Bea Wain, Star Singer of the Big Band Era, Dies at 100

JSngry · August 25, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/arts/music/bea-wain-star-singer-of-the-big-band-era-dies-at-100.html?emc=edit_th_20170825&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=25913738

Bea Wain, one of the last surviving vocalists of the big band era, whose four No. 1 hits included a swing adaptation of a Debussy melody, died on Saturday in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 100.

“The impeccable Wain never fails to captivate us as Clinton’s brassmen play natty little curlicues around her,” Will Friedwald wrote in his book “Jazz Singing: America’s Great Voices From Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond” (1990).

In a short-lived recording career (curtailed by a two-year strike by musicians over royalties that began in 1942), Ms. Wain was voted most popular female band vocalist in Billboard’s 1939 college poll. (Ella Fitzgerald was second.) She had No. 1 hits with versions of the standards “Deep Purple” and “Heart and Soul” as well as “Cry, Baby, Cry” and, most notably, “My Reverie,” an up-tempo version of the classic Debussy piano piece “Reverie” with lyrics by Mr. Clinton.

Ms. Wain was among the first singers to record “Over the Rainbow,” but MGM, which owned the rights, barred the release of her version until the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” which included Judy Garland’s performance of the song, opened in August 1939. By mid-September, four versions, including Ms. Wain’s and Garland’s, were in the Top 10.

Although it would become Ms. Wain’s signature song, “My Reverie” was almost scrapped when Debussy’s heirs learned to their horror that the music had been adapted for a pop audience with a brisk tempo and lyrics.

But when Mr. Clinton sent them his recording, she recalled, they replied, “If this girl sings it, O.K.”

Still, she expressed skepticism to the bandleader that his challenging multisyllabic lyrics (“Make my dream a reality/Let’s dispense with formality”) would bode well for the song’s chances of becoming a hit.

“I said, ‘To be a popular song these days, the kids who are delivering groceries have to be able to sing it, and they’ll never be able to.’ I said, ‘It will never make it.’ ”

gmonahan · August 25, 2017

Wow. Bea Wain was still living? Who knew! Thanks for posting, Jim! Larry Clinton led one of the best of the big white dance bands during that era, and one that seldom got its due. Its HEP cds are well worth a listen for those who enjoy that era.

gregom