Honeysuckle Rose (1941) User Reviews

Fats Waller's Honeysuckle Rose was another of those Soundies I enjoyed on YouTube

[tavm · 8/10 · 20 July 2011]

This is another Soundie I watched on YouTube. In this one, Fats Waller is at the piano with a bunch of pretty female dancers, one of whom that sits next to him at the keys is Vivian Brown. He tells her he needs no sugar since she's that and more to him as he implies by the title song. There's also a guitar solo by a male band member but he's not identified anywhere in the YT comments. Waller himself wrote the melody. He's quite the entertainer here and it's great to see many of his performances in these "music videos" from the '40s since he'd pass away a few years later. This was one of many that appeared on Panorams (film jukeboxes) that was displayed in various restaurants, bars, and train or bus stations during this decade. Nothing more to say except this musical short is well worth a look for anyone interested in these sort of things.

Perfection, Goodness Knows

[boblipton · 9/10 · 8 July 2023]

Fats Waller plays and sings his best known song, while his backup band, including Al Casey on the guitar, get in a few licks, and a bevy of beauties dance in this soundie.

Soundies were short films, about three minutes in length. The were meant to be played on a machine called a Mills Panoram, a video jukebox that was typically to be found in bars, lounges, and similar venues. You put a dime in and got a performance from the ten on the machine. The movies would be changed weekly, and from 1940 through 1946, Mills and other companies produced more than two thousand soundies.

There are few songwriters/performers who compare to Waller.