If that title looks familiar, we covered Maria Muldaur yesterday with her album Waitress in a Donut Shop. This is where Muldaur got the name for it. She released it a year after this version by Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Dan didn’t sing this but Maryann Price did. Her voice is very unique when she gets going. She doesn’t sound like everyone else.
Because of Christian, Randy, and CB, I have been really connecting with the jazz songs they have posted in the past and talked about. This is why I still blog because I love expanding my musical range and tastes. I will have to admit…as much as I like Maria Muldaur’s version of it…this version swings a little more.
I knew nothing about her until in the past few weeks when CB told me about Dan Hicks and his band The Hot Licks. She can easily cross genres and do about anything from Jazz to Pop to Swing. She has worked in many bands from Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks, Asleep At The Wheel, The Kinks, and more. I like her because she is different and caught my attention. Let’s find out a little about her.
At the age of 17, she was singing commercial jingles in her hometown of Baltimore. She moved on to sing jazz in Las Vegas and then moved to San Francisco in 1969. She soon joined Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks and along with Naomi Ruth Eisenberg (“The Lickettes”) as singers.
In 1973 the band broke up and when they did…Ray Davies pounced on that opportunity. Davies asked her to come to England and record with the band. She stayed with the Kink’s for a year, touring extensively and recording…she sang on the album Preservation Act 2. When that was finished she returned to America and formed the Girtones with former Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks guitarist John Girton. In 1980 she joined the Texas band Asleep At The Wheel.
She has since gone on to a successful solo career based in Austin, Texas, and also reunited with Naomi Ruth Eisenberg for a live album in 2004 called Live At The Freight + Salvage.
Now back to the song at hand. This was on the Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks album Last Train To Hicksville released in 1973. I’ve been listening to this album on Saturday and it’s a combination of all kinds of music with Dan and the Licketts singing. I hear swing, jazz, pop, and more. The musicianship on this album is top-notch. The song was written by the songwriter Ken Burgan. Maryann is still going strong in Austin Texas.
Sweetheart (Waitress in a Donut Shop)
Sweetheart, but it doesn’t beat for meIt beats softly in love but not for meSweet lips I know I’ll never kissYou’re what I’m afraid I must miss
I’m a waitress in the donut shopI see him on his morning stopHe talks of love but he’s thinking of his sweetheartShe gives him a rough time
He gives me his dime and then partsSoft sighs, soft and pretty moansIn dreams I can make you my own
I’m a waitress in the donut shopI see him on his morning stopHe talks of love but he’s talking about his sweetheartShe gives him a rough time
He gives me his dime and then partsSoft sighs, soft and pretty moansIn dreams I can make you my ownIn dreams I can make you my own
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