FRIDAYS ARE FOR FRANK: “Body and Soul”

With Jaime DellaFave, Christina Alessi, Casey Solomon, Carolyn Monroe, and Sylvana Joyce taking the stage tonight at Maxwell’s as Hoboken’s Queens of Soul, we look at “Body and Soul”—a popular song and jazz standard written in 1930 with lyrics by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour and Frank Eyton; and music by Johnny Green.

Classic vocal recordings include those of Ella Fitzgerald, Annette Hanshaw, Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine, Etta James, Sarah Vaughan.

Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse did a spectacular rendition in 2011—bittersweet in that it would prove to be Amy’s last recording before her death in July of that year.

“What I love about Amy Winehouse is that, of all the singers since the Beatles, you automatically check everyone out who’s a lot younger, but there’s been such a big walk away from jazz,” Bennett told Entertainment Weekly. “Some people think that anyone could sing jazz, but they can’t. It’s a gift of learning how to syncopate but it’s also a spirit that you’re either born with or you’re not. And Amy was born with that spirit.”

Earlier this year, tonight’s singers emulated much of that spirit as they brought the house down at Maxwell’s with The Amy Winehouse Engagement.

The Queens of Soul should be pretty spectacular in its own right. CLICK HERE for ticket information.

In the meantime, here’s Frank Sinatra — doing what he does…

“My life a wreck you’re making
You know I’m yours for just the taking
I’d gladly surrender
Myself to you, body and soul…”