Valaida Snow - My Heart Belongs To Daddy (Cole Porter), 1939

Описание: Valaida (Valaida Snow) was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1903 and was part of a musical family along with her sisters, the similarly named Alvaida and Lavaida. She turned professional entertainer at the age of 15. During the 1920s she was part of various musical reviews including the Sissle-Blake show "The Chocolate Dandies" that toured the United States and then went overseas. During the 1930s she was a big part of the touring revue "Blackbirds" and then the famous Noble Sissle-Eubie Blake musical show "Rhapsody In Black". Valaida Snow even appeared in some feature films in the late 1930s that were made for Black audiences, and she also did extensive touring with the Will Mastin Trio.

Valaida then went on an extended tour of Europe in 1939. Not keeping informed of the deteriorating situation in Western Europe in the early nineteen forties, resulted in a devastating event in the life of Valaida Snow. While appearing in Denmark with her all-girl orchestra, she was taken prisoner by the army of Nazi Germany and sent to a concentration camp named Wester-Faengler. She remained in captivity for nearly two years until she was freed in a prisoner swap with the allied forces. She returned to New York and attempted to put her life back in order again.

Yet, the psychological and physical trauma had a deep effect on the life of her and she was never the same again. She tried to get her performing talent back together and regain her fame as an arranger, vocalist, and trumpet stylist. But in June 1956 Valaida dies of a cerebral hemorrhage backstage at the Palace Theater in New York.
If Josephine Baker was known for shocking people in Europe for her transgression and freedom, Valaida shocked them in the USA, with her eccentric behaviour. She travelled in an orchid coloured Mercedes, dressed in an orchid suit, her per monkey rigged out in an orchid jacket and cap, with the chauffeur in orchid as well. She lived an intense life and enjoyed it, even if she bore the trouble and and the tragic side that haunt many greats. She made the front page news for her glorious endevours as well as for her downfalls.

„My Heart Belongs To Daddy" is a song written by Cole Porter for the 1938 musical „Leave It To Me" where it was introduced by Mary Martin. The song contains one of Porter's most obscure lyrics, one of several rhymes for "daddy" - in which the singer talks about her "fine finnan haddie," a Scottish term for smoked haddock. Referring specifically to the melody, the famous performer and actor Oskar Levant -- born in orthodox Jewish family - described it as "one of the most Yiddish tunes ever written" despite the fact that "Cole Porter's genetic background was completely alien to any Jewishness."

Recording: Valaida Snow (vocal & trumpet) -- My Hart Belongs To Daddy (Cole Porter), Decca 1939