2:30
single, 1958
Written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, 1933
A standard from the Great American Songbook about lost love ("Life is bare / Gloom and misery everywhere / Stormy weather, stormy weather") gets refracted through the prism of doo-wop and early R&B. It’s very different from the torch-song lineage of Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, or Billie Holiday. Here, the Spaniels turn a cabaret lament into a toe-tapping shrug. In recasting the tune as a peppy doo-wop, they replace the orchestral polish with with jumping sax lines and cheery echoing backing vocal. Instead of a sad woman with a martini glass, you get a man who doesn't seem all that worried, honestly, as he recounts a recent breakup to his jovial pals.
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