Day 5 - Good Morning Blues (I Want to See Santa Claus)
Christmas music can surely evoke a certain mood or memory. This is no different today than it was for people in the 1930s. The Etude Magazine in December 1931 described the reactions of people on the street as they played holiday recordings each year outside their headquarters: "Over and over again we have seen passers-by listening with tears in their eyes. There is something about this simple, heartfelt music, which carries us back to those precious, vanished moments in the homes of our youth, bringing to our minds the faces and caresses of those dear to us [. . .] resurrected in the holy land of Christmas memories by the miraculous music of Christmas." (thanks to Vintage Stardust!)
Jazz icon Count Basie was born William James Basie on 21 August 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. Count Basie is considered one of the greatest bandleaders of all times. He was the arbiter of the big-band swing sound and his unique style of fusing blues and jazz established swing as a predominant music style. Basie changed the jazz landscape and shaped mid-20th century popular music, duly earning the title King of Swing because he made the world want to dance! (note thanks to Rutgers University)
Pinky Tomlin (1907-1987) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and actor of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to performing in occasional motion pictures, he wrote and published 22 songs, several of which were in the top ten on the Hit Parade. Tomlin came to national attention in the 1930s due to a song he had written while attending the University of Oklahoma, one he composed for a student at the school, Joanne Alcorn, whom he would later marry. The Object of My Affection (see him singing it on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life) became a number-one hit late that year for Grier's Coconut Grove Orchestra, featuring Pinky Tomlin on vocals. Here's Tomlin's one Christmas themed song . . .
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