Updated September 2021 to replace the video and to add annotations.
I first heard “Tain’t No Use” way back, and still love it today.
Benny Goodman is one of my delights, and the fact that he’s singing in this makes it even better! I don’t care that he’s not a trained singer, it’s BENNY.
What follows is the CD album cover and the liner notes section (and author credit) where it states that Benny has “apologetically sung” the song!
“Tain’t no use
Cooked my goose
No, tain’t no use…”
You will experience the same intellectual heights with the rest of the lyrics here.
Is it Benny, though? I wonder if it might be Lionel Hampton. The RCA “Best of Benny Goodman” includes this song, though it is not listed anywhere on the label or booklet. (It replaces the listed “Love Me or Leave Me.”) The booklet, however, says that Hampton is a vocalist, and this is the only item which might be Hamp. To my ear, the singer on “Taint no Use” doesn’t sound much like the voice on “It’s Bad for Me” which Rosemary Clooney. But I could be wrong.
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It is indeed our Benny! I have updated this post with the booklet’s information, and found a new video that shows the 78. Now, whether the correct recordings and labels are out there…
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