Happy Birthday, Jeanette! Listen to her sing. Share your thoughts here…
Hard to believe but it was 109 years ago today that Jeanette MacDonald was born.
Listen to Dream Lover, her very first recording (except for a lost record made when she was a child). Then listen to Italian Street Song, one of her great solo numbers. When she sang it live in concert she would flabbergast audiences with how long she could hold the high note…and they would be cheering at the end!
Jeanette also introduced many of us to opera so here she is with Juliet’s Waltz Song from Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet. She sang excerpts from the opera in film and later starred in it for her live opera debut!
And.. Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life…listen to her first duet with Nelson Eddy. This song so captured 1935 movie audiences that Naughty Marietta became the sleeper hit of the year!
And of course, there is the song that will always be identified with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy…Indian Love Call.
As we remember her today, please leave a comment and share your thoughts or memories.
June 18, 2012 @ 4:05 pm
Happy Birthday to a wonderful singer and actress, woooooow 109 she would have been, what a gem
June 18, 2012 @ 4:26 pm
RIP Jeannette – you are singing with the angels now!!! My mom (86) turned me into a fan of Nelson & Jeanette — love the movies and the singing (I’m 58). I’m glad their CD’s and DVD’s are still available!!
June 18, 2012 @ 4:41 pm
Happy birthday to our wonderful Jeanette!! Thank you for all your music, all your talent and all the magic you gave to the world!! :))
June 18, 2012 @ 5:27 pm
I reached my seventies before I ever saw or heard Jeanette MacDonald or Nelson Eddy sing. I am an avid
reader (three books a week), yet I have never read anything that so moved me as SWEETHEARTS! I would
love to be able to discuss the book with a book club to get others opinions on the story. It is the saddest
story I have ever read!!
Jean Moore (moore.loyal@comcast.net)
June 18, 2012 @ 6:22 pm
Happy birthday, Jeanette! I am so thankful that your magnificent voice can still be heard today on CDs and movies, just as I saw and heard when I was a child 70 years ago in Philadelphis
Florence Dryer
June 18, 2012 @ 9:32 pm
Happy Birthday Jeanette, our beautiful angel!
June 19, 2012 @ 11:47 am
Happy Birthday our SWEETHEART never forgotten, listening to you and Nelson sing on cd its like you are both still here.
June 29, 2012 @ 12:08 pm
Happy Birthday, Jeanette, our beautiful lady with the magnificent voice. Your and Nelson’s movies were the only ones I ever wanted to see when I was a little girl living in Philadelphia. So glad that our aunts were friends.
July 4, 2012 @ 8:23 am
Birthday Remembrance for Jeanette
Another year without you
But we remember still
Your stunning, startling beauty
The sweetness of your trill
A vision, a dream, a movie queen
A fluttering butterfly
A will o’the wisp, floats in on a mist and captures our hearts with a sigh
As spirit goes to spirit, beyond our grasp you’ve gone
Yet alive to us as ever, as long as we hear your song.
Angela Messino