Is Love Really For Sale ?

Wikipedia: Love for Sale was originally considered in bad taste, even scandalous. In the initial Broadway production, it was performed by Kathryn Crawford, portraying a streetwalker, with three girlfriends as back-up singers, in front of Reuben’s, a popular restaurant of the time. As a response to the criticism, the song was transferred from the white Crawford to the African American singer Elisabeth Welch, who sang with back-up singers in a scene set in front of Harlem’s Cotton Club.

Jazz Standards : On December 9, 1930, Charles Darnton of the New York Evening World wrote, “Love for Sale,” as sung by Kathryn Crawford, June Shafer, Ida Pearson, and Stella Friend, was in the worst possible taste.

Bullz-Eye.com : Lots of folks have covered this Cole Porter classic. Ella owns it. The way she sings this song, one would think that going into the sex trade might actually be kind of glamorous.

TimesOnLine : Mick Hucknall on Love for Sale, as performed by Miles Davis : “I drove over the Alps from Milan to witness Miles perform with Quincy Jones weeks before his untimely death. It’s something I’ll never forget – all the more because I had begun talking to Miles’s producer, Tommy LiPuma, about a possible collaboration, and Love for Sale is one of the songs I would have proposed.”

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