Stormy Weather – Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian

It was 82 years ago today that the musical Stormy Weather premiered in the US.

The movie starred the beautiful Lena Horne, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Cab Calloway. Also making appearances were Fats Waller and Dooley Wilson (who was the piano player in Casablanca). The movie is loosely based on Robinson’s life. It would be Robinson’s last film (he passed away in 1949).

Wiki says: “Stormy Weather is a primary showcase of some of the leading African American performers of the day, during an era when African American actors and singers rarely appeared in lead roles in mainstream Hollywood productions.” The entire movie is only about 75 minutes long, yet it is full of music! 20 songs to be exact.

The soundtrack is full of great songs like Ain’t Misbehavin’ from Fats Waller, Cab Calloway and his band offer up a few numbers including Jumpin’ Jive and then there is the title track performed by Lena Horne. While she is remembered for her version of the song, she also performs in several dance numbers with Robinson. It was one of her few non-MGM film appearances, and one of only two films from the 1930s-1940s in which she played a substantial role.

It was first sung by Ethel Waters under the title of “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin’ All The Time)” at the Cotton Club in Harlem. “When I got out there in the middle of the Cotton Club floor,” Waters recalled. “I was singing the story of my misery and confusion … the story of the wrongs and outrages done to me by people I had loved and trusted … I sang ‘Stormy Weather’ from the depths of my private hell in which I was being crushed and suffocated.”

Lena Horne’s version of the song is probably the best-known recording of this standard and became her signature tune. She originally sang it in 1941 for RCA Victor, but it was re-recorded in 1943 for the soundtrack. Noteworthy cover versions have been recorded by Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday, among many others.

Fun Fact: Lena Horne’s version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000 and Ethel Waters’ recording three years later.

Here is the version from the film:

Here is the 1943 recording:

I have always loved the bluesy Jackie Wilson version:

Most people have never heard the “doo wop” version that the Spaniels (who sang Goodnight Sweetheart) did. I just love everything about this version:

I could play so many other versions of the song, but instead I will encourage you to search up the great covers on YouTube. It is just such an amazing song, it’s hard to have a bad version of it.

Sources: Wiki, Songfacts

From my Facebook friend, Ric Allen and the Michigan Music History page:

It was a day that powerful voice of Detroit’s “Mr. Excitement” was silenced forever .. as Michigan Music History remembers Jackie Wilson .. who sadly passed away 36 years ago today.

The iconic, soulful and energetic stage entertainer was born in Detroit on June 9th, 1934, and raised in the rough neighborhoods of Highland Park. Joining an area gang, Jackie was often in trouble… got locked up twice in juvenile homes .. where he eventually learned to box. Entering the amateur circuits around Detroit, where he met fellow boxer and future Motown chief, Berry Gordy, Jackie would become a Golden Gloves boxer, but after his mother told him ‘that’s enough boxing’, and with a record of 2-8, he turned to music.

Forming the original Falcons, he would be discovered by Johnny Otis, who assigned him to a group called the Thrillers, who later became the Royals, the same group that backed another Detroit legend, Hank Ballard, but Jackie left before they made their big hits. Joining Billy Ward & the Dominoes in 1953, replacing Clyde McPhatter, Jackie would stay with the group for 3 years, cutting “St. Terese of the Roses”, until he decided going solo would be a better option … and it paid off big time.

Signing with Brunswick Records, Jackie would have his first hit “Reet Petite” in 1957, co-written by Berry Gordy, who would become good friends with Wilson over the years, and co-writing a few of his early hits. “Lonely Teardrops” would launch Mr. Excitement to a whole new level. Charting 54 hits from 1957-1974, his stage presence earned him the nickname “Mr. Excitement”! Jackie would sing anything from high-powered soul classics, to opera, to ballads – there wasn’t anything Jackie couldn’t sing.

While singing “Lonely Teardrops” at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Jackie suffered a heart attack onstage and fell into a coma, of which he never recovered. Moved to a retirement community in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, where he needed constant care, the voice, the dancer and the consummate entertainer died on January 21st, 1984, at the age of only 49. Finally getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last September – we remember the iconic Jackie Wilson.

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