Which one is your favorite? - XLVI -

This week's song goes back to the 20s Vienna. It was composed by Leonello Casucci with lyrics written by Julius Brammer. The original was a tango named  "Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo". The version we are more familiar with was adapted by Irving Caesar into English in 1929.

Here is the song for this week;

"Just A Gigolo"

The song was first published by Wiener Boheme Verlag in 1929 and performed by several orchestras in Germany that year, including Dajos Béla's orchestra with the singer Kurt Mühlhardt. In Italy Daniele Serra sang a version entitled "Gigolo", followed by Sirio Di Piramo and his orchestra in 1930, while other countries provided their own versions.

The original version is a poetic vision of the social collapse experienced in Austria after World War I, represented by the figure of a former hussar who remembers himself parading in his uniform, while now he has to get by as a lonely hired dancer. The music features a simple melodic sequence, but nonetheless has a clever harmonic construction that highlights the mixed emotions in the lyrics, adding a nostalgic, bittersweet effect.

The success of the song prompted publishers Chappell & Co. to buy the rights and order an English version from Irving Caesar, a very popular lyricist of the time. Caesar eliminated the specific Austrian references and, in the often-omitted verse (but included in the 1931 recording by Bing Crosby), set the action in a Paris cafe, where a local character tells his sad story. Thus, the lyrics retained their sentimental side but lost their historic value. Popular versions in 1931 were by Ted Lewis, Ben Bernie, Bing Crosby and Leo Reisman.

"Just a Gigolo" appeared in a 1931 film, a 1932 Betty Boop cartoon and a 1993 TV series, all titled after the song. The song was recorded by many musicians of the time, including Louis Armstrong and (in German) Richard Tauber.

The film Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo, directed by David Hemmings in 1979, was titled after the first verse of the original lyrics, but the Just a Gigolo title was used for US distribution. In this film, the song was performed by Marlene Dietrich, in her last film appearance.

"Just a Gigolo" is best known in a form recorded by Louis Prima in 1956, where it was paired in a medley with another old standard, "I Ain't Got Nobody" (words by Roger A. Graham and music by Spencer Williams, 1915). This pairing links the life of a gigolo ("people know the part I'm playing, paid for every dance.."), to the outcome for singer ending up alone ("I ain't got nobody"). The popularity of Prima's combination, and of Village People's 1978 and David Lee Roth's 1985 cover versions of the medley, has led to the mistaken perception by some that the songs are two parts of a single original composition.

Here are the 5 versions I picked for you;

• Ute Lemper - "Just A Gigolo"

• Bing Crosby - "Just a Gigolo"

• Fumio Yasuda & Theo Bleckmann - "Just A Gigolo"

• Sarah Vaughan - "Just A Gigolo"

• Marlene Dietrich - "Just A Gigolo" 

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.