MP3 of the Week: “Drum Boogie” from Ball of Fire

Confession time: When I first got into classic movies, I didn’t like Barbara Stanwyck. At all. The first movie of hers I saw was Sorry, Wrong Number and that was for Burt Lancaster.

Now? I LOVE her. I absolutely adore her. I really can’t find anything bad to say about her, because she’s just one of the best actresses ever and I blush at the idea that I didn’t like Ms. Stanwyck. They really don’t make ’em like that anymore. And she can bounce from genre to genre without skipping a beat.

My favorite performance of Barbara’s though, hands down, is that of Katherine “Sugarpuss” O’Shea in 1941’s Ball of Fire. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like this movie. There’s something for everyone: a little romance, a little screwball comedy and even a touch of crime thrown in at the end. It’s a perfect movie.

But when I first saw this, my favorite scene was where Sugarpuss performs the song “Drum Boogie” with Gene Krupa and his Orchestra. For weeks, I searched the internet for a recording of it and never found one. I’m a self-reliant person, so I just made my own.

Of course, the vocalist isn’t Barbara Stanwyck–it’s Martha Tilton, who was a notable vocalist in the Big Band Era. She sang with Benny Goodman on his radio show and wound up with her own show in the 40’s and 50’s. Quite a career on her own terms, but for most classic movie fans, this is the performance that she’s remembered for.

Download: Drum Boogie (3.1 MB — a new page with the download will open when you click on the link.)

Note: This is the first in a series of classic movie related Mp3’s. In the upcoming weeks, I hope to have songs from various MGM musicals as well as others. While my tastes have changed radically since I was a teenager, I still love music and can’t imagine not including it somehow in this blog.

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