Thank you Alex for elucidating this.
Len
In my previous comment I risk creating the impression that I do not regard Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and some others as amongst the very finest non-classical singers. This is not what I want to convey. What I think is that amongst the finest singers are some who are particularly acute in their engagement with text - and it is this group that I most want to hear engage with the verse of a song.
In his fine article on this song, Len Mullenger says that he cannot understand why as renowned a singer as Ella Fitzgerald omits the verse in her recordings. This could create the impression that her practice here is unusual. But it is what other renowned singers of this song do: Barbra Streisand, Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee, Billie Holiday, Dorothy Kirsten, Sarah Vaughan (in one of her recordings), Liza Minnelli (in one of her recordings), Helen Forrest, Anita O’Day, Vaughn de Leath (renowned in the 1920s), Elisabeth Welch, Maureen McGovern, Kate Bush. And I think omitting the verse is the rule not just with this song but with other popular songs of this era.
I’ve seen it said that including the verse made it more difficult to dance to these songs when they were sung in the Big Band ballrooms - and I suspect that the complexity of the verse would not help record sales. With its verse included, “White Christmas” would probably not have been such a huge hit.
The singers who are most inclined to include the verse are classically trained: Kiri te Kanawa, Elly Ameling, Rebecca Luker all do so. But the singers who are most likely to do justice to it are those who have the feel for words that the finest non-classical singers have - singers such as Mildred Bailey, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Carmen MacRae, Peggy Lee and Rosemary Clooney. I wish more singers like these had recorded the verse.
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