"I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"
Every good song is worth listening to again and again!
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A brisk week here in New Hampshire sent my thoughts back to a favorite not-quite-Christmas song that I shared at Sometimes a Song at about this time last year. Most of our readers have not seen this post, and I know that the real music-lovers among our subscribers won’t mind giving “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” another go with Miss Ella at her best, singing a “seasonal favorite” from The American Songbook. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the Dick Powell film last year, here’s your second chance at that.
In the 1920’s and early 1930’s, Irving Berlin —whose wonderful “Count Your Blessings,” we listened to last week at “Sometimes a Song” — was writing music for shows called “revues,” which formed a bridge between Vaudeville and the modern musical. Berlin had already scored two of the annually produced Ziegfeld Follies, before founding his company, The Music Box Theater, a venue through which he marketed his own songs and shows in the only theatrical house in New York designed specifically for the presentation of popular songs. Revues from the 20’s and 30’s sometimes strike the modern audience as too “staged” and too light on plot. Well, that was by design. The purpose of a revue was to offer entertaining music, with just enough story to hold the songs together. Over time, these revues developed into a genre called the “backstage musical,” which featured the high art that we associate with such films as “42nd Street” (1933), “White Christmas” (1942), “Showboat” (1951), “Singing in the Rain” (1952), “Funny Girl” (1968), and “Cabaret” (1972).
This week, as the December chill set in, and another great Irving Berlin song came to mind: the charming, bright, witty, and musically marvelous “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” from a Darryl Zanuck “backstage musical” called, “On the Avenue” (1937). Berlin wrote both the story and the music for this production, which features an even dozen of his songs, most written specifically for the film. To show how this week’s song went from its first iteration as a musical revue tune to a jazz standard recorded by absolutely every voice in show business, I give you two versions. First, a light jazzy performance by Ella Fitzgerald at the peak of her powers; and second, the original performance of the song, by Dick Powell, in the context of the film that Irving Berlin wrote it for.
So get yourself a hot cup of coffee or tea and have a listen!
Ella Fitzgerald with Paul Weston’s Orchestra (1958)
The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing But I can weather the storm! What do I care how much it may storm? I’ve got my love to keep me warm. I can’t remember a worse December. Just watch those icicles form! What do I care if icicles form? I’ve got my love to keep me warm. Off with my overcoat, off with my gloves. I need no overcoat. I’m burning with love! My heart’s on fire, The flame grows higher. I will weather the storm! What do I care how much it may storm? I’ve got my love to keep me warm.
The song, “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” begins at about the 52 minute mark. But the whole film is a charmer.
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Word & Song is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymn, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. To support this project, please join us as a free or paid subscriber.