F.D.R. Jones

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"F.D.R. Jones"
Single by Chick Webb and His Orchestra with Ella Fitzgerald
B-side"I Love Each Move You Make"
Released1938
RecordedOctober 6, 1938[1]
GenreSwing music
LabelDecca
2105[2]
Songwriter(s)Harold Rome
Chick Webb and His Orchestra with Ella Fitzgerald singles chronology
"MacPherson Is Rehearsin' to Swing"
(1938) 		"F.D.R. Jones"
(1938) 		"Undecided"
(1938)

"F.D.R. Jones" (sometimes "Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones"; originally titled "Man of the Year") is a 1938 satirical song written by

32nd President of the United States.[3]

The song was written by Rome for his and Charles Friedman's 1938 satirical musical revue Sing out the News, where it was introduced by Rex Ingram and chorus and bandleader Hazel Scott. The song was performed in the musical in the context of a block party in Harlem.[4] Rome's biographer, Tighe E. Zimmers, described the song as "Rome at his tuneful, liberal best, celebrating the birth of a black baby while paying homage to Franklin D. Roosevelt."[4] It has also been described as "patronizing, if well-meant" by Guido van Rijn in his 1995 book Roosevelt's Blues: African-American Blues and Gospel Artists on President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[5]

The song was first recorded by

B side to her 1941 single "How About You?" as Decca 4072.[7]

Other satirical songs in the musical included "I Married a Republican" and "My Heart is Unemployed".

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) as one of the best songs of 1938.[10]

The song was extremely popular from its debut, and sold 70,000

Flanagan & Allen, Glenn Miller, as well as Fitzgerald and Garland.[4] In his 1994 book My Singing Teachers, singer Mel Tormé described Fitzgerald's version as one of his favourites that she recorded with the Chick Webb band and that she sang it with "great humor".[11]

The songs popularity endured until

Nazi propagandist band Charlie and his Orchestra in January 1942 as part of an anti-Semitic attack on Roosevelt.[4][5]

Garland's Babes On Broadway performance

The song was performed as part of a

Village Voice as "otherwise unstomachable" apart from Garland's performance of the song which he felt was a "triumphant rendition...innocence joyously cubed and that "...she largely eschews the genre's racist mannerisms. It's just Judy, proud and happy, as a nonwhite male American, a role like other roles".[12]

Feingold concluded that "Distressing as the sequence is, Judy's spirit gets past it. She does not seem to be playing to the blackface, as Jolson does in similar numbers; what stays in the memory is her vocal clarity (the crane shot climbs over a single bell-toned long note), not the horrific racist cartoon. It's the ultimate indication of her power to transcend: There's very little uglier than this in American pop culture, yet even here Judy can find a reserve of dignity, and not be brought down. She does not "sell" racism; at her bosses' behest, she merely wears its costumes".[13]

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-136-78814-7
    .
  2. ^ "Chick Webb - F.D.R. Jones/I Love Each Move You Make at Discogs". discogs.com. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  3. ISBN 0-691-10151-5
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4766-0166-3
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-60473-165-1
    .
  6. ^ Decca Records in the 2000 to 2499 series
  7. ^ "Judy Garland - How About You/F.D.R. Jones at Discogs". discogs.com. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  8. ISBN 978-0-595-19331-8
    .
  9. ISBN 978-1-4422-4528-0
    .
  10. ISBN 978-0-19-512797-3
    .
  11. ISBN 978-0-19-509095-6
    .
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7868-8026-3
    .
  13. ^ "Pure Presentation". Village Voice. 3 November 1998. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
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