The Witch's Anthem: A Socio-cultural Analysis of "Wutxhcsaft

The song "Witchcraft" is a popular jazz standard that was written by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh. It was first released in 1957 and has since become a beloved song in the jazz repertoire. "Witchcraft" is a playful and seductive song that explores the enchanting power of love. The lyrics cleverly use magical imagery and witchcraft references to describe the spellbinding effect that a certain someone has on the singer. The song is full of wordplay and double entendres, making it both charming and witty. The melody of "Witchcraft" is equally captivating.

You can download Witchcraft on JioSaavn App.

Performing with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen, Peterson runs through 12 instrumental versions of songs made popular by Ol Blue Eyes, including, naturally, faithful renditions of Sinatra signatures Witchcraft and I Get a Kick Out of You. Leigh s lyric for the verse makes it clear at the outset that Witchcraft is about seduction, seduction that is devilish, poisonous and untrustworthy, seduction that should not be submitted to but is irresistible Shades of old Lucretia Borgia.

The melody of "Witchcraft" is equally captivating. It is characterized by its catchy and swinging rhythm, which is perfectly suited for the jazz genre. The song's harmonies are rich and sophisticated, showcasing the composers' talent for crafting memorable melodies.

Witchcraft

Ed's. note: One needs to be cautious in suggesting that scholars like David Ewen as well as Robert Kimball and Robert Gottlieb (who in their book Reading Lyrics also state "Witchcraft" was introduced in Take Five) have made an error. If we are missing anything and someone has more information on this matter, please submit a comment.

. . . . the time was well spent. From Riddle's shimmering, downward spiraling string intro (We've definitely left Gordon Jenkins territory) to the sensual glance-over-the-shoulder flute outro, the tune is a finger-snapping dream of sound, the perfect marriage of music, lyric, arrangement, and vocal--and quite simply one of the sexiest numbers ever recorded. Sinatra could sing the hell out of a torch song; no one could make you feel love's ache quiet so piercingly. But "Witchcraft" was the perfect antidote to the melancholy of "Where Are You?" and to the tyranny of love songs in general. Proceed with what you're leadin' me to.

It was pure abandon: rapturous, guiltless. It was everything the 1950's wanted but couldn't have--all the fun that everyone knew Frank was having all the time (Kaplan, p. 152, hardcover Ed.) . "Witchcraft," as Kaplan notes was the song that became part of a Frank-Elvis duet on the occasion of Elvis's appearance on a Sinatra TV special, March 26, 1960. The former and current teenager heart-throbs sang "Witchcraft" (Elvis) and " Love Me Tender" (Frank) together. "In that moment," Kaplan writes, "Sinatra is welcoming Presley to the Great Showbiz Fraternity . . ." (p. 317-319). In 1963, on his post-Capitol label Reprise, Sinatra decided to reprise his career by presenting new versions of previous successful recordings. The resulting album was Sinatra's Sinatra with Nelson Riddle as arranger and conductor. It included a new "Witchcraft" about which James Kaplan writes:

He [Sinatra] genuinely wanted to make these remakes fresh and new, and to a minor extent he succeeded. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The new rendering of . . . "Witchcraft . . . is a good enough reading that goes south fast as Sinatra strains for novelty. . . .

Kaplan finds this straining in a couple of places where Sinatra plays with the lyric, e.g. changing "that wicked witchcraft" to "that coo-coo witchcraft," or adds some "jazzy melodic improv." He doesn't find this "horribly wrong" but for him (Kaplan) it does no more than "focus attention on the singer as a celebrity rather than on the song itself" (p. 511) .

1963 Sinatra version of Witchcraft" for his
Reprise label album Sinatra's Sinatra.

The Coleman-Leigh "collaboration was a volatile partnership that began in 1957 and ended, during the pre-Broadway Philadelphia run of their show Little Me . . . . According to Coleman, Leigh [a fellow native of The Bronx] had grown more emotional over the years, tried to have director Bob Fosse arrested for cutting a lyric without her permission; for Coleman that was the last straw. But while the collaboration lasted it produced smart, precise, up-to-date, honest haunting swinging, sexy songs. "It Amazes Me" like "I Walk a Little Faster," was a favorite of [Blossom] Dearie and of Tony Bennett, two performers of impeccable taste; Sinatra, whose ears weren't bad, either, chose "Witchcraft" and "The Best Is Yet to Come" for singles. Who would have thought that such one-off wonders could still emerge from the Brill Building? It was as if the clock had been turned back twenty years (Yagoda, p.237, hardcover Ed).

. . . the words seem to understand the tune like a perfect marriage. It figures, because the partnership between Cy and his fellow Bronxite Carolyn Leigh was artistically if not humanly perfect. Besides (or because of) being brilliant, Carolyn Leigh seems to have been a (thoroughly justified) perfectionist. She demanded the same from her writing partner in what may have struck the so-far single Cy as a shrill married sort of voice. Apparently she brought out the screamer in him too -- along with some of his best, jazziest work. Like Irving Berlin, Cy was never happier than when chopping up his rhythms and injecting a surprise kick into them. And Leigh could ride his choppiest beats like a bronco buster in such typical numbers as "Witchcraft" and "I've Got Your Number" (p.297, hardcover Ed.) .

Leigh's lyric for the verse makes it clear at the outset that "Witchcraft" is about seduction, seduction that is devilish, poisonous and untrustworthy, seduction that should not be submitted to but is irresistible: Shades of old Lucretia Borgia!
There's a devil in you tonight,
'N' although my heart adores ya,
My head says it ain't right.
Right to let you make advances, oh no!
Under normal circumstances, I'd go,
But oh! (Gottlieb and Kimball, p. 579)

Those fingers in my hair . . . .

Finally, the onus is removed when at the end of the song, the singer admits or rationalizes her inability to resist by asserting, "There's no nicer witch than you." --And don't forget to appreciate Leigh's wicked rhyme of "Borgia" with "adores Ya." To hear Leigh"s and Coleman's verse, listen to Ella Fitzgerald's live version on her album
Twelve Nights In Hollywood.

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Credits

• Frank Sinatra, 1957: MrJohnnyNumbers
• Harvie S and Kenny Barron: Harvie S
• Cy Coleman / Playboy's Penthouse: TheRecordChanger
• Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra: John1948 FourB2
• Ella Fitzgerald: NuovaCanaria

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The Cafe Songbook
Record/Video Cabinet:
Selected Recordings of

"Witchcraft"

(All Record/Video Cabinet entries below
include a music-video
of this page's featured song.
The year given is for when the studio
track was originally laid down
or when the live performance was given.)

1957
Frank Sinatra
album: All the Way (1961)

Notes: Sinatra first released "Witchcraft" as a single (both 45 and 78 rpm) on Capitol (Capitol 3859 . Recorded May 20, 1957). Then In 1961, Capitol released an anthology album titled All the Way that included the 1957 track of "Witchcraft" and was the first album that included a Sinatra "Witchcraft." This album was released in April, 2016. Click here for the same track of "Witchcraft" on multiple Sinatra albums. The video above is that first recording and also includes photos of Sinatra and Riddle from the recording session.
For an account of Sinatra and "Witchcraft," see center column at left.

1959
Bill Evans Trio
album: Portrait in Jazz

1958 and 1961
Ella Fitzgerald
(three live performances)
albums: Live at Mr. Kelly's (1958), Ella Returns to Berlin (1961) and Twelve Nights in Hollywood (1961)

Ella Live at Mr. Kelly's (Chicago)

Ella Returns to Berlin

Notes: Ella includes the verse on both recordings.
Live at Mr. Kelly's (1958): " Ella Fitzgerald didn't lack for live recording opportunities in the late '50s, which on the surface, would make this first issue of a 1958 Chicago live club date an easy one to pass on. Verve label head Norman Granz recorded her often in the '50s with an eye to releasing live albums, which he did with her shows at Newport in 1957 and Los Angeles' Opera House in 1958 (not to mention another 1958 concert in Rome that was released 30 years later to wide acclaim). Those shows, however, differed widely from this one, which found her in front of a very small audience at Chicago's jazz Mecca Mister Kelly's (Sarah Vaughan's landmark At Mister Kelly's was recorded there four months earlier). Fitzgerald's artistry is basically a given in this situation, but much of the material recorded here was rare and obscure; "Your Red Wagon" had only been released as a single, her delightfully melodic "Across the Alley from the Alamo" never appeared elsewhere, and for a pair of Sinatra evergreens -- "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" and "Witchcraft" -- the former had never appeared, and the latter only appeared later, on a 1961 return to the site of her Berlin live landmark." ~ John Bush at CDUniverse.com. Ella is accompanied by Lou Levy (piano); Max Bennett (bass guitar); Gus Johnson (drums).

Returns to Berlin (1961): "T hough it was recorded in 1961, near the height of Cold War hostilities in Eastern Germany, Ella Fitzgerald Returns to Berlin is a magnificent performance of pure jazz bliss, free of sociopolitical subtext. or anyway, as free as jazz can ever be. Opening with a heartfelt, warm 'Give Me the Simple Life' that leads directly into a sassy take of Duke Ellington's classic 'Take the A Train,' Fitzgerald is in total control of both the band and the worshipful audience, and the adoration is well-founded. A medley of tunes from PORGY AND BESS is an early highlight, and a stretch of gorgeous standards, from a sprightly "Witchcraft" to a dazzling take on Juan Tizol's "Caravan," is topped by a wild version of the swing novelty "If You Can't Sing It You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)" and a politically interesting take on Brecht and Weill's subversive 'Mack the Knife.' Outstanding stuff." from CDUniverse.com.
Ella is accompanied by Lou Levy, piano; Wilfred Middlebrooks, bass; Gus Johnson, drums; Herb Ellis, guitar, except on track 10 ("Anything Goes") on which Ella is accompanied by the Oscar Peterson Trio: Oscar on piano, Ed Thigpen on drums; Ray Brown on bass.

1959
Oscar Peterson Trio
album: Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra

Notes : "Master pianist Oscar Peterson works the ivories in typically impressive fashion on this 1959 tribute to Frank Sinatra. Performing with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen, Peterson runs through 12 instrumental versions of songs made popular by Ol' Blue Eyes, including, naturally, faithful renditions of Sinatra signatures 'Witchcraft' and 'I Get a Kick Out of You.'

1979
Mark Murphy
album: Sings Mostly Dorothy Fields and Cy Coleman

2006
John Pizzarelli with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra
album: Dear Mr. Sinatra

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2006
John Pizzarelli with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra
album: Dear Mr. Sinatra

Over the years, "Witchcraft" has been performed and recorded by numerous artists. Some notable versions include Frank Sinatra's rendition, which became a hit in the late 1950s, and Ella Fitzgerald's swinging interpretation. The song has also been covered by contemporary artists like Michael Bublé and Diana Krall, keeping it alive and relevant to this day. The enduring popularity of "Witchcraft" can be attributed to its timeless appeal and the universal theme of love. Its catchy melody and clever lyrics continue to captivate audiences, making it a beloved song that is often performed in jazz clubs, concerts, and even on television shows and movies. In conclusion, the song "Witchcraft" is a classic jazz standard that has stood the test of time. Its enchanting lyrics, catchy melody, and playful wordplay make it a favorite among jazz musicians and listeners alike. Whether performed by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, or contemporary artists, "Witchcraft" continues to cast its spell and captivate audiences around the world..

Reviews for "The Witch and the Martyr: A Deeper Look at "Wutxhcsaft"

1. Emily - 2/5 stars - I really didn't enjoy "The Song Wutxhcsaft". The melody felt disjointed and chaotic, making it difficult to follow along. The lyrics were also confusing and didn't seem to have a clear message. Overall, I found it to be a very jagged and unpleasant listening experience.

2. Michael - 1/5 stars - "The Song Wutxhcsaft" was a complete mess. The production was all over the place, with clashing instruments that didn't seem to fit together. The vocals were off-key and lacked any kind of emotion. It felt like a poorly executed attempt at creating experimental music, but it just fell flat. I couldn't connect with the song at all.

3. Sarah - 2/5 stars - Unfortunately, "The Song Wutxhcsaft" did not resonate with me. The composition was erratic, with sudden shifts in tempo and style that made it difficult to find any sense of rhythm. The lyrics were also quite cryptic and didn't seem to convey a clear message. I appreciate artistic experimentation, but this song missed the mark for me.

4. David - 3/5 stars - While I can appreciate the unique approach of "The Song Wutxhcsaft", it didn't particularly resonate with me. The unconventional melody and structure made it challenging to follow along, and the vocals were a bit too experimental for my taste. However, I can see how this song might appeal to those who enjoy avant-garde or experimental genres. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

5. Jessica - 2/5 stars - "The Song Wutxhcsaft" lacked cohesion and direction. It felt like a mishmash of different musical elements without a clear purpose. The lyrics were also hard to decipher, and I found myself questioning the meaning behind them. Overall, I felt disconnected from the song and couldn't fully appreciate its artistic intent.

The Lure of Spellcasting: A Psychological Study of "Wutxhcsaft