Monday Music: Inka Dinka Doo (Jimmy Durante)

Has there ever been a greater showman that Jimmy Durante? He was pure showmanship -- upbeat, entertaining, and contagious! In this movie clip from the 1944 movie, Two Girls and a Sailor, you also get to see the legendary Harry James and his orchestra. Durante actually wrote the music for "Inka Dinka Doo" (Ben Ryan wrote the lyrics). It became a major hit record for Jimmy Durante after the song debuted in the 1934 movie, Palooka.

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I'll Be Seeing You

No, I'm not going anywhere. It's just that I awoke the other day with this song in my head. It's one of those from the Great American Song Book, of the WWII era. I can't recall ever actually sitting down to listen to it in its entirety, but would recognize certain phrases from the song. I suppose it's one of those tunes that has become ingrained into the public consciousness. I had to look it up online to learn that the music  for "I'll Be Seeing You" was written by Sammy Fain, and the lyrics by Irving Kahal. First published in 1938, it was from the Broadway musical, Right This Way.

Here's how the song came into my head: I was dreaming that I was singing the song. I was standing at the microphone and wearing a gray jacket and black tie; there was a lady at the piano, and the number began with great delight. I guess I was Frank Sinatra, or Dino (only in my dreams).

Sometimes a dream is to be interpreted, sometimes it just needs to be celebrated. So here are two renditions that I found on You Tube, representing the old and the new. Michael Buble bring a fresh new face to an old classic with this first video. In the second video, I don't know who the people are in the slide show, but the musical rendition is worth it. How can you top the great Jimmy Durante with that gravelly voiced stacato delivery and that upbeat style of his? He was the quintessential showman.













"Good night, Mrs. Calabash...wherever you are."



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