Jack Kerouac’s Birthday tomorrow.
We thought we’d begin the celebrations with this.
Jack, goofy and happy, singing a pretty free-form (actually, a seriously free-form!) rendition of (the “Roaring Twenties” classic) “Ain’t We Got Fun”
(“the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” – “the rich get richer and the poor get laid off” – “the rich get richer and the poor get.. children”!)
We thought it’d be interesting to trace the song (music by Richard Whiting, lyrics by Gus Kahn and Raymond Egar) through it’s various manifestations – from this and this and this (all 1921 versions) to this (Doris Day and Danny Thomas in 1952) to this (“the incomparable Miss Peggy Lee“)
“Jack Kerouac is dedicating this number to lovely and beautiful, skinny, shapely Sue Evans, with the beautiful box”!
And, heck, from the same source (Rykodisc’s 1999 CD – Jack Kerouac Reads On The Road)
here’s another – “When A Woman Loves A Man”
Here’s Peggy Lee (pretty different, right?)
and (from 1938), the legendary “Lady Day”, Billie Holiday
See/speak with you tomorrow, Jack!
That was great, thanks. 🙂