Sepia Saturday 337: I Can't Give You Anything But Love Baby

Nothing in my photo albums comes close to a match for this week. I ended up settling on music from 1928 and further selected "I can't give you anything but Love Baby" which was written that year. No doubt the Ashwood Merrymakers would have this piece in their repertoire. I looked at many versions of the song but none can beat Louis Armstrong in my opinion. Diana Krall playing the song on the piano is excellent too - makes you realize what a great pianist she is.

I can't Give you Anything but Love.
Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields


Lyrics

Gee, but it's tough to be broke, kid.
It's not a joke, kid, it's a curse.
My luck is changing, it's gotten from
simply rotten to something worse
Who knows, some day I will win too.
I'll begin to reach my prime.
Now though I see what our end is,
All I can spend is just my time.

I can't give you anything but love, baby.
That's the only thing I've plenty of, baby.

Dream awhile, scheme awhile
We're sure to find
Happiness and I guess
All those things you've always pined for.

Gee I'd like to see you looking swell, baby.
Diamond bracelets Woolworth doesn't sell, baby.
Till that lucky day you know darned well, baby.
I can't give you anything but love.

Rome wasn't built in a day, kid.
You have to pay, kid, for what you get.
But I am willing to wait, dear,
Your little mate, dear, will not forget.
You have a lifetime before you.
I'll adore you, come what may.
Please don't be blue for the present,
When it's so pleasant to hear you say


I can't give you anything but love, baby.
That's the only thing I've plenty of, baby.

Dream awhile, scheme awhile
We're sure to find
Happiness and I guess
All those things you've always pined for.

Gee I'd like to see you looking swell, baby.
Diamond bracelets Woolworth doesn't sell, baby
Till that lucky day you know darned well, baby.

From Wikipedia: The story goes it that the idea behind the song came during a stroll Fields and McHugh were taking one evening downFifth Avenue; they saw a young couple window-shopping at Tiffany's. McHugh and Fields understood that the couple did not have the resources to buy jewelry from Tiffany's, but nevertheless they drew closer to them. It was then they heard the man say, "Gee, honey I'd like to get you a sparkler like that, but right now, i can't give you nothin' but love!" Hearing this, McHugh and Fields rushed to a nearby Steinway Tunnel, and within an hour they came up with "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby".^[3]

Some controversy surrounds the song's authorship. Andy Razaf's biographer Harry Singer offers circumstantial evidence that suggests Fats Waller might have sold the melody to McHugh in 1926 and that the lyrics were by Andy Razaf.^[4] Alternatively, Philip Furia has pointed out that Fields' verse is almost identical to the end of the second verse of Lorenz Hart's and Richard Rodgers' song "Where's That Rainbow?" from Peggy-Ann, the 1926 musical comedy with book by Fields' brother Herbert and produced by their father Lew:^[5]

The group that reminds me, in looks, of the prompt band is Pink Martini but they have three girls and 12 men in their band. I doubt they'd agree they're anything like the MerryMakers but I wanted to use this song this week. My husband played it for me just after we met as a sort of test of culture compatibility. He thought it was an excellent tool to use to improve the french accent. Perhaps he hoped to upgrade my horrible Canuck french into something passable. It did improve my accent on this song, but that's where it ended.

And then, just before I was about to quit I remembered that I had a cousin Larry Killeen, long deceased, who played bass in Spike Jones band - Spike Jones and the City Slickers. And I spent the next two hours on Youtube watching the craziness unfold. The more I watched Spike's band members the more similarities I found between them and the Merrymakers - the barely suppressed grins, the twinkling eyes, the crooked moustache (?), the sense of having a great time doing what they did.  I couldn't find a bass player in any of the videos - only Spike himself playing a growing half cello in this famous number.

Here's the Diana Krall version of "I can't Give You Anything But Love"from the Newport Jazz Festival 1998. I'm sure my cousin would loved the bass.

Check out sepia saturday for more musical fun.