Body and Soul (song)
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| “Body and Soul” | ||
|---|---|---|
| Single by Coleman Hawkins | ||
| Recorded | October 11, 1939 at RCA Studios, New York, NY | |
| Genre | Jazz | |
| Length | 3:00 | |
| Label | Bluebird | |
| Writer(s) | Edward Heyman Robert Sour Frank Eyton Johnny Green |
|
"Body and Soul" is a popular song written in 1930 by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton and Johnny Green. It was introduced by Libby Holman in the revue Three's A Crowd and used as a soundtrack theme in the 1947 film named for the song.
"Body and Soul" became a jazz standard, with hundreds of versions performed and recorded by dozens of artists. The most famous of these is the take recorded by Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra on October 11, 1939 at their only recording session for Bluebird, a subsidiary of RCA Victor. Hawkins' solo on this take is considered to be "one of the finest examples of pure, spontaneous creative artistry in the history of jazz."[citation needed] It was one of the first straight jazz records (as against swing) to become a commercial hit. This was unusual, as the song's melody is never directly stated in the recording; saxophonist Hawkins two-choruses' worth of improvisation on the tune's chord progression constitute almost the entire take.[1] In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.[2]
The pianist on Hawkins' recording of the song was Gene Rodgers.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Gary Giddins, "How Come Jazz Isn't Dead", p. 39–55 in Eric Weisbard, ed., This is Pop, Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-674-01321-2 (cloth), ISBN 0-674-01344-1 (paper). p. 45.
- ^ Number 18 on The National Recording Registry 2004, accessed online 14 August 2007.
