A You-Tube Milestone: Jack Teagarden’s “Stars Fell on Alabama”

The sociologists next door to my office were talking kinda loudly about race/class/gender, race/class/gender, etc., and I just had to get some other sounds goin’ in my head.  Via you-tube surfin’ I learned, lo and behold, that on October 10, last year, THE MOST ROMANTIC RECORD EVER, the very early 30s version by Jack Teagarden of “Stars Fell on Alabama,” the one with the harp, was finally posted.

Our heartfelt thanks must go out to one auguzto from somewhere in the Spanish speaking world. No professor can really teach the Symposium and such without playing his students this . . .

There are some other good versions of it—many would understandably swear by Billie Holiday’s (she also has an earlier 30s version, perhaps even better).

I also think the hit British version by Vera Lynn is very solid.

Tara Nevins’ recent country version kinda excludes the central feeling of the song, but it remains decent for those who haven’t heard the original. On a much less critical note, I don’t think the well-known Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong duet really gets the song either, but it’s of course fun. Other versions we should mention?

Now I got goin’ on this due to a throwaway, but quite good, version from She & Him . I was thinkin’ of California, and learned that they have a new single, one that doesn’t sound special on first listen, but I’ll be giving it more chances based on the way their songs have had a track record of growing on me.

As for other contenders for most the romantic song ever, you could turn to this Love Spins at 78 RPM post of mine from Valentine’s Day a year ago.

Ears cleansed. Back to work.