I’ve been waiting years for this version of “Without a Song“, by Billy Eckstine, to be put on YouTube. And today I found it!
The song was written by Vincent Youmans in 1929, with lyrics added later by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu. It’s been covered by many people, including my sweetheart Karen Carpenter (and her brother Richard), but to my mind this is by far the best version.
Eckstine led the first big band to be considered “bebop”, and its graduates included, among others, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie. Sarah Vaughan and Miles Davis. Besides leading the band, arranging, and playing trumpet, Eckstine sang with a full, rich, and warm voice, one that reminds me of another forgotten jazz great: Johnny Hartman. (Listen here to one of my favorite songs, in which Hartman sings with John Coltrane’s sax. Their entire album, which is fantastic, is here.)
This recording is from 1960, and was recorded live in Las Vegas for Eckstine’s album “No Cover No Minimum“. The arrangement and vocals are top notch, not to mention the modulation in the last verse.
Awesome recording.
That voice – now I know where Seth MacFarlane gets some of his sound. Oh, Eckstein sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow with Dizzy’s orchestra – he has a huge sound!… here it is!
youtu.be/8TcHUwvcYDE?si=JHqyad0jgimpOYtv
Here’s another version of Without a Song by Sinatra – Live in Paris
youtu.be/njsd_VMoUm4?si=10RQ8PBW00Wktmh9
… and there’s a number of great Eckstine recordings I just found on a music subscription I have, thanks for noting this.
Postmodern Jukebox, All About the Bass: https://www.google.com/search?q=pmj+all+about+that+bass&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS1045US1045&oq=pmj+al&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqDwgAECMYJxjjAhiABBiKBTIPCAAQIxgnGOMCGIAEGIoFMgwIARAuGCcYgAQYigUyBggCEEUYOTIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQLhiABDIICAUQABgWGB4yCAgGEAAYFhgeMggIBxAAGBYYHjIICAgQABgWGB4yCggJEAAYDxgWGB6oAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:29812b42,vid:aLnZ1NQm2uk,st:0
Enjoy ;D
It says it was uploaded 9 years ago.
I must have missed it, then!
Great version of a wonderful song. I like George Benson’s cover of this song with the Count Basie Orchestra.
wonderful version
Richard Dawkins seeks to negate the concept of sex as a spectrum by stating that intersex people are rare (I’ve seen numbers like 1 in 5000).
Is it valid that intersex is the rare exception to the male/female binary?
I acknowledge that gender is completely different and individuals in society are free to self identify as whatever they like independent of their biological sex.
Yes, Dawkins’s numbers are right. But intersex people are not a “third sex.” It’s one in 5600 (0.018%)
And gender has nothing to do with the sex binary, as you note.