[78-L] Lazy lyrics: Cheek to cheek

[Stephen Davies]

        When Bing Crosby created a retrospective album of his career for 
Decca, with spoken intro, etc., he rerecorded his old Victor and Columbia 
hits with a little organ trio.  This was his opportunity to use the term 
"people" instead of "darkies" on "Mississippi mud".
        But Crosby's crowning achievement as a singer, for me, has to be 
when he recorded "Cheek to cheek" and corrected a long-standing 
irritation.  Irving Berlin produced superior tunes in the last century and 
was famous for his triple rhymes, but in "Cheek to cheek" he compares a 
positive with a negative, which is jarring.
        "Heaven, I'm in Heaven, and the cares that hung around me thru the 
week,
        Seem to disappear like a gambler's lucky streak,
        When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek."

        Why would worries evaporating be like good luck running out?

        Crosby, who famously went in for racehorses, had the wit to fix 
the lyric on this recording, which I think is the "Bing sings, Bregman 
swings" album (Verve, 1956).

                listen online: 
http://www.last.fm/music/Bing+Crosby/_/Cheek+to+Cheek

        And, I too get irritated by illogical puzzle songs like "The 
thing" and the one about the Christmas toy that no one ever knew what it 
was, etc.

- Stephen D
Calgary


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