LOUIS PRIMA - THE CLOSER TO THE BONE (Rare Studio Cut) '57

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LYRICS: "The Closer To The Bone"

Closest to the bone
Sweeter is the meat
Last slice of Virginia ham
Is the best that you can eat

Don't talk about my baby
She's slender but she's sweet
Closest to the bone
And sweeter is the meat

Now she'd make a good thermometer
If she drank a glass of wine
She's built just like a garter snake
She climbs up like a vine

My friends tell me I'm a fool
To love a girl like that
Here's the reason I like 'em slim
Instead of big and fat

'Cause closest to the bone
Sweeter is the meat
Last slice of Virginia ham
Is the best that you can eat

Now don't talk about my baby
She's slender but she's sweet
Umm, closest to the bone
And sweeter is the meat

Let's go! (INSTRUMENTAL BREAK)

Now she'd make a first-class fountain pen
If she only knew how to write
Her figure's like a piece of string
Umm, she rolls up every night

Everybody thinks that I'm a nut
To love this lovely worm
Boy there's one reason I like 'em slim
Instead of round and firm

'Cause closest to the bone
Sweeter is the meat
Last slice of Virginia ham
Is the best that you can eat

Now don'cha talk about my baby
She's slender but she's sweet, umm
Closest to the bone
Umm, sweet, I got another one now
Listen here!

Umm, she'd make a fine piccolo
If she only stayed on key
Boy, she's shaped like a rubber band
And she loves to snap at me

Everybody thinks I'm insane
To overlook her faults
But here's the reason I like 'em skinny
Instead of full of schmaltz

'Cause closest to the bone
Sweeter is the meat
Last slice of Virginia ham
Is the best that you can eat

Don't talk about my baby
She's slender but she's sweet
And it's closest to the bone
And sweeter is the meat!

* "The Closer to the Bone" (The Sweeter is the Meat) First recording and first release by Grandpa Jones (May 20, 1952)

Louis Leo Prima - December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978, born to Sicilian immigrants in New Orleans and grew up on St. Peter Street, in the Tremé neighborhood. He attended both Jesuit and Warren Easton high schools. Prima first listened to New Orleans jazz in the many integrated Italian and African-American nightclubs that stood in the section of Tremé and the French Quarter called Little Palermo and became a devoted fan of Louis Armstrong. At fourteen, he formed his first group, Louis Prima’s Kid Band, which included a twelve-year-old Irving Fazola on clarinet. Prima left high school before graduating, joined the Musician’s Union, and began playing in the Saenger Theater pit band and in a small jazz combo at nightclubs owned by his older brother, Leon.

Louis Prima was born in New Orleans in 1910. He spent his formative years soaking in the jazz that boiled up around him. By the 1930s he had made a name for himself as a hot-handed young trumpeter in his own right. When the big band sound overwhelmed the small, New Orleans-style combos, Prima made the transition smoothly. In the 1940s he recorded for heavyweight RCA Records. He took his big band on the road, filling lavish theaters around the country. In the late 1940s, after three divorces, he met a young singer named Keely Smith. He added Smith to his band, and eventually married her. As big bands fell out of vogue, he assembled a smaller unit in Las Vegas. In 1954, he recruited tenor saxophonist Sam Butera from brother Leon Prima’s 500 Club on Bourbon Street, and the combo, the Witnesses, caught fire. And then it was over. Prima, as Smith tells it, fell victim to the Big Four of Vegas temptations: Smoking, drinking, gambling, womanizing. Louis and Keely divorced in 1961 and broke up their act.

Italian American Golden Era

*** From my own cd and vinyl collection
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