Al Jolson and Cab Calloway: “I Love to Sing-a“ (1936)

Music and film greats Cab Calloway and Al Jolson sing about the love of singing. They croon to each other across the perilous gulf between their neighboring high-rise penthouses, teetering on their respective ledges without care. ____________________________________ from Disintegrating the Musical: Black Performance and American Musical Film, by Arthur Knight (2002): Jolson’s film, The Singing Kid (1936), wanted to stage an explicit autocritique of the old-fashioned content of Jolson’s past while maintaining some of his modernist form and style. It wanted to both erase and celebrate boundaries and differences, including most emphatically the color line. The Singing Kid’s narrative opens with the multimedia star Al Jackson (Jolson) singing on the balcony of his sleek, modern penthouse. From another penthouse across the way, Cab Calloway and his band join in, and the song, “I Love to Sing-a,“ develops into a duet between Al and Cab. This number introduces and celebrates the Jolsonian verities (love of nature and song, romance, the South, the nation, mammy). Jolson sings the lyric -- including the syncopated, punctuating, and accurate line, “microphone’s got [i.e. ruined] me!“ -- in his characteristic old-fashioned premicrophone, declamatory style. . . When Calloway begins singing in his characteristic style -- in which the words are tools for exploring rhythm and stretching melody -- it becomes clear that American culture is changing around Jolson and with (and through) Calloway. . . ____________________________________ Song lyrics: I love to sing-a About the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a, I love to sing-a, About a sky of blue-a, or a tea for two-a, Anything-a with a swing-a to an “I love you-a,“ I love to, I love to sing! Give me a song-a About a son-a gun that went and done her wrong-a. But keep it clean-a, With a cottage small-a by a waterfall-a, Any sob-a that will throb-a to a bluebird’s call-a, I love, I love to sing! I was born a singin’ fool-a, Lah-de-dah! Ol’ Major Bowes is gonna spot me, Got through Yale with boula-boula, Lah-de-dah! Old microphone’s got me! I love to sing-a, I love to wake up with the south-a in my mouth-a, And wave a flag-a, With a cheer for Uncle Sammy and another for my mammy, I love to sing! ____________________________________ Some notes about the lyrics: Major (Edward) Bowes was an American radio personality of the 1930s and 40s whose Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour was the best-known amateur talent show in radio during its eighteen-year run (1934-1952) on NBC Radio and CBS Radio. “Boula-boula“ (or boola boola) is a traditional Yale University cheer -- as well as the name of a turtle-and-puréed-pea soup (sometimes served at Yale, I believe). ____________________________________ I claim no ownership.