Glad To Be Unhappy
LP Monmouth Evergreen MES 6807
Lee Wiley’s singing has presence, and sometimes she creeps under your skin. It’s like she is singing just for you. No professional mannerism.
We are lucky to have her in the history of jazz and entertainment. She was born in Oklahoma of part Cherokee extraction, ran away from home at fifteen, and started her singing career.
And we are also lucky that back then, from 1939 and on, they had the idea to record her with the best possible material from the so-called “American Songbook.” It was the record shops in New York that produced the original albums, and the musicians at hand that provided the sensitive accompaniment were, in this case, Max Kaminsky, trumpet; Bud Freeman, tenor sax; Brad Gowans, trombone; Joe Bushkin, piano; Artie Shapiro, bass; and George Wettling on drums.
This is a Rodgers and Hart tune from On Your Toes 1936.
It’s said that it marked the first time a Broadway musical made dramatic use of classical dance and incorporated jazz into its score. Whoever sang it on Broadway or in the film production of 1939, Lee Wiley managed to make this song and most of the ones she recorded her own.