February 24, 2000
May the advertising firm who works for The Gap enjoy their eternal stay in Dante’s pressure cooker for forever associating in my mind Louis Prima’s terrifically energetic “Jump, Jive N’ Wail” with khakis. (Special bile also reserved for the bastards who had the unmitigated gall to turn Sly Stone’s “Everyday People” from a loose-limbed party mandate to a fricken car commercial. Sometimes I hate this country.) With luck, the mini swing resurgence will pass without any further molestation of Prima’s back catalog, although I wonder – Bill Gates might be eyeing “I’ve Got The World on a String” as his personal anthem.
It might well have been Prima’s own anthem. Although he didn’t write the song, Prima’s delivery of it perfectly represents that sense of being on top of your game; his music is fabulously cheerful, delivered in that grainy Italian baritone with such a wide audible grin that it can barely fit through the speaker. He’s as much of a ham as the cover indicates, but it’s all part of his drive to Entertain at all Costs – this is guy who puts exclamation points in the titles of his songs because damn it, it’s time to party. (!!)
His hot jazz band is a brassy corker (check out that driving hi-hat and fiery sax solo on “Oh Marie”), but what sells the huge arrangements is his even bigger personality. When he scats to hilarious effect in “Just a Gigolo” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody”, you sense it’s not that he’s trying to impress, but because the end of the lyric is no reason to stop singing. At his peak at the turn of the 50’s, Prima was pumping out two or three albums a year, further evidence of his irrepressible exuberance, but this best-of collection is comprehensive enough to cover the essential hits. And they are essential; the opening stately croon and subsequent high-octane romp of “Buona Sera” is just one of the vibrant tracks you didn’t know you couldn’t live without.
- Jared O’Connor
Just a gigolo