Swanee–from Demi-tasse to Sinbad with Jolson

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https://youtu.be/AxeAYGaUcOQWe have come around full circle to how George met Al. Sinbad, starring Al Jolson, opened on Broadway in February 1918; La-La-Lucille, Gershwin’s first Broadway show, was in tryouts down in Atlantic City in April 1919. Buddy DeSylva, George’s lyricist on the show, introduced the young composer to Al Jolson, who was on tour with Sinbad.

Meanwhile, La-La-Lucille opened on Broadway on May 26, 1919 and ran for a respectable 104 performances.

Then, as we have said, George provided two songs for the October 1919 Demi-Tasse Revue, “Swanee” and “Come to the Moon.” “Swanee” was written for a woman, and we played the original orchestration with Kim Criswell singing the song.

Now fate stepped in; George and Al met again in Atlantic City in December 1919; and this time George had something to play for Al–“Swanee.” Sinbad was still touring, and Jolson liked the song. His first opportunity to interpolate the song was on December 22, 1919; and he would continue to sing the song until the end of the tour in 1921.

Jolson recorded the song on January 8, 1920 and then again on February 20, 1920. T.B. Harms, the publisher of the sheet music, took out a full two-page ad in Variety, touting “Swanee” as a “sensational song success.”

Within a year, the sheet-music sales topped one million and the Jolson recording topped 2 million. In about one year, George Gershwin went from an unknown Broadway song writer to a famous composer. “Swanee” would remain the biggest selling song of Gershwin’s career.

That was the power of an Al Jolson release.

What is surprising is that, when we listened to the 1920 recording, it had none of the drive that we associate with the opening few bars, starting with “I’ve been away from you a long time.” To our mind, this opening of the song is what makes it special.

25 years after the release of the 1920 record, Jolson had the chance to recreate this hit song from Sinbad, this time for the movie, Rhapsody in Blue. It was a biopic of George Gershwin, who had passed away in 1937, 8 years earlier. Jolson recorded the sequence in the movie and then went on a USO tour during the Korean War. When he returned, he suffered a massive heart attack and died in 1950.

All we have left is the movie sequence, which recreated the stage performance, blackface and all. Jolson may have been too old to play the part, but thank God he did.