“I’M SORRY I MADE YOU CRY” AND “JAZZ HANDLING”

Abstract

This is the first of six chapters tracing how waltzes often became performed as duple-meter tunes, inflected with jazz style, via the collective innovation of performance tradition. This chapter is an introduction to the Americanization of the waltz, listing both exuberant and wistful early examples. Also, the term importunate is defined in relation to the corpus. The discussion then focuses on “I’m Sorry I Made You Cry” (Nick J. Clesi, 1916), the earliest waltz with a well-documented career in both three-four and four-four meters, setting the model for waltzes becoming re-inscribed as fox trots. From New Orleans, recorded by early jazz bands, printed in a pioneering “jazz fox trot” edition, it also acted as an expression of masculinity. The music and lyric are analyzed for their dramatic effects, including in recordings by Frank Sinatra and many others. The lyric was foundational to a long line of later songs begging romantic reconciliation.