Welcome to Afterglow, I’m your host, Mark Chilla.
On this program, my spotlight is on the marvelous Doris Day, in honor of what would have been her 100th birthday on April 3rd, 2022. We know Doris Day as a film star, a pop star, and a bonafide American icon. But in the next hour, I want to explore the side of her that’s often overlooked: as a jazz singer. Day got her start as a singer with Les Brown’s Orchestra, pursuing a career as a jazz-pop songstress long before she even graced the silver screen. Coming up on this centennial celebration, I’ll feature some of her best jazz recordings.
It’s Doris Day, Jazz Singer, coming up next on Afterglow
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “STARDUST”
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “I CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE”
Doris Day sounding light and easy with a couple of radio transcriptions recorded for the Standard Label sometime around 1952. First we heard her with Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish’s “Stardust,” recorded with the Page Cavanaugh Trio. And just now, the Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields song “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” recorded with an unknown small jazz group.
Mark Chilla here on Afterglow. On this show, my spotlight is on the one and only Doris Day.
MUSIC CLIP - DORIS DAY, “WHATEVER WILL BE, WILL BE (QUE SERA SERA)”
When Doris Day was just a little girl, she was named Doris Von Kappelhoff born in Cincinnati on April 3, 1922, one hundred years ago this week. Although her father was a musician, the young Doris wanted to be a dancer. However when she was a teenager, she got into a bad car accident, ending her hopes of a dance career. In her recovery, though, she started to sing.
She began by singing along to the radio, and then trying out her act in public. Before long, the young Doris was on the radio. Her first early success was with bandleader Barney Rapp. She became known for singing the song “Day After Day, so it was Rapp who suggested that she change her name to Doris Day.
Day’s reputation started to grow. She worked briefly with Bob Crosby and eventually with bandleader Les Brown when she was only 19 years old.
Here’s an early track from Doris Day and Les Brown, this is “Easy As Pie,” on Afterglow.
MUSIC - LES BROWN, FEAT. DORIS DAY, “EASY AS PIE”
An early song from Doris Day and bandleader Les Brown. We just heard them in 1941 with “Easy As Pie.”
A few months after she recorded this song, Doris Day left the band for personal reasons. She married trombonist Al Jorden and gave birth to a son, Terry. (Terry Melcher, her son, would later become a successful music producer in the 1960s). Two years later, her marriage ended badly, and by 1944, the lure of showbiz called again. With a two-year-old Terry in tow, Doris Day rejoined Les Brown’s band.
One of the first songs she recorded during her second tenure with the band would make her famous around the country. The song was called “Sentimental Journey,” written by Brown himself. When World War II ended a year later, the nation was clamoring for relaxing, sentimental music, and “Sentimental Journey” became just the song they were looking for.
Here’s Doris Day and Les Brown’s Orchestra with “Sentimental Journey,” on Afterglow.
MUSIC - LES BROWN, FEAT. DORIS DAY, “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY”
MUSIC - LES BROWN, FEAT. DORIS DAY, “T’AIN’T ME”
Two songs from Doris Day’s second time around with Les Brown’s orchestra. We just heard her in 1946 with the up-tempo song “T’ain’t Me,” and before that, her biggest hit song “Sentimental Journey.”
The success of “Sentimental Journey” alone made her too big of a star to stay with Brown. So by 1947 she decided to go solo and was signed to Columbia Records. While Columbia’s producer Mitch Miller would quickly push her towards making pop records, her first recording session out of the gate was much more jazz-forward.
Here’s a track from that session now. This is Doris Day with “It Takes Time,” on Afterglow
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “IT TAKES TIME”
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “SOMEONE LIKE YOU”
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “‘S WONDERFUL”
Doris Day with Gershwin’s “’S Wonderful.” That comes from a radio transcription she recorded in 1952. Before that, we heard two early Columbia recordings from Doris Day in 1947, starting with the song “It Takes Time” by Arthur Korb, her first solo recording for Columbia Records, and that was followed by “Someone Like You” by Harry Warren and Ralph Blaine. “Someone Like You” was later featured in the film My Dream Is Yours.
Soon after Doris Day went solo, songwriter Sammy Cahn heard her perform. He thought she had charisma, and suggested her for a role in the upcoming film Romance On The High Seas.
MUSIC CLIP - DORIS DAY, “IT’S MAGIC”
Day was a natural on the screen, introducing this song “it’s Magic,” by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. She turned “It’s Magic” into a top ten Billboard hit in 1948, but it became clear that Day’s destiny was to be a film star.
Nevertheless, she continued to sing. And one of her specialties became the ballad, in the style of “It’s Magic” or “Sentimental Journey.”
Let’s hear one of those ballads now. This is Doris Day in 1949 with the jazz standard “You Go To My Head,” on Afterglow.
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “YOU GO TO MY HEAD”
The warm and sensual voice of Doris Day, performing “You Go To My Head” by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. That recording comes from March 1949.
MUSIC CLIP - LES BROWN, “I’M COMING VIRGINIA
After a short break, we’ll hear more jazz music by Doris Day, in honor of her centennial, stay with us.
I’m Mark Chilla, and you’re listening to Afterglow
MUSIC CLIP - HARRY JAMES, “LIMEHOUSE BLUES”
MUSIC CLIP - HARRY JAMES, “GET HAPPY”
Welcome back to Afterglow, I’m Mark Chilla. We’ve been paying tribute this hour to Doris Day, who would have turned 100 years old on April 3rd.
After 1948, Doris Day became a bankable film star, featured in films like Romance on the High Seas, I’ll See You In My Dreams, Calamity Jane and many more. Her career as a film star mostly took her away from the jazz that got her started, putting her face on the silver screen and her music on the pop charts. But not always.
In the 1950 film Young Man With A Horn, Doris Day got to show off her jazz side. She co-starred in that film as jazz singer Jo Johnson the love interest of Rick Martin (played by Kirk Douglas). Martin is a trumpeter styled after the real-life jazz star of the 1920s Bix Beiderbecke. Beiderbecke’s real-life friend Hoagy Carmichael also co-stars in the film. Young Man With A Horn was a chance for Day to show off what a great jazz singer she was, and also got her working alongside jazz legend Harry James on trumpet. James was the person responsible for all of the trumpet playing in the film.
Here’s a song from that soundtrack. This is Doris Day and Harry James in 1950 with the tune “I May Be Wrong (But I Think You’re Wonderful),” on Afterglow
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “I MAY BE WRONG (BUT I THINK YOU’RE WONDERFUL)”
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “LULLABY OF BROADWAY”
Two songs recorded for the 1950 film Young Man With A Horn. That was Doris Day and trumpeter Harry James with “Lullaby of Broadway” by Harry Warren and Al Dubin and “I May Be Wrong But I Think You’re Wonderful” by Harry Ruskin and Henry Sullivan.
Doris Day actually recorded two different versions of “Lullaby of Broadway” in 1950. One was this version with Harry James for the soundtrack to Young Man With A Horn. The other was with the Norman Luboff choir, a poppier version for the 1951 film appropriately called Lullaby of Broadway. In that film, she also played a singer, and performed a showstopping version of the title song in the film, complete with an intricate dance number.
I want to play two other songs from that film now, because they continue to show off Day’s jazzy side. Here’s Doris Day from the soundtrack from the film Lullaby of Broadway with Cole Porter’s “Just One Of Those Things,” on Afterglow
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS”
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “PLEASE DON’T TALK ABOUT ME WHEN I’M GONE”
Doris Day with a jazz and blues standard from 1930 called “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone.” Before that, we heard the Cole Porter standard “Just One Of Those Things.” Both of those songs come from the 1951 Doris Day film Lullaby Of Broadway.
For the next several years, Doris Day’s music was mostly from her films, recorded in a light pop style, as dictated by Columbia’s head producer Mitch Miller and Day’s manager/husband Marty Melcher. However, around the mid-to-late-1950s, Doris Day tried again at the slow, intimate jazz style that made her famous in 1944 with the song “Sentimental Journey.”
The LP was becoming prominent, and other singers of her generation, like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, had begun doing the same. She recorded two memorable albums: Day By Day and Day By Night. The producer she worked with was Paul Weston who created lush jazz arrangements for Day to show off her some of her best ballad work to date.
I’ll play a song from each of those albums now, beginning with an old Gershwin standard. This is Doris Day in 1956 with the song “But Not For Me,” on Afterglow.
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “BUT NOT FOR ME”
MUSIC - DORIS DAY, “I SEE YOUR FACE BEFORE ME”
Doris Day in 1957 with the Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz tune “I See Your Face Before Me” from the album Day By Night Before that, we heard her in 1956 with the George and Ira Gershwin tune “But Not For Me,” from the album Day By Day. Both records were produced by Paul Weston.
Doris Day’s last great jazz recording came in 1961. She retired from singing almost entirely by 1965. The album was called Duet and featured her alongside pianist Andre Previn and his piano trio. Previn, who also passed away just a few months before Doris Day at age 89, had a way of tapping the elegant, jazzy side of many pop singers. He recorded a similar album with Dinah Shore just two years before.
This album features all slow ballads, giving Doris Day time to show off that sweet spot of her voice that was lush, intimate and serene.
Here’s Doris Day and Andre Previn in 1961 with the Alec Wilder tune “Give Me Time,” on Afterglow.
MUSIC - DORIS DAY AND ANDRE PREVIN, “GIVE ME TIME”
Doris Day and pianist Andre Previn in 1961 with Alec Wilder’s “Give Me Time.” That comes from their album Duet, one of Doris Day’s last great albums before she retired from singing.
And thanks for tuning in to this Doris Day centennial celebration on Afterglow.
MUSIC CLIP - AHMAD JAMAL TRIO, “SECRET LOVE”
Afterglow is part of the educational mission of Indiana University, and produced by WFIU Public Radio in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. The executive producer is John Bailey.
Playlists for this and other Afterglow programs are available on our website. That’s at indianapublicmedia.org/afterglow.
I’m Mark Chilla, and join me next week for our mix of Vocal Jazz and popular song from the Great American Songbook, here on Afterglow
