Uncovered - the original version

"Georgia on My Mind"

Single by Ray Charles
from the album The Genius Hits the Road
B-side "What'd I Say"
Released September 1960
Genre Blues
Length 3:35
Label ABC Records
Writer(s) Hoagy Carmichael (music)
Stuart Gorrell (lyrics)

"Georgia on My Mind" is a song written in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael (music) and Stuart Gorrell (lyrics). It is the official state song of the U.S. state of Georgia. Gorrell wrote the lyrics for Hoagy's sister, Georgia Carmichael.[1] However, the lyrics of the song are ambiguous enough to refer either to the state or to a woman named "Georgia". Carmichael's 1965 autobiography, Sometimes I Wonder, records the origin: a friend, saxophonist and bandleader Frankie Trumbauer, suggested: "Why don't you write a song called 'Georgia?' Nobody lost much writing about the South." Thus, the song is universally believed to have been written about the state.

The song was first recorded on September 15, 1930 in New York by Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra with Bix Beiderbecke on muted cornet and Hoagy Carmichael on vocals. The recording was part of Bix Beiderbecke's last recording session. The recording was released as Victor 23013 with "One Night in Havana".

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@hingehead,

It WAS scary. It was scary for men and it gave us a good idea what it's like for a woman to be stalked by a maniac.
It also announced the presence of a new talented director: Clint Eastwood

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I don't know that i found it scary . . . it sure as hell was creepy, though. The role for Eastwood was a departure, too.

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@Setanta,

Eastwood himself thought that his role as a disc jockey in "Play Misty For Me" was much more consistent with his personal background (he was trained in both acting and in music). Eastwood commented that he was astonished when a police chief asked him to give a lecture to a police training class. People wanted to believe Eastwood was Dirty Harry, even though he had no training in police work.

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@edgarblythe,

Wow, look at the band! Beiderbecke , Teagarden Jimmy Dorsey and Krupa!

It's almost a marching tune in places.

It may not be the original but Ray Charles owns that song. Have to be in my all time top ten for 'taking you somewhere else'.

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@Setanta,

When I was a kid Star Trek, Lost in Space and Doctor Who all scared the bejeebus out of me.

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@hingehead,

hingehead wrote:

Wow, look at the band! Beiderbecke , Teagarden Jimmy Dorsey and Krupa!

It's almost a marching tune in places.

It may not be the original but Ray Charles owns that song. Have to be in my all time top ten for 'taking you somewhere else'.

I was reading about Sammy Kahn. He said the first time he heard Ray Charles sing Georgia, he was driving between cities, listening to the radio. When Ray played, he was so overwhelmed he had to pull off of the road, and then sat there, stunned.

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@edgarblythe,

Think Hoagy ever heard Charles do it?

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@edgarblythe,

I know how he felt...

I saw an elderly Sammy Cahn interviewed in late 70s early 80s. Charming and intelligent, and when asked the sitter about 'today's music' and he was very complimentary about the palette of literary themes available to modern lyricists, lamenting that topically and in language use lyricists of his time were very restricted in what they could talk about and how they could talk about it.

I read a biography of Ira Gershwin (The Jeweller) too. Lyricists of that era were something else.

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@panzade,

Hoagy didn't die until 1981 so there's a fair chance he did (unless he went deaf before 1961).

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@hingehead,

"Lyricists of that era were something else. "
They were pretty good, especially Ira G

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Edgar posted Fat's song that was from the 40's. Here's another one Fats covered from the 20's

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@panzade,

I read a story that Fats hated that song. It was given to him to record, despite his protests. He reportedly said, "I will do it in one take and I am never going to sing it again." approximately. The article went over the lyrics closely and it said Fats didn't get all the words right. These stories sometimes shift and their meaning changes. Since I am reporting from memory, don't put a lot of credence in it.

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@edgarblythe,

Another one I had no idea of - thanks EB.

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@edgarblythe,

Don't tell me what to do!

Laughing

I put a lot of credence in your musical knowledge edgar

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One of my fave obscure originals. The drums sound like trash cans. The guys sound like sacrosanct holy rollers. This is a PARTY song.
Later a cover was featured in a Blues Brothers movie. Don't remember who sang it.

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I remember Shake a Tailfeather from somewhere.

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I can't find a copy of the original 'Wind Beneath My Wings' by Roger Whittaker or Bob Montgomery's demo (Tico?)

But here's the story:

wikipedia wrote:

"Wind Beneath My Wings" was written in 1982 by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley.[1] They recorded a demo of the song which they gave to Bob Montgomery. Montgomery then recorded his own demo version of the song, changing it from the mid-tempo version he was given to a ballad. Silbar and Henley then shopped the song to many artists, eventually resulting in Roger Whittaker becoming the first to record it. It appeared on his 1982 album, also named Wind Beneath My Wings.

Following Whittaker's recording, many other artists recorded the song including Sheena Easton, who also recorded it in 1982. It appeared on Easton's Madness, Money, & Music album, but was not released as a single by her record company. She did, however, perform it on The Tonight Show, The Merv Griffin Show, her HBO live concert special, as well as her NBC television special.

Lou Rawls 1983 version peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100.[2] Gladys Knight & The Pips' 1983 recording of the song under the title "Hero" reached #64 on the Billboard Hot 100[3] and charted in the United States on both on the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts. But it was Gary Morris' 1983 country version of the song that first made it a major hit, winning ACM and CMA Song Of The Year.

The song was also recorded by Colleen Hewett, Lee Greenwood, B.J. Thomas, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Patti LaBelle, Eddie & Gerald Levert, John Tesh, Judy Collins, Shirley Bassey, Sonata Arctica and Perry Como. But the most famous version of the song was recorded in 1989 by Bette Midler, which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won her a Grammy Award in 1990.

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@edgarblythe,

Found more on Shake a tail feather on wikipedia

The song was also covered by The Cheetah Girls for the 2005 Walt Disney Pictures film Chicken Little.

The Monkees performed the song in 1968 on the band's television special, 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee.

Also included as a cover song on Hanson's 1998 release of Live from Albertane.

Other notable artists who have recorded the song include Ike and Tina Turner (as re-created in the film "What's Love Got to Do With It"),[3] Mitch Ryder, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Tommy James and the Shondells or The Buttshakers.

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Uncovered - the original version

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