Sundays with Duke #24 – Two Lost and Found

As we continue with Duke Ellington in 1938, we land on a pair of songs written and recorded around the same time as I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart, yet neither one found the same level of popularity. Both had promising starts, both slipped into obscurity, and both were unexpectedly revived in the 1950s — little musical time capsules waiting to be reopened.

A Cotton Club Companion

The first tune, If You Were in My Place (What Would You Do), was featured in the same Cotton Club Parade as I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart. Duke recorded it for Brunswick with Ivie Anderson on the vocal:

Johnny Hodges also cut the tune at the same small‑group session that produced his version of I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart, again featuring Mary McHugh:

I’d probably give the nod to Johnny’s small‑group take - the slower, steadier tempo feels more natural for the song’s mood.

The tune didn’t really go anywhere, and Duke never returned to it in the studio… except for one curious exception. For reasons lost to time, it resurfaced on the 1956 Blue Rose album on Columbia, with Rosemary Clooney overdubbing her vocal onto a backing track recorded by Duke and the band:

Not a bad song by any means, but this seems to be the end of the trail for it in Duke’s discography.

A Song With Two Names and a Few Lives

The second tune, Lost in Meditation, has a more tangled path.

This collaboration between Juan Tizol and Duke began life as an instrumental titled Have a Heart, recorded by Cootie Williams and his Rug Cutters for Vocalion in January 1938:

The lineup is a dream: Cootie on trumpet, Tricky Sam Nanton on trombone, and a sax section of Johnny Hodges, Barney Bigard, and Harry Carney, with usual suspects Duke, Fred Guy, Billy Taylor and Sonny Greer in the rhythm section.

Pretty cool record!

The following month, Duke and the full band recorded the same tune for Brunswick - slower, more reflective, and now titled Lost in Meditation.

I’m presuming the title change happened when the song acquired lyrics, although the earlier Have a Heart label already lists Louis Singer and Irving Mills as co‑writers. A little mystery there!

Although Duke’s studio version was instrumental, he did feature a vocal arrangement with Ivie Anderson on radio broadcasts, and we’re lucky to have an aircheck:

A proper studio vocal finally arrived in June 1938 at another Johnny Hodges small‑group session, again with Mary McHugh:

The personnel mirrors Cootie’s Rug Cutters lineup, but with Lawrence Brown subbing for Tricky Sam on trombone.

Just as with If You Were in My Place, Duke didn’t revisit Lost in Meditation again until the mid‑1950s, when it was picked up by a guest female vocalist.

This time it was Ella Fitzgerald, who recorded it with Duke and the band in 1957 for her Duke Ellington Songbook album on Verve:

It’s a terrific version, but the song seems to have disappeared from Duke’s repertoire after that.

Why These Two? Why Then?

I do wonder what led to Rosie and Ella reviving these two 1938 songs after they’d been “lost” for more than a decade.

We’ll probably never know - label logic, producer whims, personal taste, or just the right tune at the right moment.

But I’m glad they were found!

What's your take? Should either have become at least a semi-standard?