When singing popular songs, Martin employed the upper levels of her chest voice and the lower to middle part of her head voice. This fluid vocal register offered flexibility, allowing Martin to conserve energy when switching between styles. It is also, where Martin’s diction is the most speech-like. In this register, the pitch of the notes is low enough not to interfere with the clarity of vowels, no matter which dialect Martin was choosing to use.269 Martin freely uses the common torch song embellishments that are a hallmark of this style, enhancing them with a wide range of vocal effects, including throat-grinding growls, yodels and coloratura sounds.
The delivery of popular and character songs implies a more social distance between the vocalist(s) and the audience, and brings with it a sense of camaraderie and shared lives. The songs are (by definition) well-known, either nostalgic like “O By Jingo”;270
intended to raise the spirits of the listener such as “When You’re Smiling”; or newly released on Broadway, for instance “Everything I’ve Got Belongs to You” from
Rodgers and Hart’s By Jupiter.271 Martin also performs some solo character songs, such as in “I Do’d It”, using a young, naïve and childish voice, and Gershwin’s “Do It
Again” where she uses a faux naïve style.
Martin had recorded “Do It Again” for Decca in 1941. The differences between studio recording and live radio performance suggests that Martin was aware that the studio’s intimacy was perhaps too intense for live radio. In the studio recording, Martin sings in a low, gentle head voice, with the tempo at a languid lento (minim = 53). The tempo is slow enough for Martin to make full use of aspirants, and the sound is resultantly rich, breathy and intimate. In Spectrogram 5—10(B) Martin’s breath sounds can be seen, even over the background hiss of the record. The words “to” and “have” are conjoined
269 An example of this is the song ‘Conchita, Marquita, Lolita, Pepita, Rosita, Juanita, Lopez O'Toole,’ also known as ‘The LadyO’Toole,’ a duet Martin first performed with Bob Crosby, using an exaggerated Spanish accent.
270
Written by Lew Brown and Albert von Tilzer for the musical Linger Longer Letty, which enjoyed enormous popularity for over thirty years..
271 An upbeat song about a lady who is just a little murderous toward her man; “I’m not yours for better
by the sound of Martin’s breath, as are “you” and “take”, and she inserts a breath filled break between the consonant and vowel of the word “kiss”. The intimacy of Martin’s breath and the immediacy of her voice, is heightened by her legato —evident in
Spectrogram 5—11(A)—and even more striking in Spectrogram 5—11(B), where there is a continuous wave of sound in the first eight partials of the voice when Martin sings “say no no no no no no”.
This contrasts strongly with Martin’s radio performance in which she forms her words quickly and decisively, finishes each word cleanly before moving to the next, exhibiting virtually no sign of breathiness. Even at the word “have” in Spectrogram 5—10, where natural breathiness might be expected, Martin moves directly to the voiced “a”, ensuring the “h” is audible, but not stressed. The faster tempo (minim=70) and the slight
separation of the words, combined with the improvisational differences between the two refrains, increases the perceived personal distance of the performance.272 In the radio performance, Martin’s vocal tone is lighter and more playful than sensual. While not as naïve as her performances of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” nevertheless implies a young, inexperienced woman singing, rather than a sybaritic siren.
It is the duets Martin performs with Bing and Bob Crosby that best demonstrate her development as a variety entertainer. In these songs, Martin plays the role suggested by the song itself, while acting as a foil for her male partner. Martin had long admired Bing Crosby and had adopted a number of his techniques into her own vocal repertoire.
Figure 5—12: “Do It Again” (Radio recording): Improvisational changes in the first line of the refrain in the radio (top) and studio (bottom) recordings. See also CD tracks 5—11
and 5—12.
272
In their radio performances together, Martin clearly took the role of vocal straight man even when singing in a crooning style. While this allowed Crosby to take the lead in any alterations in pitch and rhythm, it also characterised Martin as a reliable partner able to maintain a steady and consistent vocal line.
The majority of the duets that Martin performed with the Crosby brothers were cheery, feel-good songs that required little f technical proficiency but allowed her to experiment with different vocal techniques in a performance situation. The duet that Martin and Bing Crosby performed most frequently on Kraft Music Hall was “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie”,273
an up-tempo song about a pair of sweethearts (Nellie and Joe) who sit inside watching the rain, unable to attend a local picnic due to the inclement weather. Joe comforts the crying Nellie singing the refrain:
Wait till the sun shines, Nellie, When the clouds go drifting by,
We will be happy Nellie. Don’t you sigh.
Down lover’s lane we’ll wander, Sweethearts you and I Wait till the sun shines, Nellie
Bye and bye
By the 1930s, the refrain had become something of an anthem for hope and the coming of better things. It was recorded by many, and was even sung on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.274 Martin and Crosby performed the song in the film Birth of the Blues (1941), recorded a version for Brunswick Records and revisited it on Kraft Music Hall and Command Performance five times over the course of Martin’s year on the show.275 Speaking through the metaphor of the storms of war and the theme of separation and reconciliation, the song was an ideal vehicle for raising morale, particularly for those left at home.
Martin and Crosby performed “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie”, in a playfully relaxed manner, which underscored their on-air relationship and the similarities of their
production techniques. There was plenty of opportunity for vocal tricks as they transitioned between their preferred registers—Crosby singing string bass style
273
Written by Harry Von Tilzer in 1905 and first recorded by Harry Tilley in the same year.
274 The New York Times 24 June 1934.
275 The song remained an audience favourite for many years, and Crosby and Martin were still reprising