Those You Love for Those You Love: Dinner Music

[Zachary]

Good evening Gentlemen,

I just wanted to share my thoughts on vintage music I had been playing during a dinner to which I had invited a good friend of mine.

Here we go:

Perry Como -- Magic Moments
Bobby Vinton -- Mr. Lonely
Sam Cooke -- Wonderful World
Bobby Vinton -- Blue Velvet
Artie Shaw -- Stardust (1942)
Dean Martin -- That's Amore
Roy Orbison -- Only the Lonely
Frankie Avalon -- Venus (as featured in the "10 Cloverfield Lane" motion picture)
Percy Faith -- The Theme from "A Summer Place"
Acker Bilk -- Stranger On The Shore
Artie Shaw -- Deep Purple
Jimmy Dorsey -- Back to Back
The Harry James Orchestra -- I've Had That Song Before
Huey "Piano" Smith -- Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu
Harry James -- Woo Woo
Artie Shaw -- All the Things You Are
Chick Webb -- Big John Special
The Drifters -- There Goes My Baby
Dick Haymes & Helen Forrest -- Long Ago (Mono)
Artie Shaw -- Begin the Beguine
Benny Goodman -- King Porter Stomp
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra -- Boogie Woogie
Frank Sinatra -- Saturday Night
Tommy Dorsey -- Opus No. 1
Perry Como -- Mandolins in the Moonlight
Perry Como -- Prisoner of Love
Albert Ammons -- Boogie Woogie Stomp
Duke Ellington -- In A Sentimental Mood
Teresa Brewer -- Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now
Sammy Davis, jr. -- Sweet Gingerbread Man
Duke Ellington -- Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Perry Como -- Dream On Little Dreamer
Duke Ellington -- The Sidewalks of New York
Billy Strayhorn -- Maybe I Should Change My Way
Horace Silver -- For Heaven's Sake
Roy Eldridge -- Swingin' On That Famous Door
Fletcher Henderson -- Shanghai Shuffle
Duke Ellington & Coleman Hawkins -- Solitude
Udo Jürgens -- Aber bitte mit Sahne
Fats Domino -- Blueberry Hill
The Clovers -- Baby Baby Oh My Darling
The Fleetwoods -- Mr Blue
Artie Shaw -- Alone Together
Duke Ellington -- Perdido
Caterina Valente -- Ganz Paris träumt von der Liebe
The Platters -- Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Total playing time: 2 hours 26 minutes -- not enough to cover the whole dinner, though …

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Hopefully, I would already be on the dessert before the end of 'Magic moments'

 

[Zachary]

You dislike my list?

 

[Angus Forbes]

Zach -- I like just about every song on your list. I play either big band or classical when we have a dinner party. Especially like Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, and Frank Sinatra. Sometimes Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Earl "Fatha" Hines, or Sidney Bechet.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'd be sorely tempted to include Freddy Martin's 1935 recording of "I'd Like To Dunk You In My Coffee" and Raymond Scott's 1937 waxing of "Dinner Music For a Pack of Hungry Cannibals." The former tune has a lyric that would automatically sift out the guests who have a sense of humor from those who don't.

"I'd like
To dunk you in my coffee!
And spread you on my bread!
I wish
That you were in the highball
Going to my head!
Dear, when
You sit across the table,
I'm then
Like he giant in the fable --
Fe Fi Fo Fum
I'm overcome
With a cannibalistic feeling!
I'd Like
To smother you with mushrooms
MMMM, and everything.
I claim
You'd make a tasty dish
To set before a king.
Ohhh, sweetheart
If I could obtain you
As part
Of my daily menu
I'd like
To dunk you in my coffee
And spread you on my bread!"

If you wanted to continue along similar lines, one might also include Fats Waller's recording of "Hold Tight!"("When I get home late at night, I want my favorite dish -- Fish! Boodla-racka-sacky, want some seafood, mama!") and Paul Whiteman's recording of "Sugar Plum" ("I'm his Eskimo Pie and he's my Ice Cream Cone! Yum yummy yum!")

 

[GHT]

Aw Zachary, this coming Wednesday is the spiritual birthday (I prefer that term to death anniversary) of Elvis Presley. 40 years ago he left the building for the final time.
I won't post the link but right now I'm listening to: "American Trilogy," never fails to get to me when he sings: All my trials Lord, soon be over.

Most of your list I don't see as vintage, probably because I'm older than most of the songs. It's tempting to post my own choice but the what are you listening to thread would become redundant.

 

[Windsock8e]

Aw Zachary, this coming Wednesday is the spiritual birthday (I prefer that term to death anniversary) of Elvis Presley. 40 years ago he left the building for the final time.
I won't post the link but right now I'm listening to: "American Trilogy," never fails to get to me when he sings: All my trials Lord, soon be over.

Most of your list I don't see as vintage, probably because I'm older than most of the songs. It's tempting to post my own choice but the what are you listening to thread would become redundant.

I would be interested in your list.

I would add
"Bewitched" - Benny Goodman sung by Helen Forrest beautiful voice
"Hang on little tomato" - Pink Martini which is a fun little song
Andrew Sisters generally
"J'attendrai" Tchavolo Schmitt
"La Mer" Charles Trenet


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[GHT]

I would be interested in your list.

Very kind of you to ask, thank you. Let me give it some thought. Looking back at the O/P's post, he's put together a playlist that would enhance the mood of dinner with a friend. He refers to his choice as vintage, so really, in keeping with the thread, we are all invited to do similar. That's what I need time to think about.

My enjoyment of music comes from dance, as in Latin & Ballroom. In my teens I was dancing to music that I hadn't heard of, but could easily 'count' the timing. Years later, bored with the strict rules and bitchiness of the dance scene, we flirted briefly with the fifties Rock & Roll scene, it didn't last long, it felt as though nothing happened before Elvis burst onto the scene and nothing happened after Buddy Holly died in the plane crash. We did however, learn to dance the gymnastic rock & roll, something we would do at family occasions like a wedding. Once, we were at a rather swanky fund raising bash, the strains of The Lambada came through, so we got up and did it, and how! But that's another story.

Dance has always had an influence in our musical choice. When Elton John released his smash hit, Sacrifice, our dance teacher taught us a Rumba routine that we still dance today. Currently we are learning a choreographed Argentine Tango, danced to Dean Martin's Sway. Hopefully it will be finished by next May, in time for our golden wedding anniversary. That seems like a long time but there's the little inconvenience of a hip replacement operation any time soon, so we'll see. Now I must give that playlist some thought.

 

[Mlle Elza]

That's a neat playlist!

I when I read the title of your topic, I immediately though about that Cab Calloway song!

 

[vitanola]

I suppose that I'm just an old stick-in-the-mud, but I like DINNER MUSIC for my dinner music.

When we have guests I generally put a stack of Victor Salon Orchestra sides on the automatic Victrola in the hall outside the dining room.

 

[vitanola]

You dislike my list?

Though you were not asking me, I'd answer "no" the that question. I find some selections a bit modern for my personal taste. In addition, I always understood that both dance numbers and vocal selrctions and are profitably excised from dinner play lists.

Of course, these ideas about dinner music were already slightly old-fashioned in 1940.