Lyr Req: Flamingo-- like a flame in the night!

Subject: Lyr Req: Flamingo-- like a flame in the night!
From: GUEST,kf
Date: 05 Feb 05 - 04:32 PM

Help, these are the only words we can remember to a song from the forties/fifties?? Does anyone know more?? thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flamingo-- like a flame in the night!
From: Peace
Date: 05 Feb 05 - 04:44 PM

When Herb Jeffries walked into the RCA Victor Studio in Chicago on December 28th, 1940 for a Duke Ellington recording session, he had no idea that his future was predestined. Ellington had called him in at the last minute to record one song, a tune called "Flamingo" (written by Ted Grouya & Edmund Anderson). Herb had never sang or even heard the song before, yet he felt such a personal relationship with the lyrics and melody that he recorded it in one take.

   "Flamingo" did not impress Leonard Joy, the RCA Victor executive at the time. However, the recording was finally released in June, 1941, and became an immediate radio and juke box hit! Herb had, by then, left the Ellington band and gone off to do his bit for Uncle Sam in WWII. But the song catapulted Herb into the highest echelon of popular singers. His three subsequent recordings of "Flamingo" have sold over 14-million copies... and still counting.

Subject: ADD: Flamingo (Anderson-Grouya)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Feb 05 - 04:46 PM

There must be a zillion recordings of this. I guess the best-known must be the one by Duke Ellington. I can't find it in my CD collection, but it is in the Hal Leonard jazz fakebook.

Flamingo
(lyrics by Ed Anderson; music by Ted Grouya, 1941)

Flamingo, like a flame in the sky,
Flying over the island to my lover nearby.

[CHORUS]
The wind sings a song to you as you go,
A song that I hear below the murmuring palms.
Flamingo, when the sun meets the sea,
Say farewell to my lover and hasten to me.

Flamingo, in your tropical hue,
Speak of passion undying and a love that is true.
[CHORUS]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flamingo-- like a flame in the night!
From: Willa
Date: 05 Feb 05 - 04:50 PM

You beat me to it! A typically fast response, folks. Guest, you might find this link useful too.
http://www.tonsoflyrics.com/letter_d/artist_duke-ellington/flamingo_lyrics.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flamingo-- like a flame in the night!
From: Flash Company
Date: 06 Feb 05 - 10:15 AM

Earl Bostic (of the rather dirty sounding sax) had an instrumental hit with this.

FC