Part of Lee Wiley Album: Eight Show Tunes From Scores By George Gershwin
A Side From "Strike Up The Band" 1930 - with Max Kaminsky's Orchestra
B Side From "Oh Kay" 1926 - with organ by Maurice (aka Fats Waller)
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Number:437963 THUMBNAIL Uploaded By:fixbutte Description: A Side Label
Number:437964 Uploaded By:fixbutte Description: B Side Label
The Liberty Music Shop recordings were remarkable for their class and excellent taste while riding the cutting edge of music of its day. Lee Wiley was one of its chiefest treasures. That being said, if you liked this version of I've Got A Crush on You, you should look up the version she did in 1951 on Columbia with Joe Bushkin and Bobby Hackett. As talented as Max Kaminsky and Pee Wee Russell were, Bobby Hackett is still far and away the more sympathetic accompanist and his solos have more to say as well. Staying in the Liberty Music Shop line, I believe you can also find Lee Wiley with accompaniments by Bunny Berigan. Berigan being also Kaminsky's superior in nearly every respect, I think those tracks would be well worth finding.
Both sides are fantastic, featuring the sensual and emotional vocal of one of the most important early jazz singers. On "I've Got A Crush On You" there is only Wiley with Fats Waller on piano for the first verses before the full band joins in, with pleasant contributions by Max Kaminsky on trumpet and Pee Wee Russell on clarinet.
It is the B-side, "Someone To Watch Over Me", however, that is truly spectacular because Lee Wiley's vocal is solely accompanied by Fats Waller's restrained pipe organ. This impressive recording was an all-time favorite of Artie Shaw (Lee Wiley was also his favorite singer), and it was incidentally played at his funeral on Jan 9, 2005, at the close of the service.