Sarah Vaughan ft Ernie Wilkins & His Studio Orchestra - An Occasional Man (Mercury Records 1955) video free download
"An Occasional Man" is a 1955 song by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. The song is about an island paradise from the point of view of a woman who treats men as just another fun thing to enjoy on the island, like papayas and peaches. It was featured in the 1955 film Girl Rush starring Rosalind Russell's and performed in the movie by Gloria DeHaven.
Sarah's accompanied by Ernie Wilkins and His Studio Orchestra: Ernie Wilkins, Ernie Royal & Bernie Glow (trumpet), J. J. Johnson, Kai Winding (trombone), Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Sam Marowitz (alto), Jerome Richardson (tenor/flute), Jimmy Jones (piano), Turk Van Lake (guitar), Joe Benjamin (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). Recorded in New York, October 25, 1955 (Mercury Records)
I've got an island
In the Pacific
And everything about it
Is terrific
I've got the sun to tan me
Palms to fan me
And
An occasional man
I love my island
It's very lazy
If I should ever leave it
I'd be crazy
I've got papayas,
Peaches,
Sandy beaches, and
An occasional man
When I go swimmin'
I am always dressed in style
'Cause I go swimmin'
Wearin' just a great big smile
My little island
Was made for pleasure
And in the cool of evening
It's a treasure
And when the hours grow later
What is better than
An occasional man
My little island
Is such a beauty
You may forget
To heed the call of duty
But if you give the slip
To your ship,
Miss the trip,
Take a tip and blame
An occasional day
Comments
10 years ago
Jim Stark
Sarah seemed to have had some poor recording engineers and oversight personnel who consistently over her career allowed "typo-like" errors in her singing to be released on recordings. The effect is the same as with written correspondence that has these errors - it inevitably reflects bad on the artist. Here she makes two verbal errors that a retake could have easily corrected...1. She says "..what is better than" rather than "what is greater than" and 2. She says "Take your ship" instead of "To your ship" Often times, low budget or unprofessional recording labels use to let these mistakes go thru either because they didn't care, or because they wanted to save time and money by not doing extra retakes. How these errors were released in this 1955 EmArcy recording with an artist of this stature is unfathomable. Ella Fitzgerald's recordings have set the standard for error-free productions.11 years ago
JR1960actor
I've never heard of this song and I know a lot of Sassy and the songs of this period. This is a new one on me. Thank you very much.Related Videos
