Back in the early days of this blog, I did a post on Harold Arlen and his contribution to the American Songbook. In it, I included his version of "Stormy Weather" with Leo Reisman's Orchestra as well as one of my favorites by The Reigning Sound. After I posted it somebody pointed me to a link at the WFMU blog that contained a zip file with another 70+ versions. Here's a few of those as well as an unusually jaunty and swingin' version by Dave Bartholomew that I picked up recently. There must be hundreds of versions of this song. A standard is a standard and there's a reason for this. Anyone can get behind it and make it their own. While I was listening to the great Lena Horne version, I remembered one of my favorite episodes of Sanford and Son, where Fred bum rushes Lena's dressing room on an NBC studio tour. In their dressing room conversation Fred tells her "I saw your movie Stormy Weather thirty-eight times" to which she replies, "You mean to tell me you paid to see Stormy Weather thirty-eight times?" Fred comes back and says "No, I only paid once. I went in on a Saturday and came out on a Wednesday evening."
Hopefully your Monday isn't a stormy one.
Download:
"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Dave Bartholomew, 1951.
available on The King Sides
"Stormy Weather" mp3
by The Spaniels, 1958.
available on The Doo Wop Box, Vol. 2
"Stormy Weather" mp3
by The Reigning Sound, 2002.
available on Time Bomb High School
"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Harold Arlen with Leo Reisman's Orchestra, 1933.
available on Song Is Harold Arlen
"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Lena Horne, 1943.
available on Stormy Weather
"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Billie Holiday, 1952.
available on The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve, 1945-1959
"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Duke Ellington Orchestra, 1953.
available on Capitol Sessions 1953-1955
"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Eric Dolphy, 1960.
available on Candid Dolphy
