Saturday, December 3, 2011

Sophie Tucker Just Made A New Fan

If she hadn't died decades before normal folks had ever heard of the internet, I'd be bookmarking her blog right now.  Sophie Tucker, I've just discovered, was quite a gal.
Brain-fried on grading essays (mid-terms are due Monday.  Bleck.) and too tired to make a decision as to whether or not I can live with the remaining small irritations in Half-Vampire, I was working on a scene for my WIP, The (Dis)Appearance of Nerissa MacKay, which needs some 1920s music.  I had a ton of Eddie Cantor and a few Josephine Baker and Fanny Brice hits on my iTunes, but not much else from that decade, so I did a yahoo search for popular singers of the 1920s.  Sophie Tucker's name appeared, and, not knowing anything about her, I began searching through amazon's mp3 download page.
Oh my goodness.  What hits.  What a delightful, refreshing person!
She seemed to have a really good grasp of a woman's reality in this world, as is evidenced by the following quote (and by the song lyrics below), "From birth to age eighteen, a girl needs good parents. From eighteen to thirty-five she needs good looks. From thirty-five to fifty-five, she needs a good personality. From fifty-five on, she needs good cash."


Songs I'll be buying soon include:
"Middle Age Mambo"
"Hello, My Baby"
"Red Hot Mama"
"You Can't Deep Freeze A Red Hot Mama"
"Sophie Tucker School For Red Hot Mamas"
"I'm Living Alone And I Like It"
And this hilariously true little ditty "Nobody Loves A Fat Girl"


Nobody loves a fat girl
But oh how a fat girl can love
Nobody seems to want me
I'm just a truck upon the highway of love

I'm all alone inside of my form
When ev'ry ounce of me is dyin' to keep somebody warm
Nobody loves a fat girl
But oh how a fat girl can love
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/jim+croce/nobody+loves+a+fat+girl_20269080.html ]
Nobody loves a fat girl
But oh how a fat girl can love
Nobody seems to want me
I'm just a truck upon the highway of love
The only game I can get the boys to play
Is to have them sit around and try to guess how much I weigh
Nobody loves a fat girl
But oh how a fat girl can love, pretty mama
Oh how a fat girl can love




I am SO going to be a fan forever now.  What a discovery!
Does anyone else have singers/groups from the early days of recording on their iPods?


UPDATE 12/4: I bought the songs and have been happily listening to them while I grade papers.  :)

5 comments:

  1. Milo James Fowler left the following comment:

    I had some Billie Holiday, but I can't seem to locate it. Thanks for the introduction to Ms. Tucker!

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  2. Thanks for dropping by, Milo. Billie Holiday is one I haven't tried yet. I'll have to look into finding some of her stuff!

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  3. The oldest I have is from the Rock'n'Roll era, though I do have some doris day and vera lynn.

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  4. Didn't know about Ms. Tucker. But it is songs like the one you posted that fuels my love for 20s era music.

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  5. Just yesterday I borrowed Chart Toppers of the Twenties from the library. Delightful. :)

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