Wednesday, March 7, 2012

JIMMY McHUGH IS THE CULPRIT: MURDER, HE SAYS IS A KILLER SONG




Murder, He Says is an absolutely knock-out, if somewhat lesser known, Jimmy McHugh gem.
Tori Amos hit a bullseye with her recording, featured in Mona Lisa Smile starring Julia Roberts
Dinah Shore scored a wartime hit with her jitterbug version of the tune, now featured in the new hit game, LA Noire. 
Here’s a sample of the song’s 1940s hipster lyrics:

He says, Jackson, he says
and my name's Marie
He says, Jackson, he says
shoot the snoot for me
He says, Jackson, he says
Is that the language of love?
The high spirited and perennially peppy Betty Hutton killed ‘em with her jump & jive LIVE performance of Murder, He Says for Armed Forces Radio’s Command Performance program.
Summing it up her style, the show’s host Bob Hope called the Betty ‘A Vitamin Pill on Legs’!
Here’s a link to a rare film clip of this 1943 performance (and another to Tori Amos’s great swing track.)
Enjoy.
Betty Hutton:

Tori Amos:

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