IN A GREAT BIG WAY

(Jimmy McHugh (m) / Dorothy Fields (l) 1929)


As recorded by Annette Hanshaw with the Ben Pollack and 
His Park Central Orchestra 1929


This title of this song is often confused with another HcHugh/Fields 
work from 1935 called I'M LIVING IN A GREAT BIG WAY 
That song appeared in the film 'Hooray For Love' a musical, 
directed by Walter Lang and starring Ann Sothern and Gene Raymond.


IN A GREAT BIG WAY appeared in the January 1929 theatrical 
performance of 'Hello Daddy' based on the book by Alexander Leftwich.


Also sung by:

Louisville Rhythm Kings



There's no accounting for taste I'm sure

That's why I picked you.

It seems a terrible way

But you're the best that I could do.


I was a beautiful daughter

I was an innocent lamb

You led me on to the slaughter

And now I'm just a ham.


What are you doin' to me

You'll be the ruin of me

I care for you in a great big way.


You smiled at me and I fell

It's wild, it's silly, it's swell

I'm like a leapin' gazelle to stay.


I knew the minute I met you

I'd get a load of romance

I'd stop at nothing to get you

If there's a possible chance.


I'd give a year of my life

To hear you say,

I care for you in a great big way.


(bridge)


What are you doin' to me

You'll be the ruin of me

I care for you in a great big way.


You smiled at me and I fell

It's wild, it's silly, it's swell

I'm like a leapin' gazelle to stay.


Oh, I knew the minute I met you

I'd get a load of romance

I'd stop at nothing to get you

If there's a possible chance.


I'd give a year of my life

To hear you say,

I care for you in a great big way.


That's all!


Notes:


(Catherine) Annette Hanshaw, an American, was a blues and jazz singer

from the 1920s and early 1930s and was purportedly one of the first

female jazz singers of that era.


She was known as 'The Personality Girl' or later as the 'The Flapper

Girl' by her followers and fit the 1920s period perfectly with her

flapper style and sweet innocent-sounding voice. She often ended her

songs with the cute tag "That's All" (above).

See  MY BLACKBIRDS ARE BLUEBIRDS NOW and  
LOVABLE & SWEET .


Some consider the later Hanshaw, a 'torch singer' along with the likes

of Ruth Etting, Mildred Bailey, Jane Froman and Bebe Daniels. Strangely,

she thought her abilities 'wanting' by her own standards and retired

early to married life, after only 15 years in the business.


Hanshaw also recorded under the names 'Gay Ellis' or 'Dot Dare' or

'Patsy Young' and a variety of other pseudonyms.


(Transcribed by David Story May 2014)