This release looks like yet another anthology of her hits but in fact is a collection of live broadcasts. The audio quality is not as good as from studio recordings.
You Betcha Review by John Bush
You Betcha, a compilation of Anita O'Day's big-band years released on Sounds of Yesteryear, reprises most of her early career's best-known features -- "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine," "Let Me Off Uptown," and "Honeysuckle Rose" -- whether they were for the orchestras of Stan Kenton, Gene Krupa, or (briefly) Benny Goodman. Although a few more of her solid early sides appear, the rest of the compilation is filled out with an odd assortment of '40s and '50s material, all of it passable but none of it adding up to the type of Anita O'Day compilation that belongs in the first rank.
1. Tea For Two
2. Opus One
3. All Reet
4. Otto Make That Riff Stacato
5. Bolero At The Savoy
6. Ride On
7. Build It Up
8. And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine
9. You Betcha
10. Special Delivery
11. I Lost My Sugar In Salt lake City
12. Four Brothers
13. Ooh Hot Dog
14. Let Me Off Uptown
15. Honeysuckle Rose
Anita Belle Colton (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006), known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances that shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer". Refusing to pander to any female stereotype, O'Day presented herself as a "hip" jazz musician, wearing a band jacket and skirt as opposed to an evening gown. She changed her surname from Colton to O'Day, pig Latin for "dough", slang for money.
O'Day, along with Mel Tormé, is often grouped with the West Coast cool school of jazz. Like Tormé, O'Day had some training in jazz drums (courtesy of her first husband Don Carter)..While maintaining a central core of hard swing, O'Day's skills in improvisation of rhythm and melody rank her among the pioneers of bebop...While performing she met Gene Krupa, who promised to call her if Irene Daye, then his vocalist, ever left his band.The call from Krupa came in early 1941. Of the 34 sides she recorded with Krupa, it was "Let Me Off Uptown", a novelty duet with Roy Eldridge, that became her first big hit. The same year, DownBeat named O'Day "New Star of the Year".
She joined Stan Kenton's band in April 1944. During her 11 months with Kenton, O'Day recorded 21 sides, both transcription and commercial, and appeared in a Universal Pictures short Artistry in Rhythm (1944). "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" (1944) became a huge seller, and put Kenton's band on the map.
12. Four Brothers
