Three Little Words (song)
Three Little Words is a pop song by Harry Ruby (music) and Bert Kalmar ( text ), which was published in 1930.
Genesis
The Duke Ellington Orchestra held in mid 1930 in Hollywood to participate in the music for the Amos 'n' Andy film Check and Double Check; this was also the first major film appearance of the Ellington orchestra. A first of Ellington with the Emmanuel Hall Quintet recorded version of Three Little Words was discarded. Originally, the song that they wrote for the film project Kalmar and Ruby, are sung by Ellington's drummer Sonny Greer, but Greer had stage fright when he arrived in Hollywood, then what Ellington forced Bing Crosby The Rhythm Boys, a singing trio of Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker to get involved. After the test shots to use Bing Crosby alone as vocalists, the director Melville W. Brown decided, but only in the film version. In a longer sequence of the movie you see the trumpeter Freddy Jenkins, Cootie Williams and Arthur Whetsol as they see little megaphones and pretend they were singing; the political correctness that time forced the Hollywood film industry to the concession not to show a white vocal group, which is accompanied by a black band.
Features of the song
The 32 -bar and written in C major song in the song form A1 -A1 -B -A2 acts melodic nervous and excited, especially when it is played in today's pace. The song has ( was visible even when Bix Beiderbecke like him) advanced harmonies that can be seen as a musical influence of Impressionism on the jazz of the 1920s. The lyrics are about the three little words and eight letters of the declaration of love " I love You ", which would like to hear the singer.
Initial reception and cover versions
The following shot of Duke Ellington and his orchestra and the Rhythm Boys for Victor Records on August 26, 1930 ( Victor 22528 ), came to position 1 on the U.S. charts, where it stayed for three weeks in October 1930; it was Ellington's first number - one hit. After this first version, which was a total of thirteen weeks on the U.S. charts, soon followed by successful cover versions of Jacques Renard and His Orchestra (1930, # 3 ), the Ipana Troubadors (1930, # 10), Ethel Waters with the Dorsey Brothers (1931, # 8) and Claude Hopkins and His Orchestra (1934, Orlando Robeson, vocal, # 15).
Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald ( 1939) Carmen McRae ( with Ernie Wilkins, 1955), Mel Torme (1996 ), and finally Kevin Mahogany ( with Kenny Barron, 2005) recorded the song, but mainly due to numerous instrumental versions became a jazz standard. An early instrumental version of the song played Lester Young 1944 with the Kansas City Six; followed by Milt Jackson / John Coltrane ( Bags & Trane, 1959) and Willis Jackson / Jack McDuff ( Together Again, 1965) Weotere shots of Pepper Adams, Gene Ammons, Benny Carter, Ron Carter, Art Farmer, Joe Farrell, Bud Freeman, January Garber, Stan Getz / Oscar Peterson, Richie Kamuca, Charlie Mariano, Branford Marsalis (Trio Jeepy, 1988), Miff Mole, Jimmie Noone, Les Paul, Sonny Rollins, Bud Shank, Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson show the popularity of the Three Little Words.
The song was also used in the film of the same musical by Richard Thorpe with Fred Astaire and Vera -Ellen from 1950, which was a biography of Kalmar and Ruby.