If I Could Be With You ~~ Ruth Etting

Ruth Etting sings "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)" from 1930.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Ruth
• Etting
• 1920s
• 1930s
• Jazz
• Vocal

[StukInTexAss]

Early Billie Holiday is much better. The later "cool" stuff irks me immensly.

[perfectjazz78]

I agree, I enjoy her recordings with Teddy Wilson and Benny Goodman, and other solos of that era on the OKEH label but the later recordings aren't my cup of tea either.

[StukInTexAss]

She sounds too much like David Sedaris!

[perfectjazz78]

If you listen to Lee Wiley recordings made with Victor Young in 1933, she has much the same style as early Billie Holiday. Since Lee Wiley recorded in this manner before Billie Holiday, who would be considered more original?

[perfectjazz78]

This is like comparing apples to oranges. Ruth Etting and Billie Holiday are like two opposite sides of a jazz coin, both great but very different. I personally believe preference for one or the other is a matter of personal taste. We are here to appreciate music of a bygone era, in a time when current POP is 99% devoid of taste, so lets find common ground and just enjoy the music.

[busconductorxhines]

Gimme a time machine ;-) Gorgeous stuff.

[waynebrasler]

Ruth Etting made a tremendous impact on popular singing, which could be quite formal when she came into the field. She added a naturalism that was different. And instead of performing a song she would act it. Her tangy voice, long breath line, beautiful modulation and intonation and her outstanding musical qualities were made even more attractive by her being stylistic at a time most singers just did songs straight and by her good home-town-girl looks and personality.

[D0pe122]

another jewel of that great age ! timeless ! am gonna build my timemachine !

[joomuck]

One has to appreciate Ruth Etting's interpretation given the decade and what was accepted by the cultural mileu and if both are accepted, then the rendition is truly wonderful.

Thanks for the posting..

Ted

[RM4FS]

This is the song that we hear Jack Lemmon (Ens. F.T. Pulver) sing parts of in the 1955 motion picture, Mister Roberts

[doucefrance28]

What was the movie (the final 2 seconds) that this came from?

Does anyone know?

[maxreger100]

Another popular song called Elmer's Tune sounds just like this.

[gavin45310]

@StukInTexAss you mean david sedaris sounds like her.

[grenadian11]

Good stuff! great voice! a star in her time.

[rogharm]

great clip love it!!!!!!*****thank you for showing the vitaphone titles from wb. who is the man singer? great post thank you poster. ROGHARM

[Alicecbrown]

Boy, looks like they even had sex in the 30s.!!!!