Listening Journal Week 4

The adult post WW II culture in America desired a comforting style of music that was fulfilled by crooners like Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, and Perry Como. These “big singers” gained great exposure during the musicians’ union strike from 1942 to 1944 and they stayed at the helm of pop music into the 1950s. After a variety of music jobs, including being a singing waiter, Frank Sinatra gained stardom with his ability to “play” his voice into long, uninterrupted phrases. Nat King Cole’s style had a more separated attack which mimicked his piano playing. Both singers achieved great success when their music was released and later on as their songs are often reworked by present day artists. For example, “Nature Boy” was featured in the 2001 movie “Moulin Rouge.”

The readings from this week detailed the fascinating early history of “covering” a song. The songs “Shake Rattle and Roll”, “Sh-Boom”, and “Mystery Train” were all covered within a year and a half of their original release. Even more interesting is how both the originals and the covers did well on the charts. The art of covering a song today seems to mostly be executed by young aspiring musicians or bands that play gigs using only cover songs. Although some artists do cover past pop songs either as tribute or for personal gain through fame or money. One example from the text this week is “Mambo No. 5.” Originally performed by Perez Prado in 1949 as a song about the mambo dance, the song was reworked by Lou Bega in 1999 and included much more derogatory lyrics.

My favorite listening track from this week was “Choo Choo Boogie” by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. This track is integral to showing the influence of “Jump bands” after the war, but Jordan’s influence extends much further. Although he was not as finically successful as others like Nat “King” Cole, Jordan’s work would influence the likes of Chuck Berry and James Brown. Learning of his widespread influence, and of his origin as a saxophone player from the Midwest (like me), I used his “Best of” youtube video as my grad school work playlist this week and was not disappointed.

While doing my reading and listening this week my husband was in the same room doing computer work. It was very interesting to watch and hear his reaction to the listening tracks. He commented on both “Choo Choo Boogie” and “Mambo Italiano” how “they were going to be stuck in his head”, but did not comment on “Black Night.” I believe this suggests the power of a good hook. It could be argued that “Black Night” does possess a hook, but overall the song is emotional, slow, and not catchy; the complete opposite of “Choo Choo Boogie” and “Mambo Italiano.” “Long Tail Sally” and “Don’t Be Cruel” provoked a “you’re getting to listen to really good music this week” comment and “La Bamba” encouraged him to say “that’s sad.” Over the summer we had the opportunity to see “The Buddy Holly Story” at our local outdoor theater and were given a good look at just how much of an impact February 3^rd, 1959 had on American music.