Boswell Sisters - Cheek To Cheek (1930)

The Boswell Sisters were a close harmony singing group that attained national prominence in the USA in the 1930s.

Sisters Martha Boswell (June 9, 1905 - July 2, 1958), Connee Boswell (December 3, 1907 - October 11, 1976), and Helvetia "Vet" Boswell (May 20, 1911 - November 12, 1988) were raised by a middle-class family on Camp Street in uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. Martha and Connee were born in Kansas City, Missouri. Helvetia was born in Birmingham, Alabama.

They came to be well known in New Orleans while still in their early teens, making appearances in local theaters and radio. They made their first recordings for Victor Records in 1925. However, the Boswell Sisters did not attain national attention until they moved to New York City in 1930 and started making national radio broadcasts.

After a few recordings with Okeh Records in 1930, they made numerous recordings for Brunswick Records from 1931-1935. These Brunswick records are widely regarded as milestone recordings of vocal jazz. Connee's ingenious reworkings of the melodies and rhythms of popular songs, together with Glenn Miller's hot arrangements, and first rate New York jazz musicians (including The Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan, Fulton McGrath, Joe Venuti, Arthur Schutt, Eddie Lang, Joe Tarto, Manny Klein, Dick McDonough, and Carl Kress), made these recordings unlike any others. Melodies were rearranged and slowed down, major keys were changed to minor keys (sometimes in mid-song) and rhythmic changes were par for the course. (Interestingly, the Boswell Sisters were among the very few performers allowed to make these changes to current popular tunes as during this era, music publishers and record companies pressured performers not to alter current popular song arrangements). Connee also recorded a series of more conventional solo records for Brunswick during the same period.

In 1936, the group signed to Decca and after just 3 records, broke up (the last recording was February 12, 1936). Connee Boswell continued to have a successful solo career as a singer for Decca. She had changed the spelling of her name from Connie to Connee, reputedly because it made it easier to sign autographs. (It's interesting to note that Connee sang from a wheelchair - or seated position - during her entire career, due to an accident she suffered as a young child. Amazingly, when she tried to get involved with the U.S.O. during World War II, she was not given permission to travel overseas due to her disability.)


Boswell Sisters - Cheek To Cheek (1930)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Boswell
• Sisters
• 1930
• 20's
• 30's

[MoFUKKalicious]

I was born in the wrong era.. :(

[TheCharleycat]

absolutely adore this song!

[bestgirl203]

@MoFUKKalicious

I also !

[Henry24542]

Sorry I mistyped the year it was recorded not 1936 but 1935.

[Henry24542]

Not recorded in 1930 but on 8th October 1936. According to Rust the musicians were Russ Case and Ed Wade (tpts), Will Bradley (tmb), Artie Shaw (clt), Martha Boswell (pno), Dick McDonough (gtr), Dick Cherwin (s.bass) and Stan King (dms).

[everybodylovesmybaby]

@2agray True, it wasn't dance music. But it's great to listen to. As vocalists, they were quite accomplished.

[Kenwitty2011]

I was born in the mid forties and had never heard of the Boswell sisters, but I have now, and they are to me just as good as the Andrew sisters actually remind me of them, then and of course Maguire sisters, were all that close knit harmony awesome music, and I now have several groups to look up and enjoy these awesome musical Giants of the past. .....Love the Boswell Sisters with a passion.

[ptrck99]

@MoFUKKalicious Fantastic comment. I have to agree: I feel like that from time to time.

[ldFlorida]

Love those Boswell Sisters.  I'd like to have every recording they ever made!

[2agray]

@BigKatz - my aunt used to say the same thing, "I got sick of those leftover flappers from the 20's with that wadda-wadda-doo-dah-diddly and the 96 tempo changes on every record. You couldn't dance to anything they sang and they were all over the radio all the time. I'd just turn the dial. You knew exactly who they were without anybody saying anything.."