me and my shadow and sinatra and davisjr and whispering jack smith

In my preceding post I included the lyrics to Me and My Shadow. Several comments were made about various old-time artists who covered the song and some remarked they liked the poem, which made me think perhaps they'd not heard the song. I replied in comments that my search for lyrics had brought up predominantly the ones altered at the beginning by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. in their rendition of the song, and mentioned it would be fun to see that. Well....here it is (appears to be circa late 1950s), posted by cultubeblog at You Tube on Jan. 31, just two days before my post with the lyrics and your interesting comments. This old song seems to have found its way into the 21st Century!






Below is the oldest video at You Tube of Me and My Shadow, sung by someone I've never heard of, Whispering Jack Smith. This is, according to Iskorecki who posted it, "the definitive version: the greatest of the original recordings of this al jolson song (1927)."

I love old recordings from the first decades of the 1900s. It fascinates me hearing the voices and comparing them to the voices of today. The singing styles have changed dramatically, but I can still imagine the thrill it was to hear those artists, the rock-stars of their time. I like to imagine the lives of the people whose daily lives were brightened by the popular music of the day. And I wonder if the artists themselves ever envisioned their efforts would still be appreciated eight decades later..........





You know what current artists I can see doing Me and My Shadow in concert?

This guy, definitely.

And maybe this guy.

~