Two compilation albums: Ultimate Divas was bought on a sultry evening at Dupont Circle, almost exactly five years ago. An interesting range of singers, from Billie Holiday to Annie Lennox, and introducing me to some singers that were previously only names, names I really need to explore further. One of the songs is Gladys Knight's Midnight Train to Georgia. An indifferent song, but we had arrived in Washington on an overnight train from Boston, and later flew out to New Orleans, changing planes at Atlanta Georgia.
Highlights include Lena Horne's Stormy Weather; Dinah Washington's What A Difference a Day Makes; Toni Braxton's Unbreak My Heart and of course Judy Garland singing Over The Rainbow. Worst song of all is Aretha Franklin 'singing' Nessun Fucking Dorma.
Divas of Jazz was bought just over a year ago as a lunchbreak retail therapy. Fortunately, "Jazz" is a very loose term; instead it contains a range of good songs that are vaguely related to Jazz, and a few Classic Jazz numbers. Highlights are All That Jazz - Ute Lemper (from Chicago); Billie Holiday singing Stormy Weather (I think I like Stormy Weather...!), Peggy Lee singing Black Coffee (although I prefer kd lang's version...); Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading (you know, I would have hated this when I was a kid); Ella Fitzgerald's Manhattan; Erma Franklin's (Take A Little) Piece of My Heart; and Dinah Washington's Cry Me A River.
We joke that PP Arnold's Angel of the Morning is my theme song - because I don't do mornings, right!
A very special mention should go to Dinah Washington's Mad About the Boy, especially the words, which, I think, will strike a chord with all of us who indulge in Celebrity Crushes®
Mad about the boy,
I know its stupid to be mad about the boy,
Im so ashamed of it, but must admit
The sleepless nights Ive had about the boy.
On the silver screen,
He melts my foolish heart in evry single scene,
Although Im quite aware that here and there,
Are traces of a cad about the boy.
Lord knows Im not a fool girl,
I really shouldnt care.
Lord knows Im not a schoolgirl,
In the flurry of her first affair.
Will it ever cloy?
This odd diversity of misery and joy.
Im feeling quite insane and young again
And all because Im mad about the boy.
Written by Noel Coward
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