Sophie Braslau - Just A-Wearyin' for You (1928)

Just A-Wearyin' for You
Words and music by Carrie Jacobs-Bond
Sung by Sophie Braslau, contralto with piano accompaniment
Recorded May 1928
Columbia 170-M

Sophie Braslau was born in New York City on August 16, 1892. Her parents, Dr. Abel Braslau and Alexandra Goodelman, both from Russia, had early recognize on the musical talent of their only child. After first studying piano. After hearing a recital of Alma Gluck she decided to become a singer. After three years of vocal instruction of noted New York singing teacher Arturo Buzzi-Peccia she performed at an evening gathering of operatic notables, including Arturo Toscanini, who encouraged her to try out for the Metropolitan Opera. Her audition in 1913 resulted in a three -year contract, She sang mainly in secondary leads and minor roles but the quality of her singing voice brought her into the concert field. By 1920, she increased her concert recitals and finally left to Metropolitan Opera to devote herself entirely to concert work and recordings. Her repertory gained steadily in scope and variety, including songs and arias of different types and styles in five or six languages. In 1934, illness ended her career and she died in 1935 from cancer at the age of 43.

Braslau was short in stature, dark-haired and attractive. Her voice was remarkable for it's range (three octaves) and its volume and quality, and she was able to suit its color and timbre to whatever music she sang.

Carrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond (1862 - 1946) was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter who composed some 175 pieces of popular sheet music from the 1890s through the early 1940s. She is perhaps best remembered for writing the parlor song "I Love You Truly", becoming the first woman to sell one million copies of a song. An enduring favorite as a wedding song, it first appeared in her 1901 collection Seven Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose, along with "Just Awearyin' for You", which was also widely recorded. Jacobs-Bond's song with the highest number of sales immediately after release was "A Perfect Day" in 1910. A 2009 August 29 NPR documentary on Jacobs-Bond emphasized "I Love You Truly" together with "Just Awearyin' for You" and "A Perfect Day" as her three great hits. Jacobs-Bond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Sophie Braslau
• Just A-Wearying for You
• 1928
• Carrie Jabobs-Bond
• contralto
• solo
• vocal
• metropolitan
• opera
• Parlor Song
• Columbia
• 170-M
• 78rpm
• seven songs

[w0103411]

See the English Wikipedia articles on Sophie Braslau, Frank Lebby Stanton, Carrie Jacobs-Bond, and "Just Awearyin' for You."

[bsgs98]

@w0103411 By your knowledge and clues, may I assume you are the Wikipedia contributor?

[w0103411]

Of all the performers who have recorded "Just Awearyin' for You," Sophie Braslau may have had the voice best matched to this number. Her tempo is perhaps slightly too slow, but she does manage to milk the song for every drop of sentiment that's abundantly in there.

[bsgs98]

@w0103411 I have also posted the flip side of this disc. "I Love You Truly", another song by Carrie Jacobs-Bond sung by Braslau. I like that one even more!

[w0103411]

@bsgs98: Yes, "I Love You Truly," which Jacobs-Bond wrote in 1900, has been more popular. It was the first song written by a woman to sell more than a million copies. Both songs were published in the collection SEVEN SONGS AS UNPRETENTIOUS AS THE WILD ROSE.

Did Braslau ever record "A Perfect Day" by Jacobs-Bond (1910)?

[bsgs98]

@w0103411 I can't find her singing that in the Victor on-line discography or in any other discography or Google. I think she must have sung it in her concert performances.

[w0103411]

@bsgs98: No.

[w0103411]

@bsgs98: A la Gary Hart (remember him?), maybe she started shaving off the years, little by little. :) As incrementally my feet are slipping o’er the brink, I've considered whether I should try the technique myself.

[bsgs98]

@w0103411 Ancestry(dot)com indicates a "Sophie Braslow," with a father named Abel, residing in New York City who was age 22 in the 1910 census. That would make the 1888 date plausible. Similar in the 1900 census. Without a subscription, I can't dig any deeper.