The Mills Brothers – I Got Her Off My Hands

I’m up with shadows playing hide and seek

The Mills Brothers were something special. Here they are in 1951, singing about when things don’t go exactly to plan; as a bonus you get some mouth trumpet and “now I’m the crying-est kind.” Yeah, this.

Lord Kitchener – London Is the Place for Me

To live in London you’re really comfortable
because the English people are very much sociable
They take you here and they take you there
and they make you feel like a millionaire…

Aldwyn Roberts — much better known as Lord Kitchener — emigrated to London from Trinidad in 1952.

One has to suspect that he either wrote “London is the Place for Me” before arriving, or with tongue placed firmly in cheek. On a beautiful summer Sunday morning, though, his exhuberence suddenly makes sense. I want to believe.