Dark/sad vintage popular music

[koz5614]

Though there are no vocals, I always thought Artie Shaw's "Nightmare" was pretty eerie.

 

[CONELRAD]

I know Hal Kemp's version has already been posted here, but in my opinion, Connee Boswell's rendition of The Boulevard of Broken Dreams has a more sorrowful and solemn tone.

[video=youtube;R80woBk5rbY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R80woBk5rbY[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Donald Novis -- Alone In The Rain (1930)

[video=youtube;A3oS-E5ZwPY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3oS-E5ZwPY[/video]

 

[Two Types]

Not written in the mid-20th Century, but about the period:

Marie Provost by Nick Lowe (on the LP 'Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for Now People)

It's a darkly humorous song about the suicide of silent film actress Marie Prevost (Lowe got the spelling wrong).
After her death her pet dog chewed her arms and legs, hence the line's in the song:
"She was a winner. That became a doggie's dinner."

 

[alsendk]

Lili Marleen, a song, with a certain amount of sadness, became popular on both sides during ww2.
The song was written by Norbert Schultze in 1937, to a poem, written by Hans Leip in 1915.

The song contains a soldiers thoughts about whom Lili Marleen will meet under the street light lantern, in case he will not be able to show up.

Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels hated the song, The soldiers loved it, and General field Marshall Erwin Rommel allowed it to be broadcasted to his troops in northern Africa in the evenings. When radio station Belgrad, in 1941 played the song to be heard all over Europe, it became very popular in all countries



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j47THUNGuIY

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Norbert Schultze also wrote two other well-known German wartime songs: Bomben Auf England, and Panzer Rollen In Afrika Vor

 

[alsendk]

it must have been very difficult, being a german composer in these days, trying to make a living, forced to write the right type of music, in order to please the nazi regime. artists, film makers, movie actors, painters, writers... a lot of people must have been facing serious problems at that time.

the lyrics for Lili Marleen has a fine and delicate balance in telling a story about how to miss the the good life, being a soldier, without stepping too much out of line, and thereby become an object for censorship...and the melody that goes with the lyrics, made it a hit on each side of the frontline.

Bomben Auf England, and Panzer Rollen In Afrika Vor....these violent titles has a very different flavour. Poor Norbert Schultze... the choice between composing for NSDAP, or be conscripted, must have been very difficult for a composer, that loved to compose opera, realizing that the big hits at that particular time was Wagner and marches only.
A lot of artists fled to USA. Was it too late for him, or?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Fanny Brice -- My Man (1922)

[video=youtube;jsCzIJdzZM4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsCzIJdzZM4[/video]

 

[emigran]

Django...
by anyone...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Sophie Tucker -- Mr. Siegel (Make It Legal)

[video=youtube;nXcx58LyIdk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXcx58LyIdk[/video]