Al Bowlly..Night and Day...solo record 1934

A lot has already been said about Al on you tube.So here are one or two bits of less well known info.Al like a lot of other musicians at the time was a big gambler,but oddly enough,drink did not really agree with his constitution so he never drank heavily It did not agree with him.However he was a very heavy smoker.Al also liked to hang out with small time gangsters it seemed to give him a buzz.He would frequent Lyons corner cafe' meeting up with the underworld.He met a woman there who was well known to all the crowd,eventually dating her and to everyone's astonishment, married her.People were amazed, because it was heavily suspected (but not proven) that she was working in prostitution.It did not last.Al could be very kind and generous,but he also had a quick and fiery temper.He was touring in variety halls and so was another hot head Al Starita.They ended up having a fight with each other.On this Decca recording it was thought for many years that it was a Caroll Gibbons band in the background,but it is now known that it was a Lew Stone outfit.This is one of the most beautiful versions l have come across of this gorgeous song.The wonderful,romantic, lyrics by Cole Porter,belie the fact that the composer was a rather promiscuous gay.Al Bowlly had a colourful life and even his death was a little surreal.He was found dead in his apt face down on the floor,but with no apparent external injuries inspite of the land mine that fell on the building.So the exact biological cause of his death is uncertain.(l suppose so many deaths in the war were occurring that detailed autopsies were rare)His last record was "when that man is dead and gone" but Hitler did outlive Al by a few years

Category:

Music

Tags:

• al
• bowlly/british
• dance
• bands/nostalgia/1930s
• music/cole
• porter

[mymusicdaze]

Just discoverd this man here thanks to You Tube yet again. All these many years later his rendition of these romantic songs still here to dream & sway with

[davidglow3]

@mymusicdaze Yes he has the ability to put a shiver down your spine with the way he delivers the songs..Check out my favourite song by him..."Were You Sincere"

[Martindupingoei]

excellent singer

[davidglow3]

@Martindupingoei Yes of the many version l have heard over the years this has to rank no1..Glad you enjoyed it

[DickAllen4HOF]

A great song sung by a amazingly talented and facinating singer

[osocoolone]

Thtere was and can only ever be one Al Bowlly !!! Love his music :-)

[davidglow3]

@wordsmith52 Yes your quite right.l believe his death was actually held back originally,because of morale issues.There is some mystery behind the nature of his flight and also the manner of the crash.There was no radar showing a plane had come down..To this day no-one knows for certain that what happened,it is assumed his plane went down over the channel.Your correct the press was controlled and did not necessarily give out contentious information if it involved the State

[wordsmith52]

@davidglow3 Yes that seems to be the case. I suppose also that any news of his (or other celebrities') death would have been censored or at least played down given that the press was more controlled then, bad for morale etc. It would be interesting to know whether these aspects also applied to Glen Miller at the time of his tragic and untimely death some three years later. 

[davidglow3]

@wordsmith52 l read some newspaper cuttings.Not much is said about his death 1/ he was not such a big star by then and 2/ so many personalities were perishing at the time that this was not any more significant than others ie Ken Snakeship Johnson.....He was close to his brother Misha and he had other relatives in SA but Misha did spend quite a lot of time with Al in the mid/later 30s in England. and toured with him.Al had just £30 in the bank when he died

[wordsmith52]

@davidglow3 Thanks again. It does seem odd that this well known entetainer just "disappeared" in this way. Although there was a war on and much chaos abounded, many mundane and petty activities still went on. It would seem that he had no next of kin? It would be interesting to see the newspaper obits from the period, which might give a better insight into what was going on at the time.