Twiggy sings Ira Gershwin's second verse and first refrain. UK: Pavilion, A collection of essays on individual popular songs by very capable critics. As noted above, Adele Astaire's flapperesque voice was unsuited to a song devoted to the expression of such deep feelings.
Another reason for its early failure to evoke enthusiasm from the audience may have been the title itself, which continues to be a significant source of ambiguity often inclining listeners to jump to conclusions about the song's core meaning.
Before one realizes what Ira Gershwin was up to in his lyric, especially if one is hearing the song outside of its dramatic context, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the "this" is a romance or even more likely an affair that has been going on for a while; and the singer, having a powerful attachment to one of the parties, wants to know how long it's been going on, as if the wool has just been lifted from over her eyes.
Rhoda Koenig in her excellent essay on the song thought this after hearing it for the first time on a recording of Judy Garland's Carnegie Hall concert. She writes,. It didn't, however, take Koenig too long to discover that it wasn't about that at all. Ira Gershwin's intended antecedent for the "this" was not an illicit affair someone was having with the singer's significant other but the much more innocent, but no less ecstatic, response the singer was having to a first kiss.
Koenig realizes, as anyone who correctly interprets Gershwin's words should, that the singer has not discovered an elicit sexual encounter by her lover but is flabbergasted by "the wonder of love.
As noted above, one piece of evidence to be considered in determining what the "this" is, is not available to someone listening to a recording of the song; in fact, it doesn't come from the lyric itself but rather from the dramatic context in which the song was originally intended to be presented.
The remainder of the evidence for what the antecedent of the "This" is does come from the lyric. The kiss has inspired a question much less prosaic than how long has some romance or affair been going on.
Apparently this is more than just a first kiss with this partner. This is the first kiss, as the verse tells us -- other than those childhood kisses from "sisters, cousins and aunties" that evidently repulsed her and put her off any further kissing until the kiss in point.
Why didn't anyone tell me? Another revelation we might be inclined to contemplate is how could the producers of Funny Face have been "dunce" enough to cut this song, and even after Florenz Ziegfeld was smart enough to recognize some quality in it and put it in a show of his the next year, how could independent singers, who are always on the prowl for a good song, have missed it for another decade until Lee Wiley and Peggy Lee found it in and respectively.
And even after their remarkable performances, how could it have lingered virtually unnoticed for another decade until its status as a great American song, a standard, was canonized by recordings by Ella Fitzgerald and others beginning around How could so many music people have missed this song for all those years? Maybe they just didn't pick up on what that "This" is. In any case, they haven't missed it since. Instead, he says, it is a song that is "malleable to a modern sensibility.
Gioia gives two examples of modern interpretations to support these assertions: First he points out that the Ray Charles interpretation could make one think that the Gershwins had written the song with Charles in mind, and second, Brad Mehldau's live performance at the Village Vanguard from could persuade you that "this is an adventurous new millennium piano piece.
One reason for this may be that the first seven lines cut to the chase, to the song's emotional center by means of their sensuosity expressed through Ira's masterful use of the colloquial:. I could cry salty tears; Where have I been all these years? Little wow, Tell me now: How long has this been going on? The effect of the phrase "salty tears" is to make the listener feel with great immediacy the near overwhelming regret the singer has experienced.
The verse reveals that the regret is for having "been blind" to and having "lost out" on the kind of feelings the kiss she just experienced could have opened up to her over "all these years. For Rosenberg the phrase as a whole conveys "warmth and intimacy but is redeemed from sentimentality by its colloquiality and freshness. It is pure Ira. Press, She recorded the song six times. For a selection, see the Amazon digital discography.
She begins with the first ten lines of the second verse following it with the first refrain and ending by creating a variation on the last seven lines of that refrain. Click here to read Cafe Songbook lyrics policy. Borrowed material text : The sources of all quoted and paraphrased text are cited. Such content is used under the rules of fair use to further the educational objectives of CafeSongbook. All such images are linked to the source from which they came i.
Any other images that appear on CafeSongbook. Such permission will be acknowledged in this space on the page where the image is used. For further information on Cafe Songbook policies with regard to the above matters, see our "About Cafe Songbook " page link at top and bottom of every page. Notes : Lee Wiley's series of albums devoted to the songs of individual songwriters beginning with the Gershwin and Porter albums, combined on the CD shown above, were in fact the first of what has come to be known as songbook albums, now most famously associated with the Songbook albums of Ella Fitzgerald.
Lee, however, preceded Ella in this endeavor by some two decades. In the album's liner notes, Larry Carr writes of Wiley, who came to New York from her home state of Oklahoma, "Her singing was intimate and intelligent, warm and wistful, sweet and sensual. Wiley sings the first refrain, then comes an instrumental break, followed by Lee singing the second half of the second refrain.
She omits both verses and the reprise because of their specificity with regard to the character in the show for which the song was written. For Rhoda Koenig , this is the "supreme" recording of the song because Wiley captures both of its major themes. In her hands, "the song trembles with the sound of innocence meeting experience. What Lee did, according to Rhoda Koenig , was "to fix the change in style from the s" during which the standard was either sopranos from the world of operetta or flappers from the world of the Charleston.
Lee changed the tempo to "very, very slow" presenting the song in an intimate, even sensual confessional style that was previously, except for Wiley, unheard. The track begins and ends with the first refrain sung at a slow, deliberate tempo filled with a reserved emotion. Lee's vocal is preceded by a piano Intro. In the photo montage on the music-video at left, the pianist pictured is Teddy Wilson, who often played with Goodman -- but not here. In the photo below, from , it looks to be Powell.
After Lee sings there is an instrumental conclusion by the Goodman Orchestra in the same spirit -- with two brief Goodman clarinet breaks. This suggests that the OKeh got the show title from the sheet music published in even before the show went into tryouts and before the show title Smarty had been replaced by Funny Face. It was not unusual for sheet music publishers to distribute these early versions of the music to promote early recordings, which was beneficial to everybody.
Music-Video : same track as on album above. We are not certain if that is Powell at the piano in the photo. We are sure it's not Teddy Wilson. These tracks were created in and , remastered from the Fitzgerald vinyl albums Ella Sings Gershwin Decca and Songs in a Mellow Mood Decca plus eight other standards added. Of the accompaniment by pianist Ellis Larkins, Ron Wynn writes at CD Universe that he was "long a favorite of vocalists everywhere for his ability to support without intruding," which left her "sublime voice, to interpret and dissect sentiments, themes, and moods with the touch of a master.
For this recording, visit the Cafe Songbook Lyrics Lounge , this page. Notes on Twelve Nights in Hollywood : From through c. The live recordings were originally made under the supervision of Norman Granz, founder of jazz labels Verve and later Pablo during two gigs Ella had at the club during and Some of the tracks had never been heard since the original performances until the advent of this set.
Notes : Armstrong is relatively faithful to Ira Gershwin's lyric, singing Verse 1, Refrain 1 and then skipping Verse 2 finishing with Refrain 2. In the article he notes, "As his trumpet embouchure deteriorated and his gravelly voice deepened in middle age, he began to devote more time to singing standard ballads, and this lovely performance [of "How Long Has This Been Going On?
He had recorded many such songs in his OKeh Record days, but on the Verve recording, "the combination of his home-style singing with the urbane backing of Peterson's trio gave them a special quality all their own. Peterson's trio consisted of himself piano , Herb Ellis guitar , and Louie Bellson drums. Amazon reviewer Relaxin' writes of the album, "On that great Verve. Satchmo is not encumbered by that saccharine pop stuff of his later years, nor is he too Bourbon Street to bear.
Instead, he swings gracefully, wittily, almost effortlessly from track to track. Notes : For iTunes reviewer Michael G. Nastos, was the greatest year for modern jazz recording, Detroit was the "hotspot" and "It was here that Trane connected with pianist Tommy Flanagan, subsequently headed for the East Coast, and recorded this seminal hard bop album. In tow were fellow Detroiters — drummer Louis Hayes, bassist Doug Watkins, and guitarist Kenny Burrell, with the fine trumpeter from modern big bands Idrees Sulieman as the sixth wheel.
This performance of the song is regarded as "quintessential Flanagan, and quite indicative of the Midwestern Motor City flavor Flanagan and his many peers brought into the mainstream jazz of the day and beyond. Notes : " The Book of Ballads in question is the Great American Songbook , and Carmen McRae breathes new life into some of its most dog-eared pages on this wonderful session that heralded the close of her Kapp Records tenure.
In her hands, the songs pulse with energy and life. Azure McCall. Lena Horne. Chris Anderson and Sabina Sciubba. Kelley Johnson. Julie Wilson with William Roy. Janis Siegel. Dorothy Dandridge.
Emily Saxe. Matt Catingub. The Satin Doll Trio. Lola Haag. Sweet 'n' Jazzy. The David Leonhardt Jazz Group. Monica Zetterlund. Lina Nyberg. Mary Pearson. Audrey Lavine. Laura Taylor. Kristin Lomholt. Kristin Chenoweth. Christiane Noll.
June Korneliussen Trio. Karen Mason. Brian Dee. Rhonda Burchmore. Karrin Allyson. Karl Olandersson. Masha Bijlsma Band. Jerry Jeff Walker. Boz Scaggs. Tina May. Jimmy Scott. Nathan Martin. Sarah Partridge. Antonella Vitale. Sally Burgess. Karen Egert. Janiece Jaffe. Elvis Costello. Stevie Holland. The HomeMade Orchestra. Lynn Nelson and Fred Brush. David McAlmont. John Pizzarelli. Sara Yervand. Carly Simon. Michelle Rounds.
Carolyn Martin. Brian Stokes Mitchell. The Hit Co. Paula Alder. Julie Anne. Rufus Wainwright. Kristine Mills. Carole Farley - John Constable. Judy Butterfield. Alison Burns and Martin Taylor. Sylvia Bennett. Carol Kidd. Heather Report. Shelean Newman. Jane Duboc e Victor Biglione. Alexis Gershwin with the Gershwin Singers and Orchestra. Danielle Reich. Cheryl Bentyne. Mad Romance. NDR Pops Orchestra.
Jaki Graham. Oksana Ferenchuk ft. Freddie Bryant. Claire Martin featuring Kenny Barron. Gloria Estefan. Arturo Serra meet Celia Mur. Nick Ziobro. Andy Bey. Libby York. Mark Jennett. Maureen Budway.
Lyn Stanley. Perry Beekman. Esther en Mateusz. The Mundell Lowe Quintet. Barney Kessel. Marian McPartland. The Kenny Baker Jazz Unit. Jay and Kai. Hal McKusick Octet. Al Cohn. Les Strand. Zoot Sims and Bob Brookmeyer.
Fran Thorne. Joe Bushkin. Ruby Braff. Les Elgart. The Horace Silver Quintet. Manny Albam. Al Viola. Frank Rosolino Quintet. Mose Allison. Cuanto ha durado esto. Chico y El Arabe. Almstedt-Lind Sextetten. Russell Garcia with Strings and Roy Eldridge. Carl Stevens. Tal Farlow. Ballad Medley [Bewitched, Bothered and …. Coleman Hawkins. Tommy Flanagan. Cy Touff. Buddy DeFranco and His Music. The George Shearing Quintet and Orchestra. Plas Johnson.
George Wright. Peter Duchin His Piano and Orchestra. The Charlie Byrd Quartet. Bjarne Nerem. Ben Webster, Tete Montoliu Trio. I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise; How …. George Feyer. Zoot Sims. The World's Greatest Jazz Band. Eddie Higgins.
Cal Collins. Moacyr Peixoto. George Gershwin Medley. Lennie Felix. Merle Koch. The Milt Jackson Quartet. The Curtis Counce Group. Fraser MacPherson Quartet. Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Spike Robinson, Strings arranged and conducted by Jimmy Deuchar.
The Claude Williamson Trio. Bob Rockwell Quartet. Haruko Nara. Bill Easley. Henri Chaix Trio. The Ken Peplowski Quintet. Dave Grusin. Bruce Forman with Joe Henderson. Pete Yellin and Brooklyn Jazz Machine. The Gene Harris Quartet. Putte Wickman.
Al Casey [US1]. Burnett Thompson. Marcus Roberts. Harry Allen. Eric Parkin. Dim Kesber and Friends. Ron Holloway. Richard Wyands Trio. Mike Turk. The Atro "Wade" Mikkola Quartet.
Joe Augustine. Totti Bergh. Masahiko Satoh. Dick Wellstood. Gary Motley. Albert Reifert Trio.
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