Shirley Bassey - Johnny One Note (1976 Show #1)

1976 (Shirley performs this classic Rodgers & Hart Big Band Style Number 'Johnny One Note' with her own uniquely powerful style, which is from the Musical 'Babes In Arms,' Shirley performed this song on her 1976 TV Variety Show. Shirley recorded and released this song on her 1966 LP titled, 'Shirley Bassey - I've Got A Song For You'. ABOUT Johnny One Note: "Johnny One Note" is a 1937 show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms, where it was introduced by Wynn Murrary. Judy Garland sang it in the film version, released in 1939. The musical contained more great songs Shirley Bassey has also performed: "The Lady Is A Tramp", "Where Or When" and "My Funny Valentine". The 'Babes In Arms' story is about a group of vaudevillians who want to revive their old fashioned form of entertainement by doing a roadshow. "Johnny One Note" is sung as a bedtimestory. A kind of fairy tale about a very ego-centred singer who is so very loud that nobody can hear the soprano. This lady singer asks her godmother to put a spell on Johnny, so that the next time he wants to impress everybody by holding his note as long as possible he has to held it forever. Shirley Bassey wrote about "Johnny One Note": I don't always recognize the right songs for me the first time I hear them. For a long time I was asked to do 'Johnny One Note', but I couldn't do it for many, many years. Then one day Eddie Fisher's musical director just sat at the piano and said, 'This is a good song for you', and started playing 'Johnny One Note'. The way he played it, I got so excited, but I said 'I can't do this song'. 'Why not?' he asked. 'Well, when I was discovered, the girl whose place I took in the show, she had a big hit with this song and I've never been able to touch this song.' 'Well, try it,' he said. And I was amazed when I opened my mouth: this voice came out singing this song as though it was mine. So, after all those years - it was about ten years, I believe - when we actually got down to it, it was a piece of cake. LYRICS: Johnny could only sing one note And the note he sang was this: aaaahh Poor Johnny One Note Sang out with Gusto A nd just overloaded the place Poor Johnny One Note Yelled willy-nilly Until he was blue in the face For holding one note was his ace Couldn't hear the brass Couldn't hear the drum He was in a class By himself, by gum Poor Johnny One Note Got in Aida indeed a great chance to be brave He took his one note Howled like the North Wind Brought forth wind that made critics rave While Verdi turned round in his grave Couldn't hear the flute Or the big trombone Everyone was mute Johnny stood alone Cats and dogs stopped yapping Lions in the zoo Were all jealous of Johnny's big thrill Thunderclaps stopped clapping Traffic ceased its roar And they tell us Niag'ra stood still He stopped the trainwistles Boatwhistles Steamwhistles Copwhistles All whistles bowed to his skill Sing Johnny One Note Sing out with gusto And just overwhelm all the crowd Aaaahh So sing, Johnny One Note out loud Sing, Johnny One Note Sing - Johnny - One Note - Out loud ABOUT the LP, I've Got A Song For You: I've Got a Song for You is a 1966 album by Shirley Bassey. Bassey had left EMI's Columbia Label, and this was her first album for United Artists, a label she would remain with for approximately 14 years. This album and the following release And We Were Lovers were produced by Bassey's former husband, Kenneth Hume. (Their marriage had ended in divorce in 1965, but he continued to act as her manager, and for these two albums, her producer.) The album entered the UK Albums Chart at #26, but only remained on the chart for one week, and failed to chart in the US, despite her having received outstanding reviews for live engagements in New York and Las Vegas that same year, and the fact that the album was recorded in New York.