Monday, March 23, 2015

Dark Monday • John & Bonnie Raitt Sing They Say It's Wonderful

 photo Bonnie and John Raitt_zpshd8rldlx.jpg

I was so fascinated when I discovered this video for "They Say It's Wonderful" from 'Annie Get Your Gun'. The show premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on May 16, 1946 and ran for 1,147 performances. The highly successful show had music and lyrics by the great Irving Berlin, and a book by the brother/sister team of Herbert and Dorothy Fields. It was directed by Joshua Logan, and starred Ethel Merman as Annie and Ray Middleton as Frank Butler. In 1957, NBC broadcast a production starring Mary Martin and John Raitt, who had the leads in the 1947 national touring company. But he recorded the song for his 1995 release, 'Broadway Legend' album, singing it with daughter Bonnie Raitt. I wasn't aware of the recording, one of three duets the father/daughter team recorded for his album. Luckily for us all, they made a music video of the duet. This is Bonnie Raitt and John Raitt singing "They Say It's Wonderful".



John Raitt passed away 10 years later, in 2005. He was 85 years old. Thankfully, he lived more than long enough to see his daughter become a superstar, with hit songs and albums.While I couldn't find the album on iTunes or Amazon Downloads, I read they also sang together on "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)", also from 'Annie Get Your Gun', and "Hey There" from 'The Pajama Game'.

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