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« "Journal of Autonomy" [by Peter Burzynski] | Main | And now Leontyne Price sings "They Didn't Believe Me" (1967) »

March 25, 2012

"They Didn't Believe Me" [Kern's breakout song as rendered by Sinatra]

In August 1914 Jerome Kern wrote a song to interpolate in a Broadway musical imported from Britain. The song is "They Didn't Believe Me." It is the first modern ballad, just as Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is the first of the uptempo classic American popular songs. Sinatra never recorded "They Didn't Believe Me" but someone taped his live performance of it, in the late 1940s, crooner style, screaming bobbysoxers and all. Here 'tis. The repetition of the last clause is Sinatra's innovation. You might also check out Johnny Mercer's swinging cover of the same wonderful song.

 

Posted by on March 25, 2012 at 03:37 PM in Music, Sinatra |

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I left it
on when I
left the house
for the pleasure
of coming back
ten hours later
to the greatness
of Teddy Wilson
"After You've Gone"
on the piano
in the corner
of the bedroom
as I enter
in the dark


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