Bill Haley & His Comets' What a Crazy Party: The Best of the Decca Years

A couple months ago, I listened to a two Bill Haley albums a few times each: From the Original Master Tapes and What a Crazy Party: The Best of the Decca Years, which contains four original albums alongside some singles (I should note that all of the tracks on From the Original Master Tapes are also on What a Crazy Party).  I found a number of things to write about, but since they're mostly small points, I thought I'd write a post about the collection as a whole.

"Dim, Dim the Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere)"

I actually noticed a couple months ago that the line "Turn down the lights" descends (I think it's E C C# A), as if to match the lowering of the light level, but I didn't think that that alone was significant enough to write a post about.

For what it's worth, the title What a Crazy Party comes from a line in this song.

"Burn That Candle"

At the very end, there's a near quote of Mendelssohn's Wedding March from the incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (Op. 61).  I probably noticed this quotation before but didn't really think about it.

The phrase at the end of "Burn That Candle" (played on saxophone) is something like:

And here's the phrase from Mendelssohn's Wedding March that it quotes:

[notation found here]

That's just the first violin part, but the same phrase is played on the flutes, oboes, and clarinets.

There are only slight differences between Mendelssohn's phrase and this quotation.  The rhythms are basically the same (the phrase in "Burn That Candle" just turns some of Mendelssohn's quarter notes into pairs of eighth notes), and with the exception of one note (the third in each phrase), the intervals are the same.

Recently, however, I noticed that there's an-other phrase that seems to come from the Wedding March.  After the first chorus and the saxophone solo, there's this five-note phrase:

These are the same four notes that begin the Wedding March quotation at the end, just an octave lower and with the order of two notes (E and D) reversed.

"Hey Then, There Now"

One of the verses ends with the line "Will you be the apple of my eye?" which is a phrase from the Bible.  It's in Psalm 17:8 ("Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings"), but apparently the first instance is Deuteronomy 32:10: "He [God] found him [Jacob] in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye."

"How Many?"

I noticed a couple things about the bridge:

Now there must have been a million
For everywhere you go
You seem so well acquainted
Ev'rybody says hello

The "every-" of "everywhere" is pronounced with three syllables (rather than just two, like the "ev'ry-" of "ev'rybody").  This three-syllable pronunciation provides a sense of the breadth of everywhere.

I also noticed a grammatical ambiguity: for could be understood as preposition or a conjunction.  As a preposition, there's a sense of calculating.  With that parsing, the sentiment is: you've surely known a million guys in each place you've been.  Parsing for as a conjunction provides a reason for positing that "there must been been a million."  It's easier to see the distinction if for is replaced with because:  "Now there must have been a million [guys you know] / Because everywhere you go / You seem so well acquainted."

"Rock Lomond"

The last verse begins with the lines "Now you take the high road / And I'll take the low road."  The "take the high road" ascends (G A B B), and "take the low road" descends (A G E D).  Each phrase is sung to a melody that musically illustrates the height of the road described.

"Rip It Up"

I noticed years ago that the saxophone solo starts with a phrase from "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town."  It's a variation on the melody to which "You better watch out; you better not cry / You better not pout" is sung.

"Skinny Minnie"

The first verse ends with the line "Well, she is the apple of my eye," which - as I mentioned above with "Hey Then, There Now" - is a phrase from the Bible.

The Shadows' "Saturday Dance"

A couple weeks ago, I listened to a 3-CD set of the Shadows, and I noticed something about "Saturday Dance" (I think I'd noticed this before but forgotten about it; I certainly haven't written about it in any case).

One of the verses has the lines "Go upstairs and put your glad rags on / And join me, hon, and we'll have some fun."  At first, I recognized just the phrase "glad rags," but when I verified the source, I discovered that there's a substantial similarity between these two lines and the first two lines of the first verse of Bill Haley & His Comets' "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock":  "Get your glad rags on; join me, hon / We'll have some fun when the clock strikes one."  Aside from a few minor differences, these two pairs of lines have the same three clauses:  "Get/put your glad rags on," "Join me, hon," and "We'll have some fun."

These lines are so similar that I don't think it's just coincidental.  I'd find it hard to believe that these lines in "Saturday Dance" weren't intended to quote "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock."

I did some research and discovered that "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" was written by Jimmy De Knight and Max C Freedman and came out in 1954.  The publication data of my 3-CD Shadows set credit "Saturday Dance" to "Chester/Marvin" (I'm assuming "Marvin" is the Shadows' Hank Marvin) and note that it was recorded in 1959.  There are five years between the two songs, so chronologically, it's entirely possible that "Saturday Dance" quotes "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock."

The bass part for "Saturday Dance" sounded pretty easy, so I figured it out and notated it.  I should note that my notation starts at the same time the bass part starts.  At the very beginning of the song there are a few measures comprised solely of guitar, but I didn't include those.  And, as always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong:

"Dinah"

About a month ago, I listened to a two-disc compilation album of Bill Haley & His Comets.  One of the songs was "Dinah," written by Harry Akst, Samuel Lewis, and Joe Young.  I have a few other versions of it and was slightly familiar with it, but listening to Haley's version, I noticed - for the first time - the play on words with "Dinah might."  It sounds the same as "dynamite."

I listened to a few of the other versions I have (the versions I have with words, not the instrumental versions), and I kept finding other interesting things about the song.

The next version I listened to was by Charlie & His Orchestra.  It's from a set of World War II-era music, specifically the CD of the German propaganda pieces.  It's also the first version of "Dinah" that I ever heard.  In their version, they actually emphasize that "Dinah might"/"dynamite" feature.  After going through the verses normally, there's the propaganda section, which mentions Churchill's fear of naval attacks:  "Every night / Why does he / Shake with fright / Because some dynamite / Might sink us all in a day" (the Germans were singing as if they were the British, hence that "us").  It was fascinating to see that Germans in the 1940s noticed - and made use of - the same sonic feature that I did.

After that, I listened to Bing Crosby's version (which I later learned also features the Mills Brothers).  While listening to his version, I noticed that there's a line break during the word "into."  Instead of "How I love to sit and gaze into the eyes of Dinah Lee," it's "How I love to sit and gaze in / To the eyes of Dinah Lee."  Later I realized that the line break's occurring within a word indicates how enchanting her eyes are:  it's as if the speaker/singer can't pay attention to the structure anymore.

Listening to Crosby's version also got me thinking about "my Dinah might / Change her mind about me."  The "Dinah might"/"dynamite" suggests that Dinah's "chang[ing] her mind" would be as devastating to the speaker/singer as a literal explosion.

Yester-day, I learned (I think correctly) the chords to Crosby's version.  During that bridge, there are descending chromatic phrases within the chords.  It's D minor, F augmented, F major, in which is the chromatic phrase D, C#, C.  Then there's D minor, F augmented, C major, with the same chromatic phrase.  Traditionally, descending chromatic lines are indicative of despair, and that's the case here too, since the bridge is the only section that's sad or fearful.  The verses are about Dinah's peerlessness:

Dinah, is there anyone finer
In the state of Carolina
If there is and you know her, show her to me

her enchanting beauty:

Dinah, got those Dixie eyes blazin’
How I love to sit and gaze in
To the eyes of Dinah Lee

and the speaker/singer's dedication to her:

Oh, Dinah, should you wander to China
I would hop an ocean liner
Just to be with Dinah Lee