Oh! Look At Me Now!
Getting Sentimental Over Tommy Dorsey
Jo Stafford
Arrangements by Benny Carter, Billy May & Nelson Riddle
Vocal Arrangements by Vince Deegen
Reprise R-6090
1963
From the back cover: Anybody who feels like getting sentimental over the music Tommy Dorsey and his great band were playing during the early forties has a perfect right to. After all, that was a pretty emotional kind of band. It could swing high, and thanks to Tommy and his set of sentimental singers, it also created many mellow musical moods.
Jo Stafford was one of those sentimental singers. She joined the band as the only girl member of the Pied Pipers, an octet that soon became a quartet, just about the time the year 1939 was joining 1940. A few weeks later a young singer named Sinatra left the Harry James band and moved into the Dorsey troupe too.
For the next two and a half years, almost everyone who listened to or who worked in the Dorsey band had a ball. For this was one of the most colorful and completely satisfying musical groups ever assembled. Under the dynamic leadership of Dorsey, who was not only sentimental but also very demanding (say Jo, "He always expected the best from you and was surprised when he didn't get it"), the band worked hard as it played – and its succession of hit engagements and recordings proved it.
But the band had fun too. Actually, any band Dorsey ever led was bound to have its share of good times. He may have been a disciplinarian, but there were times when he would play it strictly for laughs. And he was very generous toward his sidemen (and women), often spotlighting them far more than he would himself. This was especially true during those times when he was blessed with outstanding performers.
Certainly the band in which Jo sang was one of his best – if not THE best. It had a host of stellar musicians, like Bunny Berigan, Joe Bushkin, Ziggy Elman, Sy Oliver and Buddy Rich. It produced a whole raft of hit sides, a dozen of which are revived herewith in new musical settings arranged by Benny Carter, Billy May and Nelson Riddle, the last a Dorsey alumnus who joined the band after Jo had left to begin her successful career as a single performer. Jo's vocal arrangements here are by Vince Deegen.
On all of the tunes heard on these records Jo was a featured vocalist. She was the soloist on three of them – The Night We Called It A Day, Who Can I Turn To, and Yes, Indeed – and she sang lead for the Pipers on the remaining eight.
Times have changed since then, and so have the arrangements. There's even a lyric change in Let's Get Away From It All that recognizes the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the United States; and there's a singer, unknown to most people in the early forties who now takes over the role in Yes, Indeed, originally filled by the tune's composer, Sy Oliver. The new singer: Sammy Davis, Jr. And thought Tommy's voice may not be here on I'll Take Tallulah, one of the few vocals TD ever took, Billy May pays his respects by having the entire sax section play the trombone solo Dorsey originally blew on the record.
But there is one important way in which these records parallel the originals; they're all extremely musical. And so, of course, is Jo's singing. Did Tommy make a deep impression on her? "Of course he did," she admits. "With Tommy, perfection was always the norm, and anyone who worked with him had great training that way." And how about Dorsey's long, melodic way of phrasing? "I think it affected most of his singers. With me it may have come a little easier, because I had had five years of classical training and so I could sing those long phrases without too much trouble. But the influence wasn't a complete conscious one. It was never actually a case of seeing if I could sing as long as he could play, but we all followed his lead I guess."
Through the years, Jo has remained a great admirer of Dorsey – and of Sinatra, too. "He's the same now as he was then. He was always wonderfully kind and encouraging. I remember, I used to have about as much ambition as an old bunch of keys, but he always told me to keep on singing."
Another man within the Dorsey family whom Jo admired greatly was arranger Paul Weston. The admiration was mutual. So was the love. That's why today Jo is Mrs. Paul Weston and they have their own happy family.
Yes, a lot of good things have happened to Jo Stafford, ever since she and the other Pipers joined TD more than a generation ago – a lot of good things for which the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing was directly responsible. So you can't blame her one bit, can you, for getting sentimental over Tommy Dorsey! – George T. Simon
The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else)
I'll Never Smile Again
Oh! Look At Me Now!
Who Can I Turn To?
There Are Such Things
I'll Take Tallulah
Let's Get Away From It All
It Started All Over Again
Whatcha Know Joe
The Night We Called It A Day
Yes, Indeed
