LBC: Original Version of "Try a Little Tenderness"?
VT
an Otis Redding original - but I was told it wasn't.
I tried to do some research on finding out who did the original
version, but what I found was not very conclusive.
The best so far was from Rhino records, and the liner notes for the
Otis Redding anthology - Dreams To Remember -
http://www.rhino.com/features/liners/75471lin.html
QUOTE:
Before 1966 was through Otis had scored another Top 5 R&B smash with
one of his greatest performances -- and one of his very few hits that
he didn't write himself. "Try A Little Tenderness" was a Tin Pan Alley
chestnut with a track record harking back to 1933, when
clarinet-blowing bandleader Ted Lewis introduced it to the masses.
Otis was intimately familiar with a pair of far more soulful
renditions: Aretha Franklin's 1962 treatment for Columbia and the
suave reading his main man gave it on the influential 1964 RCA album
Sam Cooke At The Copa.
UNQUOTE
There was another reference for a preceding version - but obviously
not the original - interesting nevertheless:
http://www.island.net/~blues/etol.htm
QUOTE:
Little Miss Cornshucks was born Mildred Cummings in Dayton OH. A
vaudeville remnant, she was very popular during the early 40s.
She recorded sporadically and for a number of labels between 1947
and 1960. Married name was Mildred Jarmon. She cut several sides
for Aladdin (now owned by EMI) and Chess (ditto MCA).
Her signature song was "Try A Little Tenderness," which was a hit
on Coral in 1950-ish.
UNQUOTE
Anyone know who did the original version of "Try a Little Tenderness"
and any preceding versions that may have influenced Otis Redding?
--
Vincent
vtVi...@Prodigy.Net
Dave Foraker
vtVi...@prodigy.Net writes:
> I was always under the impression that "Try a Little Tenderness" was
> an Otis Redding original - but I was told it wasn't.
>
>
An old Hammond player I worked with in the early '70's told me that it was
originally done in the late '30's or early '40's.....he taught me a little 16
bar intro that went with the original version.......when I was playin' piano
bars in the '80's, I'd always start with the intro & watch for all the heads
to snap around when I got to the first line of the 1st verse, "Oooh, she may
be weary...." it'd get 'em every time.......
Dave Foraker
Buddy Fox
singer/keyboard types. I remember a late 40's version by Frank Sinatra,
probably on Capitol.
Buddy Fox
Patrick Brennick
one that Cooke (and Redding) heard and dug. Crosby's never dne much for me,
but perhaps I need to listen again, as I get Glidden's biography.
Patrick
>From: VT <vtVi...@prodigy.Net>
>Reply-To: VT <vtVi...@prodigy.Net>
>To: BLU...@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: LBC: Original Version of "Try a Little Tenderness"?
>Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 15:05:20 GMT
>
>I was always under the impression that "Try a Little Tenderness" was
>an Otis Redding original - but I was told it wasn't.
>
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VT
wrote:
>In a message dated 06/20/2001 11:06:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>vtVi...@prodigy.Net writes:
>
>
>> I was always under the impression that "Try a Little Tenderness" was
>> an Otis Redding original - but I was told it wasn't.
>>
>>
>An old Hammond player I worked with in the early '70's told me that it was
>originally done in the late '30's or early '40's.....he taught me a little 16
>bar intro that went with the original version.......
I've heard from some members by e-mail - and have done some more
research - so far the favorite is still the Ted Lewis and His Band (as
found in the Rhino liner notes) -
This web page claims the recording was from 2-1-1933, New York
released on Columbia
http://www.redhotjazz.com/tlband.html
and one can even listen to it - there is even a link for a RealAudio
of the full recording.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/lewis/tryalittle.ram
The next version I found was:
Recorded by Ruth Etting on February, 8, 1933
Charted at #16 by Ruth Etting in 1933
http://www.ruthetting.com/songs/try_a_little_tenderness.htm
Just for completness the song was authored by (via ASCAP):
CAMPBELL JAMES (GB 2)
CONNELLY REGINALD
WOODS HARRY M
James Campbell formed a team with fellow Briton Reginald Connelly, and
together this team of British lyricists wrote some popular songs that
managed to gain great popularity in the United States. Campbell and
Connelly usually collaborated with other composers.
1933 "Try a Little Tenderness." music Harry M. Woods
http://nfo.net/.CAL/tc1.html
However there are many web pages that puts the song authoring to be
1932.
There was even a lecture at York University from March, 1998:
http://www.yorku.ca/ycom/release/archive/031798.htm
QUOTE:
TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS (OTIS REDDING OR BING CROSBY STYLE): YORK
UNIVERSITY'S GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING MUSICOLOGIST ROB BOWMAN TO EXPLORE
MEANING IN MUSIC
TORONTO, March 17, 1998 -- What does "Try a Little Tenderness" mean to
you? In a lecture on Thursday, March 26, York University musicologist
Rob Bowman will explore how we attach meaning to music -- and why two
versions of the same song can have entirely different meanings,
depending on who is singing it.
UNQUOTE
This however probably does not establish the original version was by
Bing Crosby - since it seems more like a discussion of differences in
the interpretation of the same song.
--
Vincent
vtVi...@Prodigy.Net
Buddy Fox
and My Shadow"Lewis, was a year that both the UK and the USA were in deep
financial depression, so the poignancy of the opening lines..."When she gets
weary,women do get weary ,wearing the same shabby dress", etc etc, strikes us
as a statement of the times.
Buddy Fox
Joel Fritz
misleading. Records were still seen as a way to sell sheet music and songs
got covered a lot, sometimes simultaneously.
George Robinson
in the early '30s (The Great Song Thesaurus, a very useful book, gives
1932 as the date), by Harry M. Woods, Jimmy Campbell and Reginald
Connelly. I suspect Ted Lewis may well have been the first to record it,
Woods having written Lewis's theme, "Heigh-Ho, Everybody, Heigh-Ho."
In fact, the three writers have an interesting array of songs to their
credit, including many that will be familiar to Blues-L subscribers.
Just a few titles that jumped out at me:
Campbell:
Goodnight Sweetheart (w/Connelly)
If I Had You (w/Connelly)
Just an Echo in the Valley (w/Connelly and Woods)
Show Me the Way to Go Home (heck, I didn't know anyone actually wrote
that!)
Woods:
I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover
River, Stay 'Way From My Door
Side By Side
What a Little Moonlight Can Do
When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain
When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along
A wildly variegated mix, proving once again that Tin Pan Alley was
stranger than fiction.
George Robinson
VT
wrote:
>.."When she gets
>weary,women do get weary ,wearing the same shabby dress", etc etc, strikes us
>as a statement of the times.
I had always heard Otis Redding sing "shaggy dress" -
and had thought it was a mistake - now I kind of know........
--
Vincent
vtVi...@Prodigy.Net
Buddy Fox
VT
wrote:
>Different rhymes for different times. Buddy
Web search turns up slightly different versions of the lyrics
specifically regarding "shabby dress" and "shaggy dress"
The earlier recordings had the lyrics:
"Wearing the same shabby dress"
The Otis Redding version had:
"Wearing that same old shaggy dress"
So not only was "shabby" changed to "shaggy", but the extra word
"old" was inserted, and "the" was changed to "that"
I can only find references of "that same old shaggy dress" for Otis
Redding's version, and that from the Commitments -which was obviously
derivative of the Otis Redding version.
--
Vincent
vtVi...@Prodigy.Net
Blue Stew
old funky smellin', funky old dress". mp miller
Fred Dabney
> Goodnight Sweetheart (w/Connelly)
I thought that was by the British bandleader and composer
Ray Noble, who wrote a lot of good songs, including "Cherokee",
which became Charlie Barnet's theme song.
Fred D.
catherine yronwode
>
> Strange as this may sound, I have heard that the Bing Crosby version
> was the one that Cooke (and Redding) heard and dug. Crosby's never
Bing Crosby's version is by far my favourite of the original 1930s wave
of recordings of this song. It is certainly as good as Redding's, in its
own way.
cat yronwode
Hoodoo and Blues Lyrics --------- http://www.luckymojo.com/blues.html
Fred Dabney
wave
> of recordings of this song. It is certainly as good as Redding's,
in its
> own way.
The very early Bing, back in the twenties and into the
thirties was a very different singer than the later one.
Both are good, were the despair of a lot of other singers
who could only wish they could sing as well, and was an
influence far beyond pop. Like Sinatra, singers in the
jazz and even classical world admired him. I can only
imagine that a lot of blues singers emulated him early
on as well...
VT
>There was even a lecture at York University from March, 1998:
>
>http://www.yorku.ca/ycom/release/archive/031798.htm
>QUOTE:
>TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS (OTIS REDDING OR BING CROSBY STYLE): YORK
>UNIVERSITY'S GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING MUSICOLOGIST ROB BOWMAN TO EXPLORE
>MEANING IN MUSIC
>TORONTO, March 17, 1998 -- What does "Try a Little Tenderness" mean to
>you? In a lecture on Thursday, March 26, York University musicologist
>Rob Bowman will explore how we attach meaning to music -- and why two
>versions of the same song can have entirely different meanings,
>depending on who is singing it.
>UNQUOTE
>
>This however probably does not establish the original version was by
>Bing Crosby - since it seems more like a discussion of differences in
>the interpretation of the same song.
The plot thickens:
QUOTE:
ROLLING STONE ALBUM GUIDE **** "By the time of 'Dictionary of Soul',
Otis had arrived at another plateau. "Try a Little Tenderness", first
recorded by Bing Crosby, is Stax/Volt at its most sophisticated in an
elegant, almost jazzy setting, Redding, for all his customary fervor,
delivers one of his most mature performances, smoky and at times
almost langorous."
UNQUOTE
http://www.jpc-highlights.de/6071763.htm
"Try a Little Tenderness" is listed on a Bing Crosby album titled:
The Chronological Bing Crosby, Vol. 12: 1932-33 (1997 CD Jonzo 12)
and two versions are included on tracks 7 & 8 - ie: early on in the
CD.
Does anyone know when Bing's version was recorded and released?
The Ted Lewis version is listed as 2-1-1933.
--
Vincent
vtVi...@Prodigy.Net
catherine yronwode
>
> > Bing Crosby's version is by far my favourite of the original 1930s
> > wave of recordings of this song. It is certainly as good as
> > Redding's, in its own way.
>
> The very early Bing, back in the twenties and into the
> thirties was a very different singer than the later one.
Amen. Bing changed as his voice deepened. Some say 1933 was his last
full good year, some say 1932. He recorded a couple of great numbers in
1934 (the first version of "Home on the Range," for instance), but by
1935 he was an entirely different singer, in my opinion. The 1945
version of "Home on the Range pretty much could be used to prove my
point, if anyone thinks it needed proving. But most of us who know Bing
know the score and don't need to either justify our love of the early
Bing or carry the burden of pretending to enjoy the later Bing.
> [...] I can only imagine that a
> lot of blues singers emulated him early
> on as well...
I have heard several Bing Crosby vocal licks in quite a few blues songs
of the early 30s. I only wish i could name one or two straight off, but
they are just at the fringes of memory -- perhaps in the works of Lonnie
Johnson, Georgia Tom Dorsey, Brownie McGee and some other cats of that
ilk... Anybody know what i'm talking about?
cat yronwode
Blue Stew
MP Miller
-----Original Message-----
snip>"...--- What does "Try a Little Tenderness" mean to
>you?"<snip
Joel Fritz
developed in his early recordings. I'm sure he and Crosby knew each other,
so it's possible.
Seems to me that the early Crosby was more of a jazz singer than a pop
singer and the later Crosby was more of a pop singer than a jazz singer.
It's kind of like Tina Turner in the sixties vs. Tina Turner in the
eighties.
Blue Stew
One of the networks wants to use 50 seconds my song for a tv pilot (another
reality show believe it or not).
The song licensing has been negotiated BUT, they want to use the version
that was recorded by my band(Blue Stew).
So...because they are using our recording as well as my song, should that be
a separate issue or should I just ask 'em for more $ to compensate for the
band's performance??
thanks, Mike Miller
PS, I own the publishing, writing and master rec.