I try to avoid soda, the beverage of my childhood, but I once bought a bottle of SQUEEZE because its affectionate logo charmed me. The bottle vanished in one of several moves, but the melody lingers on.
Fats Waller’s first published song — although it was liberally based on a bawdy tune called THE BOY IN THE BOAT, whose central image was not nautical. But here are a few versions . . . . the first one from Jazz at Chautauqua in 2011 with Marty Grosz, Jon-Erik Kellso, Scott Robinson, Frank Tate:
with a pause for liquid enlightenment here:
and a solo version by Ray Skjelbred, recorded at Cline Cellars in California, June 2013:
with one more icon:
and from the 2014 Atlanta Jazz Party, with Dan Block, Duke Heitger, Bria Skonberg, Ed Polcer, John Cocuzzi, Paul Keller, Ed Metz:
Reading this post and listening to the music, I don’t know if you’ll suddenly crave an orange soda, look around for the right person to squeeze and be squeezed by . . . in such things, you’re on your own. But perhaps at the Cleveland Classic Jazz Party — starting September 15 — someone will give this wonderful song another squeeze. You never know.
May your happiness increase!
