Dark Monday • Betty Hutton Sings "Can't Stop Talking About Him"

When Paramount Pictures decided to go ahead with the musical 'Let's Dance',they put their top talent behind it. Their #1 box office female star was the wonderful Betty Hutton, and they paired her with Fred Astaire, a man who starred in countless hits before. They also had Frank Loesser to write the music, as he had with so many hits. That would include the toungue-twisting song "Can't Stop Talking About Him", a great number for Hutton to bring to the screen. It featured her comedic talents, as well as her unique singing style. And the dancing is pretty amazing, too. Well, check out "Can't Stop Talking About Him" for yourself.

'Let's Dance' did fine at the box office, but not close the the expectations of the studio. Instead, it was always in the shadow of 'Annie Get Your Gun', the MGM musical that was to star Judy Garland. That was not meant to be, and shortly after filming began, Judy was released from the picture. MGM made a deal with Paramount to 'borrow' their star, Betty Hutton, to play Annie Oakley. MGM ended up with the huge hit of 1950, while 'Let's Dance' remained a footnote for the year.

Anyone Care To Jitterbug?

Clockwise: Betty Hutton; Bette Midler; Judy Garland; and The Puppini Sisters.

While Saturday nights are often reserved for my favorite torch singers allowing the candle to burn bright, I thought tonight might be a great time to fight off the cold and snow in the Northeast with some excitement, a chance to create great energy. So I decided I would find some great songs that would drive you from your seats, wanting to hit the floor and do the jitterbug. Or at least some variation on that theme. And I will being with the song that really inspired me to plan this post, Betty Hutton singing "Old Man Mose". In 1939, Hutton recorded the song with Vincent Lopez Orchestra. The song was written by the legendary Louis Armstrong and Zilner Randolph.

Well, if I didn't include the Divine Miss M in this collection of jitterbugs, but I have to admit I wasn't sure which one to choose, so after googling "the top jitterbug songs", I had to go with the one making the list first. That would be written by Joe Garland, Glenn Miller, and Andy Razaf, first released in 1939 by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. I love the recording by Bette, off her 1973 second album, 'Bette Midler', making that recording 40 years old! Please enjoy as Midler sings "In The Mood".

I first have to say that The Puppini Sisters are neither sisters nor Puppinis, just they make exquisite harmonies that sound as if they've been singing together for a lifetime. Okay, so there is one Puppini among the trio. The groups is made up of Marcella Puppini, Stephanie O'Brien and Kate Mullins, who took the name as a tribute to the great Andrews Sisters, an inspiration for them and the music. The song was written by Don Raye and Hughie Prince, and first released by the Andrews Sisters in 1941.

The Puppini Sisters sing "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"

Judy Garland sing "Stompin' At The Savoy", a 1934 jazz standard composed by Edgar Sampson. After being a hit instrumental, lyrics were written by Andy Razaf, and soon the song was being sung by some of the best. On this 1936 recording, Judy sang with the Bob Crosby Orchestra.

Old Jazz Favorites

Clockwise: Anita O'Day; Sarah Vaughan; Betty Hutton; (left to right) Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Roberta Flack, and Aretha Franklin; and Ella Fitzgerald.

I was just in no mood to come up with a theme, so the best I could do is to pull a couple of names of singers who were my favorites, and then figure out what song I want them to sing. So let me start with one of my favorites, Anita O'Day. I first discovered her on the soundtrack to Torch Song Trilogy, where Harvey Feirstein used her recording of "Can't We Be Friends". For this post, I thought Anita's version of "Honeysuckle Rose" was just what the doctor ordered.




I just think there is no way possible to go wrong when you decide to listen to Ella Fitzgerald. No matter what she sings, it will be worth listening to. I thought about a classic like "A-Tisket A-Tasket" or some other great. But I decided I wanted to hear the beauty in Ella's voice, and so this is the lush "These Foolish Things".



I first heard the next song performed by Bjork, and thought it was just a delightful song she wrote. I was wrong, for it was a wonderful song first made popular by Betty Hutton, who first drew attention as a big band singer, before she became a huge star in Hollywood. Check out the comedic performance by Betty Hutton on "It's Oh So Quiet".



I really love what Sarah Vaughan brings to every song she sings. There is just an unquantifiable magic in her interpretation that truly sets her apart. When I found this clip of "Fly Me To The Moon," I couldn't wait to post it.



While trying to find the clip of Vaughan, I ran across this next one, and knew it had to be included tonight. On this medley of Duke Ellington songs, you hear the incredible line up of Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Sarah Vaughan, and Peggy Lee. What a joy this is to hear - even if the video is not great quality.



Have a great Saturday night!

Torch From Berlin

Clockwise: Sarah Vaughan; Betty Hutton; Deanna Durbin; and Annette Hanshaw.

No, not torches of the German variety! I am talking about torch songs from the great Irving Berlin. Berlin has written some of the most memoralbe songs from the last century, songs that still can be sung today and seem new and fresh. First up, I picked a song written by Berlin in 1923, and has been performed by the best singers of the last 89 years. That includes the incredibly talented Sarah Vaughan. Here she is, singing the incredible What'll I Do.



The next song was written for the 1926 musical, Betsy. While the show itself was a flop, the song was an instant hit, with the audience demanding an incredible 24 encore performances from singer Belle Baker on opening night. The song, Blue Skies, is long remembered as a classic in the Great American Songbook, while few can tell you a thing about Betsy. Sung by a variety of stars, the song was at the top of the charts in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1960s and 1970s. Here is the great singer/movie star Betty Hutton singing Blue Skies.



While Say It Isn't So might have been written in 1932, it has also maintained a timeless quality when it has been recorded by artists like Julie London, Dinah Washington, and Aretha Franklin. But I went back a bit further for this version, so here is Annette Hanshaw singing Say It Isn't So, from the early 1930s, shortly before she retired from the music business.



For much of the late 1930s and the 1940s, Deanna Durbin was a a star on the rise, along side Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Durbin played the sweet girl next door, and her beautiful voice and good looks made her an audience favorite. However, once she tried to grow up and play more interesting roles, the films were less successful, and soon Deanna retired from the business, and withdrew from the public eye. Thankfully, her rich voice was recorded both on record and film, including this beautiful version of Always from the 1944 film, Christmas Holiday.



Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Swinging With Betty Hutton

Betty Hutton's story is an interesting one, to say the least. Born Elizabeth Thornburg, her father walked out on the family, leaving her mother a single parent to her two girls. The next word they had from the father was notice that he had taken his own life. Soon the family changed their name to "Hutton" and Betty and her sister Marion were singing in speakeasies and the like, until her mother started making a living as a bootlegger. This kept the family just ahead of the police while Betty was growing up. Betty, who had a been singing in saloons, started singing with bands in the Detroit area. In 1939, she appeared on Broadway in supporting roles, as well as in some musical movie shorts, which soon lead to her early movie appearances. In her first film, Betty played "Bessie Day" in the 1942 Paramount Pictures production The Fleets In. She proved to be quite the talent when she stole the movie with this number written by Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger, written specifically for her. Watch as she sings Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In A Hurry.



In 1943, Hutton had another hit with the song Murder, He Says. In his introduction, Bob Hope, host of Armed Forces Radio Service show Command Performance, makes mention of the "Three Flying Huttons," a reference to when she would sing with her mother and sister in the bars. This was a hit for Hutton when this show was recorded in 1943. In an interesting side note, the B-side to this song was It's Oh So Quiet, which was covered in 1995 by Icelandic singer Bjork.



Betty performed Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief from the 1945 Paramount movie The Stork Club. The song was the first of Betty's recordings to reach #1 on the Billboard Pop chart. It was obvious she could not only sing, but also deliver a wonderful comedic performance.



Betty Hutton performed Rumble Rumble Rumble in the 1947 Paramount movie The Perils of Pauline. It was another bold and brash performance, the movie was a great success, and made her the leading candidate to replace an "exhausted" Judy Garland in the 1950 musical, Annie Get Your Gun.



By the mid 50s, Betty had a dispute with the movie studios, and stopped working at what was the height of her career. By the mid 60s, following the death of her mother and the end of her fourth marriage, Hutton was soon fighting an addiction problem, which eventually lead her to sobriety and a new found belief in the Catholic Church. She worked as a cook in a Rhode Island rectory, a fact that was widely publicized and gave a short resurgence in her career. It wasn't for long, and soon she was back at that rectory. She was also estranged from her three children, and it seemed like her own dysfunctional childhood was being replayed. Eventually, she got back in touch with the children, although they were not close. Hutton passed away in 2007 after a battle with cancer. She was 86.