Bonnie Tyler ... er .. Baker

[Canard]

Bonnie Tyler ... er ... Baker (see correction from JP below) (No not That One)

This 1939 78 by band leader Orrin Tucker was the sole record that came with my latest acoustic gramophone purchase. Tucker was a second string Swing guy. His most popular vocalist was (Wee) Bonnie Tyler ,... er ... Baker, a diminutive young woman with a slightly Betty Boopish voice. She does a quite coy delivery of Berlin's suggestive song, You'd be Surprised, a tune from 1919 - "when you sit on his knee/You'd be surprised." It was a hit for Tucker.

If you listen carefully there is some competent guitar comping going on in the background.




He's not so good in a crowd but when you get him alone
You'd be surprised
He isn't much at a dance but then when he takes you home
You'd be surprised

He doesn't look like much of a lover
But don't judge a book by it's cover
He's got the face of an Angel
But there's a Devil in his eye

He's such a delicate thing but when he starts in to squeeze
You'd be surprised
He doesn't look very strong but when you sit on his knee
You'd be surprised

At a party or at a ball
I've got to admit that he's nothing at all
But in a morris chair
You'd be surprised

He's not so good in the house but on a bench in the park
You'd be surprised
He isn't much in the light but when he gets in the dark
You'd be surprised

I know he looks as slow as the Erie
But you don't know the half of it, dearie
He looks as cold as an Eskimo
But there's fire in his eyes

He doesn't say very much but when he starts in to speak
You'd be surprised
He's not so good at the start but at the end of the week
You'd be surprised

On a streetcar or in a train
You'd think he was born without any brain
But in a taxicab
You'd be surprised

 

[dreadnut]

What fun! It's amazing how much music I've missed.

 

[fronobulax]

Since I had to look it up a "Morris chair" is an early type of recliner.

 

[Canard]

But in a morris chair
You'd be surprised

An Arts and Crafts style Morris Chair, circa 1920

 

[Canard]

Orrin Tucker is an interesting character in himself. He had a million selling single in 1939. He worked as a band leader and singer from 1933 until the 1990s with a hiatus for service with the US Navy Medical Corps in WWII. He died in 2011 at the age of 100.

Orrin Tucker | NAMM.org

Orrin Tucker’s Orchestra recorded one of the greatest successes of the big band era, “Oh Johnny Oh.” This novelty number featured the shy voice of Wee Bonnie Baker and has come to symbolize the musical era and the social climate of America during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Orrin enjoyed a...

www.namm.org

Orrin Tucker - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jp]

I think you meant Bonnie "Baker," instead of "Tyler." She most famous for her version of the tune "Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny" that the Andrew Sister later popularized.

 

[Canard]

I think you meant Bonnie "Baker," instead of "Tyler." She most famous for her version of the tune "Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny" that the Andrew Sister later popularized.

Thx. Guilty of brain malfunction as charged. Probably got more hits with Tyler, though.

 

[fronobulax]

Thx. Guilty of brain malfunction as charged. Probably got more hits with Tyler, though.

But at least the mistake led some of us to find out what a Morris Chair is.

 

[jp]

But at least the mistake led some of us to find out what a Morris Chair is.

And it gave me a brain worm of "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

It also made me recall this viral video from several years back, which something I definitely needed.

 

[spoox]

Over the years I've sold a score of Morris chairs, both American and English. Back in 1975 I bought an oak version of this:

from a dealer in London. He thought in was art deco--I said that I believed it was a reformed Gothic recliner from the 1860s.
He argued with me and then said "Do you want it or not? It's 8 pounds!". I bought it and contacted the Victoria and Albert Museum when I got it home when I saw the Charles Bevan name and 1865 date stamped on it. They had me send them a photo of it as they had never seen an oak version before.
It's a "pre-Morris" Morris chair--the original Morris chair was designed a few years later by Philip Webb who worked for William Morris.
Morris got the credit, and the term became generic for reclining chairs chairs like Thermos for vacuum bottles. Most of the Morris chairs seen were the mass produced American oak ones form the turn of the century from Grand Rapids