Tuesday, February 3, 2009

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.

~

4 comments:

Marie Reed said...

Willow is adorable! We both have cats with tree names:) Willow is tall elegant and graceful. My cat Bonsai is short and stubby!

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

as a piece of possibly spurious information i seem to remember Robbie (former Take That singer) Williams doing a cover of Me And My Shadow when he was promoting his "Swing When You're Winning" album

I forget who was singing with him - some celebrity mate or other

Wayfaring Wanderer said...

Who knew it would work as a song....not me! Thanks for sharing.



Yay for vacation time :o)

Lydia said...

@Marie Reed- Bonsai is a wonderful name for a cat, especially one with a body type like your kitty. I've never seen that name for a pet before; very unique. Willow was at her vet today for final kitten shots and he heard a heart murmur. :(
Something we'll watch closely. She's just got to be the 20-year-cat.

@DFTP- I saw several videos of him with another guy doing the song. I didn't use them for two reasons 1) I don't know who Robbie Williams is! and 2) I thought three videos would be overkill. I'll go back to You Tube and listen to him now that you mentioned this...

@WW- Yup, a song it is and a pretty good one at that for a really old song. See comments from/to Pixies...it'll be interesting to hear a modern take on it by this Robbie guy who you probably know :)

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