# What kind of music am I looking for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177 "2015-03-04T05:16:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/1 "2015-03-04T05:16:22Z")
Stay with me here, I am musically inept and need to set the scene. We are in a nightclub, somewhere between 1940 and 1960. Dark and smoky. The men wear suits, and have checked their hats but not their guns. Mike Hammer might be there, Easy Rawlins knows he wouldn’t be allowed in. There is a band, the drummer is only using brushes, and the focus is on the singer. She is a young woman, wearing a sheathe dress and matching gloves, singing into an old-fashioned standup microphone. She is not singing about happy things. I have tried looking for “torch songs”, but I am not getting what I want from that search term. Any help re: genre, artists, etc. will be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/2 "2015-03-04T05:25:52Z")
Standards, or jazz, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/3 "2015-03-04T05:52:40Z")
I’d say Billie Holiday, but I’m sure she displayed in your torch songs search. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/4 "2015-03-04T06:28:54Z")
How about [Peggy Lee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kCzVzDcPuk)? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/5 "2015-03-04T06:53:54Z")
[Nina](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDprYZ-tgiA) [Simone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5jI9I03q8E)? She was active a bit later than the time period you mention, but I thought maybe the music was more important than the era. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/6 "2015-03-04T07:16:59Z")
I think you mean like\*\* this:\*\* "Blues" comes to mind. As someone famous once said (I forget who), "You don't have to be down and out [i.e., poor] to have the blues. Hell, even Howard Hughes had the blues!" ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/7 "2015-03-05T00:20:54Z")
You definitely want Carmel’s “Bad Day” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/u3TMc22m7tE/maxresdefault.jpg "Carmel - Bad Day") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3TMc22m7tE) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/8 "2015-03-05T03:31:59Z")
Go to youtube. Type in “noir nightclub singers.” You’ll likely find something you can use. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/9 "2015-03-05T06:35:53Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > I’d say Billie Holiday, but I’m sure she displayed in your torch songs search. Probably singing [“Love For Sale”.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwS-5M-1gas) Also try [_Ella Fitzgerald Sings Songs from Let No Man Write My Epitaph_.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Fitzgerald_Sings_Songs_from_%22Let_No_Man_Write_My_Epitaph%22) Her character in the movie was rather similar to what you described. I’m also thinking of Marilyn Monroe as Ginger singing [“I’m Through With Love”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN2RxSlB1Nk) in _Some Like It Hot._ ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/10 "2015-03-05T08:01:00Z")
Here you go. **Dinah Washington** - [Drinking Again](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtJLZ2zL2Os) ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-music-am-i-looking-for/714177/11 "2015-03-05T13:25:49Z")
[Black Coffee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRyN9wQ1taY) by Sarah Vaughan [Why Don’t You Do Right?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kCzVzDcPuk) by Peggy Lee [Street of Dreams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXbv5d-G1iA) by Lee Wiley