Since reading Susie Boyt’s memoir, I’ve been thinking a lot about Judy Garland and Michael Jackson–as have others–and I found this clip on YouTube. It’s Michael Jackson doing Fred Astaire’s moves while singing “Get Happy,” one of Judy Garland’s signature songs, and it’s totally riveting. The melody is so decidedly hers, but the voice is unmistakably his.
But then those Fred Astaire moves weren’t entirely Fred Astaire’s. They come from Bill Robinson and John William Sublett. And Ruth Etting was the first one to sing the Arlen/Koehler number in 1930, and Arlen and Koehler clearly turned to black gospel music to begin with.
And now, here comes Michael, probably in the 1970s, “heading across the river to wash your sins away in the tide.”
Love and theft
Since reading Susie Boyt’s memoir, I’ve been thinking a lot about Judy Garland and Michael Jackson–as have others–and I found this clip on YouTube. It’s Michael Jackson doing Fred Astaire’s moves while singing “Get Happy,” one of Judy Garland’s signature songs, and it’s totally riveting. The melody is so decidedly hers, but the voice is unmistakably his.
But then those Fred Astaire moves weren’t entirely Fred Astaire’s. They come from Bill Robinson and John William Sublett. And Ruth Etting was the first one to sing the Arlen/Koehler number in 1930, and Arlen and Koehler clearly turned to black gospel music to begin with.
And now, here comes Michael, probably in the 1970s, “heading across the river to wash your sins away in the tide.”