After watching Morocco last night on TCM, I was struck with amazement. In many of Marlene Dietrich’s movies (Blue Angel, Morocco, Destry Rides Again) she sings. Badly.
So let’s divide this in two parts:
Is it just me? IMHO, her voice is weak, limited in range, and she has definite pitch problems. Maybe it’s all a matter of taste, but I’d say this is a woman with many talents as an actress, but not as a singer.
If it’s not just me, then…why? Why did she do so much singing when she was so bad? Why did the studios let her? Did the public demand more singing?
I have many of Marlene’s records, have seen nearly all of her movies, and saw her in person at one of her last concerts. Not only could she sing, she could sing the pants off of 90% of today’s pop artists.
Maybe your tee-vee was on the fritz (pun intended).
Maybe it is a matter of taste – hopefully the sample size will increase. But I have her singing The Little Drummer Boy on a Christmas compilation CD that never ceases to amaze everyone who hears it with its awfulness.
Well, she was doing her best on the crappy audio technology of the day. If you want to compare her to current singers, you’ll have to take away their Dolby and reverb and whatnot. I’m not sure Deitrich’s Prussian nobility bit would play well today, but she’s infinitely preferable to the skank-o-rama of the Hiltons and their ilk.
In the '60s she had crappy arranmgers and back-up, and poor choice of songs (her overly dramatic rendition of “Whewe have all the Flowews gone?” is awful). But I was amazed in person at how strong and clear and lovely her voice was!
Get some of her work on CD—the recordings she made in the US, France and Germany in the 1920s–40s. Incredible voice.
Curse you Eve, I specifically wanted to mention WHATFG and you robbed me of it!
I seem to recall reading a biography that talked about Marlene’s three-note range and that every song she sang was arranged to take full advantage of it.
Now if you want to talk bad singing, we need to talk Tallulah!
Didn’t hear her sing in Morocco (then again, I only saw a couple minutes of the film), but there was nothing wrong with her singing in Destry the last time I saw it.
Could it have been the song (after all, not every movie composer of the era was a Frank Loesser), or, as Bryan suggested, the sound quality, as the part of the film I saw had noticable static?
There, in a nutshell, you have the difference between a mere singer and a song stylist. Loads of people can carry a tune but it takes a Sinatra, Cocker, or Dietrich to take a song, pull out its essence, and make it their own. None of those three could carry a tune in a bucket but it was their delivery that made you forget about all of the other versions of the songs they sang. It’s often too subtle for younger listeners to appreciate; you have to grow some and die some to appreciate their finest work.
Of course, most of what they record is unlistenable crap, but Babe Ruth also led the league in strikeouts. (Okay, I don’t know if it’s true but I had heard it somewhere. )
She may not have been much from a technical perspective, but she knew how to deliver the spirit of the song and she made the most of what she’s had. Having Burt Bachrach behind her as arranger probably didn’t hurt her too much, either.
Marlene had a very distinctive voice, as do Tom Waits and Helen Kane and any number of singers. You may not like it, but that doesn’t mean she “couldn’t sing.”
If here daughter can be believed, Marlene thought she had all kinds of talents she manifestly didn’t have (she believed she was a skillful mimic and could imitate anyone’s voice… when in reality, she ALWAYS sounded like Marlene Dietrich!).
As for her singing… well, I’d never buy any of her recordings, but she had a presence and some of her musical numbers in movies were a lot of fun.
Yeah, I suppose it might be. After all, he not only couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, he also used the most remarkably bad phrasing, sounding like he was singing from a lyrics sheet he was reading for the first time. Which, I understand, he often was. At least Cocker and Dietrich went to the trouble of learning their songs before recording them. But I threw him in as a sop to his fans who actually believe the nice things I said about him. shrug
)