Memories of You

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Minto Cato

Memories of You (Eubie Blake, Andy Razaf) was introduced by singer Minto Cato in the Broadway show Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1930. However, the first well-known recording of the song was done by the Benny Goodman orchestra. A great version was recorded in 1956 by the Benny Goodman Trio with Rosemary Clooney singing. A version of the song recorded by The Four Coins from the biopic The Benny Goodman Story reached #22 on the Billboard magazine chart in 1955. – wikipedia

1940

The Inkspots featuring Bill Kenny

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1956

Benny Goodman Trio with vocals by Rosemary Clooney

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Benny Goodman

date unknown

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Benny Goodman and Rosemary Clooney – 1956

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Frank Sinatra — recorded 9 January 1956, with arrangement by Nelson Riddle

According to the Sinatra Sessionography at jazzdiscography.com, it was released on a 1968 Capitol 12″ LP titled The Sinatra Touch, but I’ve been unable to find such a disc listed elsewhere. However, there clearly was a six disc box set of Sinatra recordings titled The Sinatra Touch released in 1968. A recording of Memories of You appeared on disc 5 of that set. Sinatra recorded the song again in 1961, this time with Axel Stordahl, for the album Point of No Return.

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1963

Judy Garland with Count Basie (organ) – Episode 2 of “The Judy Garland Show,” taped 7 July 1963.

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From mingusmingusmingus.com:

One of the most important figures in twentieth century American music, Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Born on a military base in Nogales, Arizona in 1922 and raised in Watts, California, his earliest musical influences came from the church– choir and group singing– and from “hearing Duke Ellington over the radio when [he] was eight years old.” He studied double bass and composition in a formal way (five years with H. Rheinshagen, principal bassist of the New York Philharmonic, and compositional techniques with the legendary Lloyd Reese) while absorbing vernacular music from the great jazz masters, first-hand. His early professional experience, in the 40’s, found him touring with bands like Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton.

Eventually he settled in New York where he played and recorded with the leading musicians of the 1950’s– Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington himself. One of the few bassists to do so, Mingus quickly developed as a leader of musicians. He was also an accomplished pianist who could have made a career playing that instrument. By the mid-50’s he had formed his own publishing and recording companies to protect and document his growing repertoire of original music. He also founded the “Jazz Workshop,” a group which enabled young composers to have their new works performed in concert and on recordings.

Mingus soon found himself at the forefront of the avant-garde. [read more…]

Charles Mingus from Mingus Plays Piano – 1963

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1965

Earl Hines

the video provider says:

In a piano workshop in Berlin in 1965 we see and hear pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines perform “Memories of You”.
Earl “Fatha” Hines (1903-1983) played piano in Chicago clubs in the 1920s, first as a soloist and later as a bandleader. He made several recordings with Louis Armstrong in the ’20s and ’30s, then joined Armstrong again in the late 1940s to tour with the All Stars. He made scores of recordings, including “Stormy Monday Blues” and “Second Balcony Jump,” toured the world and made records into the 1970s. Known for his great technique and talent for improvisation, Hines’ horn-like phrasing and rhythm influenced popular jazz through the swing era and into bebop.

Waking skies at sunrise
Every sunset, too
Seems to be bringing me
Memories of you

Here and there, everywhere
Scenes that we once knew
And they all just recall
Memories of you

How I wish I could forget those happy yesteryears
That have left a rosary of tears
Your face beams in my dreams
‘Spite of all I do

Everything seems to bring
Memories of you
And your face beams in my dreams
‘Spite of all I do
Everything seems to bring
Memories
Just memories
Of you…

Undated photo of Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle in elegant formal dress

Eubie Blake – from the album The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake, recorded in 1968 and released in ’69. The title of the album reflects the discrepancy of four years of age brought about by Blake giving the wrong birth year late in life, 1883 instead of the 1887 confirmed by birth records and other official documents. Either way, Eubie was past eighty years young when he recorded this album which marked a reunion with his long time collaborator Noble Sissle.

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Here is an undated live performance by Alberta Hunter and Eubie Blake

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1980

Benny Goodman – Aurex Jazz Festival”, Sep.3,1980 at Budokan (Tokyo,Japan)

cl:Benny Goodman
p:Teddy Wilson
g:Eddie Duran
b:Al Obidenski
dr:John Markham

The provider adds: “I synchronized sound files which digitized from LP record/cassette tape except for Bewitched and Goodbye.
You can watch with stereo sound. Just add “&fmt=18” at the end of URL. Like
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlak-Je…”

Notable cover versions (wikipedia)

• Duke Ellington (1930)
• Ethel Waters (1931)
• Lionel Hampton (1937)
• Glen Gray (1937)
• Anita O’Day (1942)
• Erroll Garner (1945)
• Billy Eckstine (1947)
• Art Tatum (1953)
• Thelonious Monk (1955)
• Benny Goodman (1956)
• Judy Garland (1956)
• George Shearing (1956)
• Stan Kenton (1957)
• Count Basie (1958)
• Anita O’Day with Gene Krupa (1959)
• Frank Sinatra (1961)
• Ella Fitzgerald (1964)
• Robert Wyatt (1982)
• Mel Torme (1992)

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