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Billy Daniels "That Old Black Magic"
"That Old Black Magic" was the magic wand for performer Billy Daniels in
terms of hits. He was so thoroughly associated with the Johnny Mercer and
Harold Arlen standard that, in the '50s, any impressionist worth his lower lip
included at least a half-chorus imitation of Daniels doing his song. Generations
hence, with many fewer impressionists working to keep his memory alive, the
lingering impact of such a massive hit might create the impression that
Daniels could perform only one musical card trick. Nothing could be further
from the truth: he was a versatile and busy performer who hosted his own
television show in the early '50s, gigged regularly in nightclubs with a
top-notch road band, and in addition pursued a film career with some success.
While there are many singers who worked as waiters, Daniels actually got his
performing start during a gimmicky fad of singing waiters, circa New York
City in the early '30s. He was serving Erskine Hawkins, a breast of chicken to
be precise, but the bandleader was more impressed with the vocalization than
the marination. From 1934, the 19-year-old Daniels was the featured vocalist
in the Hawkins big band, coming up in an era when singers had to project
mightily. It was quite a contrast to the expectations that developed for a
crooner in the period after Daniels began recording under his own name.
The man's talents as a vocalist, inspirational to male singers such as Mark
Murphy and Ernie Andrews, were the results of nothing if not intensive labor.
He claimed to have sung every day of the year 1937, and not in the shower
either. That year he was employed daily by at least a dozen different radio
sponsors. In the late '30s he also appeared in his first film, entitled Sepia
Cinderella, which was hardly as well known as some of his later screen
appearances in movie musicals such as When You're Smiling and Sunny Side
of the Street, both released in 1950. The former presented the singer with a
golden opportunity to present what would become his signature song.
If he put across "That Old Black Magic" like a palace aflame by then, it was
surely the result of nearly a decade of singing the number in clubs, especially
the many haunts of New York's 52nd Street. He first graduated to the
Broadway stage in 1945, and would continue to do well in the medium
throughout his career. In the '50s he made great developments in his
performing style in collaboration with the fine pianist and arranger Benny
Payne; this duo was one of the first black acts to be allowed on television in
America. In 1964 Daniels performed on Broadway with Sammy Davis Jr. in
Golden Boy. In the '70s he appeared in productions of Hello, Dolly! and
Bubbling Brown Sugar. Continuing to work in clubs up until his death, Daniels
gladly pulled a disco version of "That Old Black Magic" out of his raspberry
beret right in time for the Saturday Night Fever crowd. His daughter Yvonne
Daniels was a famous disc jockey.







	Email: Michael@Golden2Golden.Net