Artist: Herb JeffriesLP: Jamaica
Song: "Devil Is a Woman"
[ listen ]
Herb Jeffries' shadow on the cover of this "Jamaica" LP looks to me like the human-sized chicken in Charlie Chaplin's film, "The Gold Rush." What does it look like to you? Anyway, this fabulous Herb Jeffries LP is one of my favorite finds of the past few months. At age 97, Jeffries is the only surviving member of Duke Ellington's Orchestra! You can read about Herb Jeffries' incredible career [here], you can go [here] to become his friend on MySpace, where you can also check his current mood and watch lots of cool Herb Jeffries YouTube clips—including several short documentaries about his career, a short (recently made? look at her hair.) video for "Devil Is a Woman" and the one I like most, an early music video for "Flamingo" with Duke Ellington & His Orchestra. And here are some biographical notes from the back of the "Jamaica" LP; it seems everything Herb Jeffries touched instantly turned into gold!
During each era of entertainment, there are but a handful of performers,
a fabulous few who flash across the scene like a brilliant, colorful comet
to go down in the annals of showbusiness as the "all-time greats." From
our era, he is one of those select few...one of the most exciting,
incomparable entertainers today, HERB JEFFRIES.
Little did he dream when he set his sights on a singing career at
sixteen that one day he would be acclaimed throughout the world
as "THE SINGER'S SINGER," probably the highest compliment his
trade could pay him. Making his professional bow in Detroit with
local orchestras, Herb worked especially hard to polish his performance
and to gain the necessary confidence before he headed Chicago-way
for an engagement at The Grand Terrace which turned out to be
his "discovery" and the actual launching of his career. The sensational
singing style of young Jeffries won him a recording contract, the result
of which was the recording of a song that has become synonymous
with Herb Jeffries. "FLAMINGO" was the song that "made" the
singer...and coincidentally, in this case, Herb was the singer who
"made" the song, now a popular standard. With his new record fame
came the inevitable tour all recording stars must make to keep their
hits riding high, so aboard the wings of "Flamingo," Herb went on his
first tour which took him to Europe and which opened new vistas
career-wise. With a flair for a franc, "businessman" Jeffries opened
his own night club in Paris and the spot swiftly became the talk of
the continent. The word about the going-on at his Parisian plushery
soon spread back to the states where LIFE magazine got wind of it
and dispatched writers and photographers to the scene to do a
complete spread on the life story of Herb Jeffries, his career and
his almost-overnight success story.
After deciding to sell the Paris club, he returned to the U.S. to
record an album titled "Magenta Moods" which was given LOOK
magazine's "Album of the Year" award. Apparently, Uncle Sam was
also a fan of Jeffries and had been keeping a watchful eye on his rise
to fame and popularity because Herb was tapped to head an entertainment
unit for the Armed Forces overseas. He'd hardly finished unpacking from
his European return when he was off again to perform for the Forces in
the Atlantic and pacific areas. Herb's untiring efforts in bringing
entertainment to combat-weary troops of Korea made him recipient
of the Department of Defense Award for Outstanding Activity of
Entertainment to the Armed Forces.
Badly in need of a much-earned rest, Herb completed his 'round-the-
globe tour and returned to Paris to open another club, equally if not
more successful than the first one, with jam-packed houses nightly.
Rested, relaxed and ready to get on-the-go again, he put on his
travelin' shoes for a concert tour of Europe, singing for Kings and
Khans across the continent and adding another title-laurel to his
list, "The International Set Singer." By this time, tempting offers
from the U.S. were pouring in urging the sensation of the Continent
to return for a string of engagements and once again, Herb came
back home, opening at the world-famed Crescendo on Hollywood's
Sunset Strip where he broke all house records night after night.
Next stop, Las Vegas, and a two-week engagement at the Royal
Nevada Hotel that mushroomed into a ten-week stint plus a
return-engagement contract to star in one of Vegas'
fabulous musical productions.
Though constantly performing, Herb kept his "business" office open
with the purchase of an interest in a recording company and the
masters of a now defunct record company. His firm's first releases
were given top ratings by the trade papers and magazines while at
the same time, still adding award upon award, he was selected as one
of the top singers of the year in the DOWN BEAT and METRONOME
polls, marking Herb Jeffries one of the nation's top recording artists.
Up to this point, this has been more or less a thumbnail sketch of
Herb, the singer, but his story wouldn't be complete without at least
mentioning a few more of the multi-talents of the artist. In this
album, you are introduced to composer-lyricist Jeffries, and with
your initial listening to this collection, you'll rate Herb in the top ranks
of today's songwriters. Here, too, you meet Mr. Jeffries, patron of
the arts, who, with what little spare time he has away from his career,
spends off-hours painting and doing sculpture. Then, just to make
certain that time doesn't hang heavy on his hands, with his pilot's
license, he can hop in his plane for a quick cross-country, enter a
race with his sports car (in which he won many cups), or don swimsuit
to go aqua-planing (which also has added several trophies to his
mantelpiece). On the Continent, he is considered an outstanding
mountain climber...and now (just to keep himself "occupied"), Herb
is busy writing his autobiography which will be titled "Hot and
Cold and Back Again."
With a number of motion pictures already to his credit, "actor" Jeffries'
latest is "CALYPSO JOE" from which this collection of his own
compositions has been taken. Here is the exciting HERB JEFFRIES
in a rare combination of his singing-songwriting techniques,
performed as only "The Singers' Singer" can!
--Notes by Larry Meeks
Overheard when: 8:45pm on Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Artist: Jack Costanzo
[ Jack Costanzo ]
While riding my bike to work on a foggy morning last week, all the fog stuck to my face and covered up my glasses. I couldn't see!
Artist: The Clash
Everyone knows this song, right? It's probably even more popular in the USA today than their #8 hit "Rock the Casbah," from the same LP. the strange thing is, "Should I Stay/Go" never entered the US Billboard top 40, though there were two separate attempts to get it there. "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" was first released in the summer of 1982 with the picture sleeve shown above; the song spent 13 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart, peaking at #45. After the top-ten success of follow-up single "Rock the Casbah" in late 1982, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" was released again as a single in the spring of 1983—with a different picture sleeve (shown below)—in hopes that this time it would be a hit. Unfortunatley, the song stayed in the Hot 100 just 10 weeks the second time around and peaked at #50.
Someone from The Clash is missing from the photos on the sleeve of the 1983 release, and I'm guessing it's drummer Topper Headon, who was asked to leave the band shortly after the "Combat Rock" recording sessions because of his herion use. If anyone can confirm that's who's missing from the pictures, let me know. You can read all about The Clash [here] and [here]. 
Artist: Geeta Dutt
[ Geeta Dutt ]
Artist: The Crusaders
Artist: Up With People
One of my New Year's resolutions is to gain too much weight.
Artist: OXO
Artist: Erotic Drum Band
Artist: Denny Pezzin
If this world were fair and even, the name Luise Rainer would be as familiar to classic movie fans today (and even to the general public) as the names of great film actresses like Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis.
Born in Düsseldorf, Germany on January 12, 1910, Rainer was discovered by an MGM talent scout and brought to Hollywood where she starred with William Powell in ESCAPADE in 1935. Her next two films were THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936), in which she plays French entertainer Anna Held, and THE GOOD EARTH (1937) in which she plays O-Lan, a Chinese peasant farmer's long-suffering wife. Luise Rainer received back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Actress for the two performances, a feat that has only been matched by one other actress—when Katharine Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar in both 1967 and 1968.
Though Rainer begged to continue with serious and demanding roles, studio boss Louis B. Mayer ignored her pleas and she was cast in lightweight, forgettable films after her double Oscar win. Frustrated, Luise left Hollywood behind in 1938 and moved to New York with husband Clifford Odets—returning just once to star in the WWII drama HOSTAGES in 1943. Luise Rainer had been off the silver screen for 54 years when she had a comeback of sorts at the age of 87 with a spirited performance in the 1997 British production of THE GAMBLER. You can read more about Luise Rainer's life and career on Wikipedia [here]—and thanks to a tip from DonHo57 from deep in the hills of West Virginia, I found more interesting tidbits about Luise Rainer on the TMC website [here], where I also found a list of several never-released-on-video-or-DVD Luise Rainer films from 1937 and 1938 that they're showing (and I'm missing) today. [January 12, 2011 update: you can now buy three of these Luise Rainer films on DVD here!]
I'm not sure why I've suddenly become fascinated with Luise Rainer and her films, as I've seen her name on the Oscar winners' list for years and have always just half-wondered about her. But over the past two weeks I've watched THE GREAT ZIEGFELD, THE GOOD EARTH and THE GAMBLER each for the first time and can heartily recommend them all (especially THE GOOD EARTH), if only to enjoy the talent and beauty of the wonderful and sadly forgotten star Luise Rainer.
Now living in London, Rainer turns 99 years old today, so I've put this mix together as a tribute. Happy Birthday, Luise Rainer!
side one:
Artist: Amormio Cillan, Jr.
Artist: Herb Jeffries
Artist: Louise Mandrell
[ Wendy Heether ]
Artist: The Universal Robot Band
