using “break” in this sense would be confusing because the term is generally applied to instrumental sections, which often include a solo or solos, or (in jazz) to brief transitional solos.
Personally, I prefer the eight bar bridge versus the original four bar bridge of These Foolish Things. But not because it conforms to the standard length. The four bar bridge sounds to me, particularly in most sung versions, forced, cramped, rushed, and clumsy. However, in Leslie Hutchinson’s original it sounds quite natural.
Nov 04, 2011 @ 03:57:07
Of course the prototype “English” version is that of Leslie “Hutch” Hutchinson in the late Thirties.
Nov 04, 2011 @ 09:43:31
John, Thanks for reminding me. I think I’d had trouble finding that recording when the page was constructed. Added today. — Jim