You Can Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder

[Bice]

I recently got a big pile of old 78s that originally belonged to a
great uncle - he left them to my parents, and my mom was recently
cleaning out a closet and asked if I wanted them. That's how I
stumbled on this song:

https://archive.org/details/78_you-can-cry-on-somebody-elses-shoulder_skip-farrell-frank-devol-and-his-orchestra_gbia0160926a

It's from 1946 - someone named Skip Farrell with the Frank DeVol
orchestra, singing a song called "You Can Cry on Somebody Else's
Shoulder".

The music doesn't bear any relation to the Zappa song, but the title
made me wonder if Frank ever heard it.

Ironically, when I tried to google the song to look for a YouTube link
or something, even though I included "Skip Farrell" in the search
terms, the first four results were for Zappa's "Go Cry on Somebody
Else's Shoulder".

-- Bob

[Martin Gregorie]

I've just run the two back to back. I think its a fair bet bet that FZ
heard the Skip Farrell version and some point: the general structure of
the track is similar even though the words and arrangement differ.

One thing that does surprise me though: WTF wuz FZ thinking when he stuck
that 'come back to me, baby' bit on the end? It doesn't fit with the rest
of the song at all.

Bottom line: I've never been keen on FZ's first two albums and I wouldn't
go out of my way to listen to either of those tracks, again.

Besides, IMO anyway, the Benny Goodman Small group was streets ahead of
Skip Farrell and that orchestra as well as being 10 years earlier. I
mean, what's not to like about the Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Teddy
Wilson and Gene Krupa combo?

But thanks for posting. Listening to both songs made an interesting
comparison.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org