Ruth Etting - Ten Cents a Dance (1930)

Ruth Etting (Nov.23,1896 - Sept.24,1978)

was an American singing star of the 1930s, who had over sixty hit recordings.

Her signature tunes were "Shine On Harvest Moon", "Ten Cents a Dance" and "Love Me or Leave Me", and her other popular recordings included "Button Up Your Overcoat", "Mean to Me", "Exactly like you", and "Shaking the Blues Away".

Rising to fame in the twenties and early thirties, Ruth Etting was renowned for her great beauty, her gorgeous voice and her tragic life. She starred on Broadway, made movies in Hollywood, married a mobster, had numerous hit-records, fell in love and was known as America's Sweetheart of Song.

Born in David City, Nebraska, Ruth left home at seventeen for Chicago and art school. She got a job designing costumes at a night club called the Marigold Gardens and when the tenor got sick, she was pulled into the show since she was the only one who could sing low enough. That led to dancing in the chorus line and eventually featured solos. Her career in costume design and art was soon forgotten.


The blond hair and blue eyes and stunning voice all led to her being dubbed the Sweetheart of Columbia Records, America's Radio Sweetheart, and finally America's Sweetheart of Song. She began to experiment with tempo and phrasing during this period in her career. Her trademark was to change the tempo - alternating between normal tempo, half-time and double-time to create and maintain interest.


Ruth Etting made her first record in 1926 and her last in 1937. Completely lacking in the performer's ego, she called her early recordings corny and kept none of her original 78's. In 1955 her story was made into a movie, ultimately nominated for six Academy Awards and winning the Award for Best Story.

Ruth Etting died on September 24 1978, in Colorado Springs.


Ruth Etting - Ten Cents a Dance (1930)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Ruth
• Etting
• 1933
• 20's
• 30's
• 40's

[telemetry9]

I head this on the loading screen of Bioshock 2. I really loved the lyric and poignancy of the song.

Ruth Etting did a very good vocal and brought humanity and spirit to the song. Not everyone can do that.

Hard to believe in a mere 20 years this recording will be 100 years old. !

It's a fascinating era we live in - post modernists of post modernism.

[paulholt1983]

Thumbs up if you came here after waiting for Bioshock to load :)

[MsBekka95]

would anyone be kind enough to type out the lyrics, would love to know more than that amayyzing corous haha..

Many thanks x

[Squarerig]

Thank you Edmundus for this truly delightful song.Nothing like it today.More's the sorrow.

[Tonlondong]

Jesus she does all that for 10 cents

[rosabaca21]

Come on mr.B!!! : P

[tunnelrock]

i love this dizzy twist!

[HammerOvThor]

@pokeher26 Just a ballroom dance buddy.

[pokeher26]

damn 10 cents a lapdance. they charge like 20 bux now!

[danerogil]

@MrFreako2010 Yeah yeah yeah, BUT HER FUCKING NIPPLE!

[BloodyCatastrophee]

golden =)

[MrFreako2010]

@danerogil No, that's a twenties nipple alright. (Technically a 1930 one, I guess) Lest we forget, it was a time of liberation, sexual and otherwise, maybe especially for women. Well, at least until the market went kablooey.

It's also a great singer and a great song.