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Noon Edition

I Get a Kick: Vices in Popular Song

Peggy Lee Black Coffee

A cocktail. A cigarette. One too many cups of coffee, perhaps. We all have our vices, and jazz musicians sometimes notoriously so. Sometimes these vices can be a terrible thing, sometimes they can be a beautiful thing (like that cup of coffee), and sometimes they can inspire a great song. On this program, we explore the songs written about some these often unsavory habits. We'll hear songs about a life of drinking, and songs about specific cocktails, sung by Johnny Hartman, Nat King Cole, and more. We'll hear Ivie Anderson with Duke Ellington perform a song about smoking, and we'll even hear Ella Fitzgerald sing about an unusual vice: chewing gum.

Music Heard On This Episode

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