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:

NY’s City Center transforms into Harlem’s Cotton Club to Salute Duke Ellington. Show features the Music of Jimmy McHugh

Duke Ellington‘s Cotton Club Parade, opens November 18 at New York City Center. Cotton Club Parade is a celebration of Ellington’s years at the famed Harlem nightclub in the 1920s and early ’30s, when the joint was jumping with revues featuring big bands, swing and blues, dancers, singers and novelty acts.

The Cotton Club Parade re-imagines one of the world famous Cotton Club floor shows. It will feature the renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, who also serves as music director.

Jimmy McHugh, who was the Cotton Club’s musical director, discovered Ellington at a small New Jersey club. He was responsible for booking Duke and his Band into the famed nightspot for a two-week engagement, which turned into a four-year residency at the Club.

Legendary performers such as the Nicholas Brothers, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Snake Hips Tucker, Peg Leg Bates and a 16-year old Lena Horne all performed at the Cotton Club.

As in the original revues, Cotton Club Parade will feature singers, dancers and variety acts, and songs by the greatest jazz composers of the time, including Jimmy McHugh (I Can’t Give You Anything But Love and Diga Diga Doo).

Cotton Club Parade will run for six performances only November 18-22, 2011

Links:

http://www.nycitycenter.org/tickets/productionnew.aspx?performanceNumber=6033

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington

www.dukeellington.com

More about Nikki

Nikki Yanofsky zoomed into LA last week for a show-stopping SRO appearance at the Catalina Bar & Grill. Quincy Jones made a surprise appearance to introduce the sixteen year old sensation. Needless to say, her ‘On The Sunny Side Of The Street’ is a show-stopper.

Nikki’s ‘On The Sunny Side Of The Street’

• www.nikkionline.ca

John Pizzarelli & wife Jessica Molaskey are opening tonite!

John Pizzarelli & wife Jessica Molaskey are opening tonite at the Carlyle with "I Just Found Out About Love And I Like It" A Jimmy McHugh classic.

The Carlyle Hotel