Ruth Leon recommends… Marilyn Maye – I Love Being Here With You
Ruth Leon recommendsMarilyn Maye – I Love Being Here With You
Ella Fitzgerald called her “”the greatest white female singer in the world”. That was back in the 1950s and, many cabaret lovers will tell you that she still is. I’m reluctant to tell you how old Marilyn Maye is until you’ve heard her sing. So click on the link now.
This song, Peggy Lee’s I Love Being Here With You, was recorded in May, 2021, when she was celebrating her 93rd birthday at 54 Below in New York with a concert called Broadway, The Maye Way. That’s not a typo. The top cabaret singer in the world, still performing at full strength, was born in 1928.
A mid-Westerner by birth and inclination, she ventures out to perform all over the US, notably in New York, where she performs a birthday show every year.
She’s phenomenal, not because she’s now 94 but because she’s one of the best cabaret singers who ever lived.
For those of you who can get to New York over the New Year break she’s performing at the Birdland Theatre with Billy Stritch at the piano from Dec 29 through Jan 2. For the rest of us, there’s this song and same spectacularly good recordings.
I once heard her at a concert in a hotel in Kansas City many years ago. It was New Years Eve. Really good and enjoyable. She must be really old now.