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Take Two If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)
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I have mentioned in the past how I once had this tune on a 78 rpm record by the Mound City Blue Blowers. The shellac suffered an accident and I could only play what was left from Glenn Miller's trombone solo. Eventually it appeared again on CD and on YouTube, so we can hear it again as our first 'take'. Although the original recording was by the Blue Blowers, it appears frequently under the name of Coleman Hawkins, but the line-up for this 1929 recording has other significant players who also contribute to what I find is a fine, sensitive, lyrical version of the tune. They are: Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax); "Pee Wee" Russell (clarinet); Glenn Miller (trombone); William "Red" McKenzie (kazoo); Jack Bland (guitar); Eddie Condon (banjo); Pops Foster (bass); Gene Krupa (drums).
The Mound City Blue Blowers and If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight.
The website JazzStandards.com gives us a good background to the song: 'Pianist James P. Johnson and lyricist Henry Creamer wrote “If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)” in 1926 ...... Johnson along with pupil Fats Waller cut a piano roll of the tune for the QRS Company in 1927, and that same year George Randol and Andy Razaf featured the tune in Irvin C. Miller’s revue Brownskin Models. For the next three years the tune basically languished, save for two 1929 recordings, one by the Kansas City orchestra of George E. Lee and the other by the Mound City Blue Blowers ....... '
'But 1930 would prove to be the decisive year for the song. In January, 1930, the McKinney’s Cotton Pickers orchestra from Detroit cut a fine version with a vocal by their unique vocalist George “Fathead” Thomas, which landed #1 in the charts and was their only record to reach the top. A recording by vocalist Ruth Etting, star of the Ziegfeld Follies, created a stir amongst white audiences and sold well, despite not making the charts. But perhaps one of the best-loved recordings was Louis Armstrong’s version from August, 1930, recorded with Les Hite’s band in Los Angeles, which was the stomping ground of Tom Gerun’s Orchestra, who recorded their version in September, 1930. Armstrong’s version is played at a fine, rocking, two-beat dance tempo, slower than the version by McKinney......'
I find it hard to understand why McKinney's Cotton Pickers were so popular. Ruth Etting's version perhaps explains why, in that it was played / sung more as a 'pop' song of the time. Ruth Etting's version was filmed - click here.
I'm so blue, I don't know what to do,
All day through, I seem to say to you,
I did wrong when I let you go away,
'Cause now I dream about you night and day,
I'm so unhappy and dissatisfied
I'll be happy if I had you by my side,
Even Mark Murphy sang the song straight and slow, so I had to search a fair bit to find a different version for our second 'take', and it appears in this version from 1953 by saxophonist Sonny Stitt. In this track he is accompanied by the Johnny Richards Orchestra which included Charles Mingus and Jo Jones. Johnny Richards was born in Mexico and changed his name from Juan Manuel Cascales. He is perhaps best know as an arranger for Stan Kenton during the 1950s and 1960s, but also led his own bands that from time to time included many top jazz musicians. He was also the composer of the song Young At Heart featured in the Frank Sinatra film of that title.
Here's the Sonny Stitt version of If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight.
If I could be with you one li'l hour tonight,
And free to do all those little things I might,
I want you to know you wouldn't go,
Until I told you that I loved you so.
If I could be with you I'd love you long,
If I could be with you I'd love you strong,
And I'm telling you for true, you'd be anything but blue,
If I could be with you
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