We're asked to believe that some chick declined the advances of a guy who'd flown around the world in an aeroplane (in 1937, long before there was a travel shop in every shopping mall). He'd also settled revolutions in Spain, in between shooting under par rounds of golf and being consulted by President F.D. Roosevelt. In his spare time Greta Garbo had 'had' him, he boasted, for tea and, maybe also for breakfast.
He made a killing when he sold short on the stock market and when, on his flight around the world, he refuelled at the then London Airport he was invited to wine and dine at Buck House. I'm not sure whether this latter event took place before or after he was charting the North Pole or when he popped into Hollywood to negotiate with Metro Goldwyn who saw him as the next Clark Gable but I can understand why he couldn't get started with the object of his affections - he was never there! Lance
8 comments :
My late husband Mike Gilby sang that to me many times. It was 'our' song. You see I never took him seriously. I met him 5 years earlier in Newcastle. He played in Jimmy Bences band when they worked on the QE2. I was then living in London and he used to ring me and ask would I go to Ronnie Scott's. We married a year later in 1971. We had 3 wonderful children.
Gershwin states in the penultimate verse:
"Pet, you devastated me."
Was he a closet Geordie?
JERRY
Stars Fell on Alabama could also be Geordie related with Mitchell Parish's lyric rhyming glamour (glamma) and hammer (hamma) with Alabama.
When this song is mentioned I always think of local trumpeter Bobby Carr. It was his party piece (or one of them).
I believe sharing a bed in their impoverished youth may have inspired Ira's Geordie classic: "Keep yer feet still Georgie, hinny"
I think this song is one of the most amusing of jazz songs. It's obvious that the man is making up tall stories about himself and it also gives details about what Americans consider as important achievements.
Because she's so Supreme!
That was my grandfather Bunny Berigan who played that tune. It was played at my brother's funeral.
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