Ben Bernie Orchestra - I Want To Be Bad (1929)

Ben Bernie (May 30, 1891, Bayonne, New Jersey - October 23, 1943), born Bernard Anzelevitz,

was an American jazz violinist and radio personality, often introduced as The Old Maestro. He was noted for his showmanship and memorable bits of snappy dialogue.

By the age of 15 he was teaching violin, but this experience apparently diminished his interest in the violin for a time. He returned to music doing vaudeville, appearing with Phil Baker as Baker and Bernie, but he met with little success until 1922 when he joined his first orchestra. Later, he had his own band, "The Lads," seen in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound short, Ben Bernie and All the Lads (1924-1925), featuring pianist Oscar Levant. He toured with Maurice Chevalier and also toured in Europe.

Bernie's orchestra recorded throughout the 1920s and 1930s; Vocalion (1922-1925), Brunswick (1925-1933), Columbia (1933), Decca (1936), and ARC (Vocalion and OKeh) (1939-1940). In 1925 Ben Bernie and his orchestra did the first recording of Sweet Georgia Brown. Bernie was the co-composer of this jazz standard, which became the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters.


Ben Bernie Orchestra, Zelma O'Neil - I Want To Be Bad (1929)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Ben
• Bernie
• Zelma
• O'Neil
• 1929
• 20's
• 30's

[MrDamBrooks]

how could anyone tick dislike to this??

[vertxxgg]

see Zelma in FOLLOW THRU number I wanna be Bad....is the best video in ALL Youtube

[batmatsky]

Zelma O'Neal introduced this one, and also "The Varsity Drag" and the title tune from GOOD NEWS. This was a number from the Country Club musical, FOLLOW THRU, which followed GOOD NEWS (the college musical) from DeSylva-Brown-Henderson. O'Neal was way, way ahead of her time with her deep-voiced, often dead-pan delivery. When everyone else was speeding up, Zelma was taking her sweet time. Thank you for posting this!

[Lengo67]

@BigBandHeaven I agree! This one is far superior in my opinion.

[Corrie121]

Really great!. Immensely enjoyable.

Thanks for sharing.