I swear it was "Festival Junction" by Duke Ellington, but apparently it just sounds like it. There are no words and it is big band swing. It sounds like the horns are musically going in a circle louder and louder (if that helps). I'm pretty sure it is none of the songs listed under the soundtrack on IMDB either. . .
shareThis is a 1942 movie, "Festival Junction" was written by Duke some 14 years later for his '56 Newport Jazz Festival appearance. The song you are referring to is a 1936 song named "One, Two, Button Your Shoe," made popular by Bing Crosby in the 1936 film "Pennies From Heaven". Billie Holiday and Artie Shaw also recorded in 1936 and it was played (very nicely I might add) by the band at the picnic scene in the classic 1955 film, "Picnic." You can find several versions of the tune on Youtube, including Crosby's original. Nice ditty of a tune.
shareShe plays the song "My momma done told me" (instrumental) a few times and at least once in the living room.
shareShe plays the song "My momma done told me" (instrumental) a few times and at least once in the living room.
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop
The bouncy song she plays is "How Do I Know It's Sunday."
How do I know it's Sunday,
I stayed in bed till after 10
Didn't go to church again
Oooo, oooo
The sophisticated song that kind of hums along in the background when B. Davis is yelling at O. DeHavilland does sound like a D. Ellington song, but I don't know which one.
The song is Blues in the Night. Rosemary Clooney sang a popular version but it has been done many times.
shareThere was also "Oceanana Roll" played several times on the soundtrack.
Which is interesting, since it was sung four years later by another venal character: Veda in MILDRED PIERCE.
Or are you thinking of South American Way which was covered by the Andrews Sisters and many others?
shareYes, I thought that song was an interesting coincidence as well (i.e. South American Way when sung by Veda and Kay in Mildred Pierce).
'That's not a hairstyle, it's a cry for help!'
So both "Oceana Roll" and "South American Way", used in this movie, were later also used in Mildred Pierce.
shareThe instrumental that is playing during the scene when B Davis and O DeHavilland are yelling at each other is 'Autumn Nocturne', written by Josef Myrow.
shareI loved the use of all the standards in the background - some of which I recognized during the movie and others I see in this thread. You really believed Stanley's love for dancing as she had to schlep a Victrola wherever she went to play the 'popular' songs. Stars - they're just like us.
share