Claude Thornhill & His Orchestra - ‘Rustles of Spring’ (1941)

Illustration by Edmund Dulac

Tex Avery ‘Swing Shift Cinderella’ (1945)

Bea Booze  - ‘See See Rider Blues’ (1943)

Charlie Haden feat. Petra, Tanya, and Rachel Haden - ‘Oh Take Me Back’ (2008)

Kay Starr - ‘Honey’ (1940-1947?)

Kay Starr - ‘Please Love Me’ (1947)

artskooldamage:

Kay Starr 1960 > “Losers Weepers” > Vintage Kitsch 

The second half of Nov into Dec shall be dedicated to Kay Starr on this blog. She’s perhaps one of the most unique and compelling vocalists of the 20th century and yet, also extremely underrated, her library of material not played as often as it should be or her name known. But she should. In fact jazz legend Billie Holiday was quoted as saying that Starr was” the only white woman who could sing the blues,” which all things considered, is a huge compliment.

If you haven’t heard of her, you may have heard her before without knowing it in pretty popular renditions of the Christmas songs ‘Waiting For The Man With The Bag” and “I’ve got My Love To Keep Me Warm”, both have modern remixes that are used a lot in holiday marketing. She was and is (and at age eighty-nine she is still living and performing, one of the few singers from the thirties and forties still around to do so) a versatile singer with a unique voice who could sing swing jazz, blues, honky-tonk, western swing, country and genre hopping pop. Born in Oklahoma, her father was a full blooded Iroquois Native American, and her mother was of mixed Native American and Irish heritage. Thus, to my knowledge this makes Kay Starr perhaps the most successful Native American performer to date. That alone demands respect.

I will posting hand picked songs from her discography to share throughout the rest of the month and December.

Carmen Cavallaro And His Orchestra feat. Marion Sunshine And Obdulio Morales - ‘Enlloro (Voodoo Moon)’ (1943)

Performance in Hollywood Canteen

Tsuneo Shiroda fl.ca. 1940’s Nude I

Starting it off in a parody of Batman complete with with intentional film noir cliches abound. So far it contains:

- Scummy warehouse full of abandoned cargo by the docks

- Fat mob boss

- Tying people up. More specifically a corrupt rich guy’s Pretty-Boy son (said son will NOT be romantically linked to any of my heroines) is tied to a chair after he arrives with  “the briefcase” forty-five minutes late.

- Pretty-Boy does a “Batman-like” character/Vampire impersonation while bound which sends the mobster henchmen into a worried state.

- Pretty-Boy may or may not be a mole.

- Arrogant screaming.

- Turns out the mob already killed this world’s “Batman-like” character.

- Attempted pistol whipping.

- Face squeezing.

- Hair pulling (Fat Mob Boss on Pretty-Boy…)

- Shuriken and or bullet fire flying out from the shadows (undecided).

- Pretty-Boy pretty much crying on the floor.

- A table splitting underfoot of one of our heroines jumping down from the rafters. 

And that’s what I got…