SWEETHEART DARLIN'


(Herbert Stothart (m) / Gus Kahn (l) )


Sung by Annette Hanshaw June 1933


My father was Irish, my mother was English

But the Irish has the upper hand in me

And speakin' of Irish people and things

How'd ya like an Irish melody?


There's a light in your eyes, sweetheart darlin'

And it makes all the world fair and bright

Like the light in the skies, sweetheart darlin'

When the mornin' steals out of the night.


His lovelight is shinin' for someone

Sure I'm wondrin' just who it could be

My darlin'...


There's a light in your eyes, sweetheart darlin'

Tell me darlin', it's shinin' for me.


You're wonderful, you're glorious, and so my heart has air

Your island must be heaven

Because you came from there.


There's a light in your eyes, sweetheart darlin'

And it makes all the world fair and bright

Like a light in the skies, sweetheart darlin'

When the mornin' steals out of the night.


His lovelight is shinin' for someone

Sure I'm wondrin' just who it could be

My darlin'...


There's a light in your eyes, sweetheart darlin'

Tell me darlin', that light is shinin' just for me.


NOTES:


Gus Kahn who wrote these lyrics, was German by birth and emigrated to

the USA in 1890. He is responsible for some of the most popular music of

the 1920s/30s, by far the most recognizable arguably being 

 IT HAD TO BE YOU


(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 on as '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". (see 

MY BLACKBIRDS ARE BLUEBIRDS NOW

or THE ONE IN THE WORLD

or LOVABLE & SWEET 


Some consider the latter day 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.





(Transcribed by David Story- April 2014)