Linda Ronstadt — from her album Silk Purse, (US) Capitol Records ST-407, released in March 1970; also issued in June 1970 on the single Capitol 2846, b/w “Nobodys” (Gary White)
Formed in 1936 at Smith College, the Smiffenpoofs are the oldest all-female collegiate a cappella group in the United States.[1] The group’s founding came shortly after a group of Smithies attended a picnic with students from their brother school, Yale University, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where the Yale Whiffenpoofs performed. Inspired by this male a cappella group, a few ambitious Smithies returned to school determined to establish their own a cappella group. In honor of the Whiffenpoofs, they adopted a similar name and thus became the first female collegiate a cappella group in the nation.
(above) header tab 5 generation browse demonstration: Page Index > Songbook site index > Songwriter > Songwriters to 1954 > Berlin, Irving > Berlin pages (11) — correction: The page Irving Berlin: selected songs of 1909 and 1910is now included in the Berlin drop down index.
I also published a Motown index page today. The latter doesn’t contain new pages, except for the 1962 Motortown Revue page. It’s simply a step in reorganizing my Motown pages.
Lone Star Cowboys — “Crawdad Song” (arrangement by Lone Star Cowboys members Leon Chappelear, Bob Attlesey, and Joe Attlesey) — recorded on 5 August 1933; issued on Bluebird B-6052, b/w “Just Because”
Jim Lewis Lonestar Cowboys — probably from Vocalion 03754, c/w “Who Broke the Lock on the Henhouse Door,” both sides recorded on 24 September 1937
Leroy Martin and unidentified performers (vocals) — recorded, as “Crawdad,” at Cummins State Farm, Camp #1, near Varner, Arkansas, on 21 May 1939 — field recording collected by John A. Lomax and Ruby T. Lomax
Mrs. Vernon Allen — field recording; recorded at a Farm Security Administration camp for migratory workers in Shafter, California on 15 or 16 August 1940 (two videos: parts 1 and 2)
Woodie Guthrie — from Muleskinner Blues: The Asch Recordings Vol. 2 (1), (2), recorded in New York, NY, between 1944 and 1947
Al Clauser and his Oklahoma Outlaws — 1947(?) — I’ve been unable to verify the date, 1947, given by the video provider, but the recording was evidently included in a 2004 compilation of recordings by the band titled Hot Western Swing 1937-48 featuring Patti Page, Krazy Kat 32
Lulu Belle & Scotty — recorded as “The Crawdad Song,” c.1950
Evelyn Knightand Red Foley — recorded on 28 November 1950; issued in 1951 on the 78 rpm single Decca 27599, and on the 45 rpm single Decca 9-27599, c/w “Idle Rumors” in each case
Smokey Hogg — recorded, as “Crawdad,” on 9 January 1952 in Los Angeles, CA; issued on the 78 rpm single Fidelity F 3006**, and on the 45 rpm single Fidelity 3006, c/w “Born on the 13th” in each case / personnel, adapted from http://www.wirz.de/music/hoggfrm.htm: Smokey Hogg – vocal, guitar; Lou “Freddie” Simon – tenor saxophone; Willard McDaniel – piano; Bill Davis – bass; Al “Cake” Wichard – drums
Big Bill Broonzy — Despite the titles given by the video providers, each of the dated recordings below by Big Bill Broonzy was titled “Crawdad Hole” upon original release.
2. Recorded live at the Club Montmartre, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4-6 May 1956 — originally included on the LP An Evening With Big Bill Broonzy, (Denmark) Storyville SLP-114, released c.1962; released in the UK in 1965 on Storyville SLP 114
3. From the 5 LP box set The Bill Broonzy Story, Verve MGV 3000-5, originally released in 1959(?); all tracks recorded in Chicago, IL, 12 & 13 July 1957
Big Bill Broonzy (continued)
4. Undated recording
Sam Hinton — recorded as “The Crawdad Song” — originally issued on the 1957 album Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts (And Other Folk Songs For Children), Scholastic Records SC 7530, Folkways Records SC 7530
Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry — recorded at Van Gelder Recording Studio, Englewood, N.J. in 1961; originally released, as “Crawdad Hole,” on the 1978 album You Hear Me Talkin’, Muse Records MR 5131
Flatt & Scruggs with the Foggy Mountain Boys perform “The Crawdad Song” for a 1962 episode of the Grand Ole Opry TV series
Doc Watson, Clint Howard, and Fred Price — recorded in 1967 for the Seattle Folklore Society; released, as “Crawdad,” on the album Old Timey Concert, Vanguard VSD • 107/08
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Also published today:
The new index page traditional songs — This is not a list of all traditional songs included in Songbook (this site). Rather, it is a brief index of each feature page on the site devoted entirely to a single traditional song. Any such pages unintentionally omitted from the index will be added ASAP. The index page presently includes the following list:
Greetings to all my visitors, new and old. The purpose of this message is to announce that I have decided to take a break from creating and posting new work on the site until at least mid-September. Will post an update should my plans change in the interim. During the break, I might allow the maintenance to slip a bit more than usual, so that visitors may find a few more deleted videos than normal on the site. Will try to keep it looking presentable. Also, I will continue to respond promptly to comments.
(above) Bobby Troup and Julie London — source: JulieLondon.org
Won’t Someone Please Belong to Me (Bobby Troup) — date published unknown
I’m aware of only the four recordings included below, by Teri Thornton, Julie London, Bobby Troup, and Marilyn Maye, respectively. I’ve often wondered why the song did not become well-known and often covered. Perhaps the triple rhymes and off-rhymes — “Yesterday” / “here’s today,” “cold again” / “fold again,” “be content” / “be so bent,” “serener place” / “greener place,” etc. — were thought to be outdated or artificial. Such constructions may have been considered passé long before Troup published this song. Among American popular song lyricists of the 20th century, triple rhymes are most closely associated with Lorenz Hart.
On the day before creating and publishing this post, I noticed that someone had entered the site via a keyword search looking for the lyric to “Won’t Someone Please Belong to Me.” I didn’t have it. In fact, I’d been periodically looking for the lyric for the previous four or five years. So, after another round of searches came up empty I decided to transcribe it. The following transcription is drawn from the taped live performance by Bobby Troup and (presumably) his band for the 1965 Julie London TV variety special, Julie: Something Special.
Won’t Someone Please Belong to Me — words and music by Bobby Troup
Yesterday, things looked bright I never knew a kiss so right But here’s today — I’m out in the cold again Just like a sheep that’s lost from his fold again Won’t someone please belong to me
Find my love, mind my love Try not to be unkind, my love Just be content — there is no serener place Don’t be so bent in finding a greener place Won’t someone please belong to me
A fool am I You’d think someday I’d learn For fools like I The tables never turn But I’m not wise I’m always taken by surprise, surprise
Days are long Nights are long Time seems so slow when things go wrong Won’t someone new come here and be mad to be Near someone who is true and so glad to be Won’t someone please, please, please belong to me Please belong to me Please belong to me
transcribed by Jim “doc” Radcliff on 10 March 2015 *
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Teri Thornton — B-side of the 45 rpm single “To Remember You By,” Columbia 4-43209, issued on 25 January 1965
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Bobby Troup with unidentified small combo — live, from the Julie London TV variety special Julie: Something Special, air date: 17 November 1965
JulieLondon.org says,
On November 17th, 1965 WGN-TV in Chicago aired an hour-long special titled Julie: Something Special. Julie sings many of her popular numbers and is joined by, now husband, Bobby Troup and the quartet, The Hi-Lo’s. All of their performances are included. This show was re-aired on NBC-TV on February 13th, 1967.
It must have been the rebroadcast on NBC which I saw as a child of nine, for I recalled this performance decades later when I came across the video several years ago.
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Julie London — from the 1965 LP Feeling Good: with the Gerald Wilson Big Band, LRP-3416 (Mono), LST-7416 Stereo
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Marilyn Maye — from the live album The Second of Maye, (US) RCA Victor LSP-3546, released in 1966 [Thanks to visitor Helen, whose helpful comment made me aware of this recording.]
This album marked the second collaboration of Marilyn and Joe Rene. It was recorded live at The Living Room, a then-famous New York nightclub, and released in 1966. Joining Marilyn was The Sammy Tucker Quintet featuring Sammy Tucker, her husband at the time, on the piano. The album notes were penned by Skitch Henderson, then-musical director for The Tonight Show.
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* “Days” and “Nights” are reversed in the first two lines of the final section in the versions by Teri Thornton, Julie London, and Marilyn Maye. The line “Won’t someone new come here and be mad to be” is slightly different in the Thornton and London versions, the first word being “Please” instead of “Won’t,” and “glad” replacing “mad.” However, the second line of the section is identical to the Troup version in the London recording (she sings “glad” in both lines, twice), yet very different in the Thornton recording, which goes “Near someone true, as true as you’ll ever be.” The lyric sung by Marilyn Maye in her live version also displays other minor differences from each of the others. She replaces the word “sheep” with “lamb,” and modifies the expression “Don’t be so bent in,” to the more prevalent “Don’t be so bent on.”
Morris Albert’s 1973 recording of “Feelings” was a big hit in 1974. The song was adapted, according to a 1987 jury verdict in Federal District Court in Manhattan, by Albert from the song “Pour toi,” composed in 1956 by Louis Gasté, with lyrics by Albert Simonin and his wife Marie-Hélène Bourquin, though it took a lengthy and eventually successful 1980s copyright infringement suit to legally name Gasté as co-songwriter. Albert also released an alternate version with a Spanish-language lyric, in 1974, which was evidently written by himself, as he’s the sole songwriter credited on the label (see below). In 1975, Israeli-born French pop star Mike Brant recorded a version of “Feelings” titled “Dis-lui” (“Tell him”), with the French lyric written by Michel Jourdan.
Pour toi(m. Louis Gasté, w. Albert Simonin, Marie-Hélène Bourquin)
“Pour toi” was recorded by the singer and actress Line Renaud, wife of Gasté, in 1956, and performed by Dario Moreno in the 1957 film Le Feu aux poudres. The arrangements of the song used by Moreno in the film and in a separate studio recording with an orchestra sound very little like Morris Albert’s 1973 recording of “Feelings,” though portions of the melody are similar. The 1956 recording by Line Renaud, in part, exhibits slightly greater resemblance to Albert’s “Feelings,” melodically and in tone, but it seems like a rather large leap to find that the melody of “Feelings” was copied or stolen from the French song.
The claim made by the plaintiff Gasté that Albert “gained access” to the virtually unknown song “Pour toi” through his publisher Fermata, which “had had some dealings with Gasté’s publishing company, Les Editions Louis Gasté, in the 1950s” was unaccompanied by evidence that such access was ever obtained.
Feelings (m. Louis Gasté, Morris Albert, w. Morris Albert)
Morris Albert
Feelings— issued in 1974 on the single RCA Victor PB-10279, b/w “This World Today is a Mess” — US chart success: #6, Hot 100; #2, Adult Contemporary; also later released on the 1975 LP Feelings, RCA Victor APL1-1018
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Sentimientos (aka “Dime”) — issued in 1974 on Beverly (Brazil) 45-13.508; songwriting credited solely to Morris Albert on the label — A recording under the same title released by Mexican singer José José in 1974 has a different lyric.
1890-1969 selected standards and hits pages
1890-1899 selected hits and standards
