Tea for Two (song)

Tea for Two is a from of Vincent Youmans (music) and Irving Caesar ( lyrics ) composed Broadway musical No, No, Nanette derived song that was covered by insulated publication in 1925, the Jazz Standard and style across many performers. 1963 included the ASCAP Song of the sixteen most successful musical works of all time.

Genesis

Lyricist Irving Caesar was asked by composer Vincent Youmans at night in 1924, urgently to write a text to an existing melody. Spontaneously developed Caesar (1895-1996) a provisional text dummy. He used the song for a conventional bridge in England in the 18th century exclamation mobile tea vendor who offered two pots of tea for the price of one. Caesar had probably never heard of the expression, for he used the phrase for a romantic meeting of two people at tea. The next day he developed the text further. He asked, (9 to 16 bars ) to expand the melody in the second section to accommodate more syllables, which up to then, with its dotted quarters plus quavers a bit monotonous rhythm was more effective.

In the musical the title is placed in the second act, as Nanette and Tom reminisce about their future.

Composed of 32 bars song is based on a minimum of tones and intervals, so that the simple, economical melody includes only an interval of nine tones. Your chorus is composed almost entirely of dotted quarter and eighth notes. The actual resulting monotony is covered by an intense repetition. In addition, abrupt key changes between A-flat major and C major for voltage provide.

Premiere

The first performance of the musical was held in April 1924 in Detroit instead, it was followed by Chicago, and then the musical arrives only to New York. Here Louis Groody and John Barker Tea For Two sang as part of the musical as a duet. The Broadway premiere took place on September 16, 1925 at the Globe Theatre, where there were 321 performances. Before the sheet music were published for the musical on May 14, 1925.

Recordings

The large number of cover versions of the song has become the Evergreen. The following are the major musikologisch versions are mentioned. The first disk recording comes from the Benson Orchestra of Chicago, which began the song on August 28, 1924 as the instrumental tracks ( Victor # 19438 ). Following the publication in January 1925, the title came down to rank 5 of the hit parade. The next disk version comes from soprano Helen Clark along with James Lewis and was created on September 22, 1924 musical justice as a duet (Victor # 19463 ). Overall, the title still came after six other versions in the charts, with the resulting vocal version on October 15, 1924 by Marion Harris with Rank 1 (3 weeks) performed best. The instrumental version of Ben Bernie and his orchestra arrived in 1925 to number 10 in the U.S. charts.

Red Nichols & His Five Pennies took on 14 February 1930, the first important jazz recordings on (Brunswick # 4724 ); In the same year came the resultant on December 27, 1929 cover version of Ipana Troubadours at # 15 in the U.S. charts. Art Tatum brought out the same two versions, the first of which was established on March 21, 1933; its amended on April 12, 1939 could work your way up to rank 18 in the U.S. charts. Fats Waller played on 11 June 1937 a piano solo (Victor # 25618 ). Django Reinhardt took his first versions in Paris on December 21, 1937. Teddy Stauffer took the title in 1941 in Switzerland. Tenor saxophonist Lester Young recorded the song several times, first on 15th July 1942 with Nat King Cole on piano; November 28, 1952 version originated with Oscar Peterson ( Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio). The Barney Bigard Trio (Signature # 28116 ) followed with a recording of 22 January 1944 Gene Krupa with Anita O'Day on October 23, 1945. Doris Day sang the song in the same film, which on 1 September 1950 in the cinemas came ( German title: Glamorous woman ), but the content has nothing to do with the musical. The sung by Day LP for movie called Tea for Two was released on September 4, 1950. Doris Day is due to the conversion of the jazz song into a hit.

A Cha -Cha -Cha was not the original; only in the known with the band led by Warren Covington Tommy Dorsey become version of 23 April 1958 ( Decca # 30704 ) of the title became the theme song for the Cha -Cha -Cha and managed with Tea For Two Cha Cha by publication in the September 1958 Rank 7 of the American. and # 3 on the British pop charts.

Even in modern jazz, the song served as a basis for improvisation; so took him John LaPorta with Lennie Tristano, but also Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk and Ran Blake in duet with Jaki Byard. The singers Ella Fitzgerald and Anita O'Day created exemplary interpretations.

Vincent Youmans witnessed the development of his composition a worldwide hit with not completely, for he died at the age of 48 years in 1946 in Denver tuberculosis. His partner, however, Caesar was able to share in this success, because he was 101 years old and died in 1996 in New York.

Trivia

In October 1927, the conductor Nikolai Malko bet with the composer Dmitri Shostakovich 100 rubles that it was not possible to orchestrate a piece in less than an hour. Shostakovich accepted the wager, and wrote in 45 minutes an orchestral version of the song. His version, Tahiti Trot, Op 16 was premiered on 25 November 1928 in Moscow and has been very popular.

Statistics

The ASCAP lists 75 cover versions, which have well-rehearsed by the Comedian Harmonists on 17 December 1934, is worth mentioning. Musicologist Hermann Rough still found out one aspect that made ​​it the Evergreen minimalist work Tea For Two; the melody have indeed changed the rhythm every few years. " When the play In 1924, it was a fox-trot rhythm, five years later rumba, slow waltz, tango and so forth. " In particular, the Cha -Cha -Cha version of Dorsey Orchestra there should not be forgotten. Art Tatum's version ranked at number 226 of the Songs of the Century.

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