[piano intro] (cars rumble) (Carol breathes heavily) Are you the manager?

- I am.

What's going on?

- There's a documentary being produced about my life and my career.

These people are gonna follow me for a little bit.

-And you are who?

- Carol Sloane.

- Nice to meet ya.

- Thank you.

It's nice to meet you too.

- But I left my cane in a basket the other day.

- Okay.

- And so I called and the woman said, "Oh, we've got a lot of canes."

(Carol chuckles) - What color was it?

- It's gray on the top.

- [Mr. Connors] By any chance, do you have your name on it?

- No.

This one, let's see what this is.

- This one here with flowers on it?

- No, it wasn't that.

So maybe it's this one.

- That one there?

- This makes sense.

It's mine, it's mine, all mine.

- [Mr. Connors] All right.

- Thank you so much.

- You wanna get in my good side, right?

Fantastic.

- You're great.

- Can I ask you a question?

- Sure.

- Not to be the wrong way here, are you famous and I just don't know it?

- [Carol] Well, if you like Jazz, you might know who I am, but if you don't like Jazz, you might not know who the hell I am.

- I like Jazz.

I like Jazz, what instrument did you play?

- I sing.

- Oh, you were a singer?

- [Carol] I'm a singer and I'm going, yeah.

- Oh, fantastic.

(gentle music) (TV buzzes and audience applauds) - Now we would like to introduce our lady Ms. Carol Sloane.

(audience applauds and cheers) ♪ I know a place where dreams are born ♪ ♪ And time is never planned ♪ ♪ Just think of lovely things ♪ ♪ And your heart will fly on wings ♪ ♪ Never, Neverland ♪ ♪ It might be miles beyond the moon ♪ ♪ Or right there where you stand ♪ ♪ Just have an open mind ♪ ♪ And then suddenly you'll find ♪ ♪ Never, Neverland ♪ (audience applauds and cheers) (gentle music) - Carol Sloane is right in there with everybody you need to hear.

You know, all the greats.

(Carol scatting to lively Jazz music) ♪ Bet your bottom dollar ♪ ♪ You lose the blues in Chicago, Chicago ♪ - Carol's the tops as far as phrasing.

Of anyone, even all the people that you hear from Ella to Sarah.

♪ On State Street ♪ - Carol just has that buoyancy in her swing and it's never right in your face.

- There's a love in what she does.

You can hear that.

♪ Chicago's my hometown ♪ (lively Jazz music) (Carol scatting) ♪ My ship has sails ♪ - It's universal.

No matter who's listening, they get it and they understand the delivery is so exceptional that it touches anyone.

- You know, it isn't just having a voice because it's really what you do as an interpreter of that material.

What is now called "The Great American Songbook".

- She knows what she's singing about and she wants to communicate it to you.

I was a little kid in Los Angeles, did not know her, but I felt her singing to me.

- She just has a way of making every song sound like hers.

You have to stop and think, wow, did she write that?

♪ And the sun sits so high ♪ ♪ In a sapphire sky ♪ - And most importantly, she gives all of herself, all of her experience that she has lived into the lyrics.

She's telling you a story.

♪ Until it appears ♪ - [Speaker] Carol is one of the greats.

And there's really only one of her.

♪ When my ship comes in.

♪ ♪ You ready?

♪ (lively Jazz music) ♪ If they ask me ♪ ♪ I could write a book ♪ - She is a touchstone to the past.

She worked with and toured with the most amazing people, Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson.

Carol Sloane went on to fill in for Annie Ross at Lambert Hendricks and Ross.

She appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival, showed up regularly on "The Tonight Show".

- She was traveling with the Beatles.

And then she just went as one of the gang with both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

But she said, "Those were the guys who were gonna change the world, I wasn't."

- As incredibly gifted as she is, she didn't get her due.

- [Speaker] When you talk about the great pantheon of female Jazz singers of that era, it's Ella and it's Carmen and it's Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan and then there's Carol Sloane.

And it's always that "and then there's ... " - And she's not alone in this, but she and some of her peers are not going to be remembered by the mass public.

(calm music) - Home sweet home.

This is my garden.

(Carol scatting to lively Jazz music) There you are.

I'm just warming up the voice.

(Carol scatting to calm Jazz music) (Carol scatting to lively Jazz music) You're gonna follow me all over the place?

- [Michael] Oh, for the next two weeks.

- I can't wait for you to be on my side.

That'd be great.

Yeah, yeah.

♪ I've got you under my skin ♪ I can't believe that all the stuff I'm talking about qill hold anybody's interest for more than three minutes.

Okay, plug me in.

I don't believe you are here, I don't believe I'm doing this, I don't believe any of this is happening.

- [Technician] No pressure, Carol.

Now let me take another look at what it looks like on the camera.

- Take a look at this.

How's it look?

- Looks like an old lady to me.

- Oh.

- Oh, - it's... ♪ Got you under my skin ♪ ♪ I got you ♪ ♪ Got you ♪ - Are we ready to go back?

- Yeah, let's do it.

- Come on baby.

(calm music) I mean, I got quite a bit of a discovery.

- 30 something I think.

(calm music) I withdrew from an active pursuit of the career because of my husband's illness and he passed away in 2014.

(frame clanks) But when someone says, "When did you lose Buck?"

I say, "I didn't lose Buck, he's in the closet."

And I talk to him.

When I pass every so often, when I pass it, I just knock on the door and say, "How ya doin', Pop?"

I think he's back here.

I just need to put my hand back to see if he is.

No, he's not here.

Maybe he's up here.

No.

Well, you know, he's in here.

Hi, Pops, how you doing?

Let me tell you what just happened today.

I wish the hell you were here to help me get through this mess.

But anyway, he's in there and very comfortable too I might say.

He really is.

But after he passed, I just decided that I had a new chapter facing me.

So the opportunity to come back a little bit as I have in the past couple of years is really important to me.

- Would you please give a big Eugene O'Neill Theater Center welcome to Mike Renzi and Carol Sloane.

(audience applauds and cheers) (lively music) ♪ And when you're hot and hitting that spot ♪ ♪ The action might amaze you ♪ (audience laughs) But I haven't had a product since 2007.

So I really want one more album before I kick the bucket.

(glasses clank) And so this weekend coming is really, really important.

(calm music) We're recording a live performance.

(calm music) - A year ago, Carol said, "I can't get booked in New York.

Can you help me?"

And I said, "I'd like to try, sure."

So I called Gianni Valenti, who owns Birdland.

- I remember Oscar Peterson telling me that he thought that she was a wonderful singer.

And whenever her name came up, Oscar was always in the back of my mind going, "You gotta book her, Johnny.

That girl can sing."

So I contacted her and I said, you know, "Let's do this.

Let's do a live recording."

(lively music) Everyone knows about Birdland around the world.

If I say, oh, I'm at Birdland, they stop and listen.

- It means something to be in that room that is a continuing legacy named for one of the great Black Jazz musicians.

Every time I perform there, I'm aware of that.

- And that just makes you nervous too.

You know, can I keep up?

Can I produce what they expect?

I hope I can.

(lively music) - I've probably recorded close to 1,000 live shows in 50 years.

This is important.

I mean, she's part of the history of this music.

So this is very special and it's gotta be heard.

(calm music) (cup clinks) - After we do it this weekend, then we will figure out the next step, which is, how the hell do we get this out to the public?

The industry has changed so much.

I mean, you can't get a contract with a record label these days.

What I sing is old fashioned.

But you know, even if I don't have a chance, I really have got to record this time because it's important to me to prove that I can still do it.

I really just have always wanted to be considered one of the best.

I gained a reputation that I cherish and I want to make sure that people understand I'm still viable, I'm not too old and it's not too late.

(water rushes) (calm music) I had been singing since I was 14 years old.

My family all had really natural voices.

The church choir for a time was comprised mostly of my cousins and a couple of uncles and me I was a Catholic.

I went to church every Sunday.

I went to grade school with the nuns to be educated, but also to learn how to behave properly, how to be a good girl.

And when I was about 12, my parents gave me my own radio.

Late at night, I would hear the most amazing music.

(Sarah Vaughan scatting) I heard voices I'd never heard before.

I thought, where did this come from?

How did they find this music?

(lively music) Most of what I heard on radio in the daytime were white singers.

Bill Haley and the Comets and Elvis Presley coming along and I just, I wasn't-- nope.

He could keep his blue suede shoes.

I didn't want to have anything to do with it.

♪ Mama may have ♪ ♪ Papa may have ♪ - [Carol] I was listening to Black women singing.

♪ God Bless the child ♪ ♪ That's got his own ♪ - [Carol] And listening to their history, which came outta Black churches and the blues.

White singers didn't know anything about the blues.

- Oh, you don't know the blues?

Okay.

(audience laughs) - And also began to understand about improvisation.

You know, instead of being structured all the time.

(Carmen McRae scats) A Jazz singer does not sing the same song the same way twice ever.

This was my basis.

This was where I grew.

This was the ground in the soil that nurtured me and got me involved in Jazz.

(lively music) Well, I never felt any kind of resentment of any kind because I was a white woman.

In Jazz, it seems to me, it's whether or not you can do it.

- Jazz was absolutely a salve that for the people who embraced it, helped to bring racial harmony about.

So Jazz was the forum for real integration because that's a close relationship, personal and artistic.

- But to really play with something with some meaning and depth, I think that there is an inherent responsibility to honor it with at least the acknowledgement of where things have come from and what the history is to really understand it.

There's a reason that it's called the blues and there's a reason it sounds the way it sounds and makes you feel the way it makes you feel.

(Blues riff) But it also represents a celebration of joy inside my pain.

We take that bad and make something joyous out of it.

(lively Jazz music) To really do that though, one must necessarily fulfill their obligation to be a student.

(lively Jazz music) - I was determined to study, listen to them over and over again as often as I could.

The great quartet, as I like to call them, it's Carmen McCrae, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.

Those women were all working.

In retrospect, it was a goldmine.

It was simply astonishing that those people were accessible at the time.

I got really enchanted with these women and I wanted to know how they did it.

I wanted to be able to persuade people the way they were persuading me.

They had the magic power to do that.

I thought, if there's only some way I can touch some of that greatness ...

I was determined.

(Ella scats) That was the lightning strike.

Boy, it really was.

I knew what my destiny was and I was so young.

(Scatting) ♪ Lullaby of Birdland ♪ ♪ That's what I always hear ♪ ♪ When you sigh ♪ I dreamed of going to New York when I was 14 years old, 15 years old, I couldn't wait.

I'm gonna live someday in Manhattan.

Someday I'm going to live in New York City 'cause that's where it is.

That's where Birdland is.

(Scatting) There was some live broadcast from Birdland and I would hear the audience.

You'd hear laughter and you'd hear the clinking of glasses.

You know, something was happening that I wanted to be a part of and I could only do it by getting down there.

And in order to do that, I had to have some way to prove that I belonged there.

(lively music) I was married in 1955.

We were very young, so that was doomed to failure.

In 1957, I was singing in this little club and one night, a very large man said, "I'm the road manager for the Les and Larry Elgart Orchestra, and we're looking for a singer.

Someone sent me down here and said we should listen to you."

So I sang a couple of songs and Larry said, "How would you like to join the band?"

Uh-oh, ding, come to New York.

Bing.

The opportunity was here, here it was.

Now I'm gonna go to New York.

I was perfectly happy not to go to church on Sundays anymore.

(calm music) I was just coming fresh off of a divorce, my first marriage.

So when I went to New York, I had a really tiny one room little thing in the basement of a building.

(calm music) The guys in the band were very sweet to me and they were protective.

You know, I was a young woman and I was pretty cute at those days.

Not as cute as I am now, but I was still quite an innocent young woman.

I learned about how to deal with unexpected circumstances, which happens all the time on the road.

One nighters, whoa, tough times.

Staying in creepy hotels and not getting enough to eat.

But you know, it strengthens you for what's to come perhaps.

(lively Jazz music) At the time when I had joined the band, Larry hadn't settled on what name I should have.

My name had been Carol Van, which is an abbreviation of my maiden name, which is Morvan.

So he didn't like Carol Van.

And every night on the bandstand, I would either be Carol Smith or Carol Price or Carol Rogers or Carol Something.

And then I said, "Look, let's get one name we can all agree on.

And if you don't mind, I'm gonna suggest Sloane."

I just happened to see the name on a furniture store and I thought it looked good.

So I grabbed it.

And I think I'm the only one there is.

♪ Way back in my childhood ♪ ♪ I heard a story so true ♪ ♪ About a funny bunny stealing some food ♪ ♪ From the garden he knew ♪ John Hendricks heard me sing.

John Hendricks, Dave Lambert, and Annie Ross were the hottest thing going in Jazz.

John said to me, "Could you possibly consider taking Annie's place now and again, if she's unable to sing or can't make an engagement?"

I agreed to do this.

I thought, what have I got myself into?

(audience applauds and cheers) (lively Jazz music) (Carol scatters) John also was very instrumental in getting me a slot at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1961.

(lively Jazz music) Suddenly I was going to be at the most important venue.

Only the best of the best of the Jazz artists and singers.

(lively Jazz music) It was a Saturday afternoon.

By the time I got on the stage, most of the audience had disappeared and had gone back to the hotel.

And I thought, well, this is a hell of a way to make a debut.

- My colleagues, the other Jazz critics, Said, you know, "Who is this girl?

She must be a local, somebody doing somebody a favor."

So you know, the kind of gossip that goes on.

- [Announcer] It's a pleasure to present to you now a little gal who was local, but anyway, she's a good singer, Carol Sloane.

(audience applauds lightly) - I said to the piano player, "I want to sing 'Little Girl Blue'".

He said, "Okay, fine.

I know that."

I said, "I wanna do the verse."

He said, "Oh God, I don't know the verse."

I said, "Well, that's okay.

Just play an arpeggio in B flat and I will sing the verse acapella."

People didn't do that.

You didn't sing a verse acapella and be expected to be in tune when they got to the chorus.

- Well, she came out, she opened her mouth.

and the moment she did, we were all transfixed.

♪ When I was very young ♪ ♪ The world was younger than I ♪ How about that?

♪ As merry as a carousel ♪ ♪ The circus tent was strung ♪ ♪ With ever star in the sky ♪ ♪ Above the ring I love so well ♪ ♪ Now the young world has grown old ♪ ♪ Gone are the tinsel ♪ ♪ And gold ♪ What I didn't know, they were a small group from "The New York Herald Tribune", "The New York Times", "Downbeat Magazine", and "Columbia Records" who were there listening to every note I sang.

♪ Oh sit there ♪ ♪ And count the raindrops ♪ ♪ Falling on you ♪ - What impressed me was how good she was at getting into the essence of a song.

(audience applauds enthusiastically) - [Announcer] Carol Sloane.

- Thank you very much.

And when I finished, they sort of encircled me and said, "Young lady, do you know what you just did?"

And I said, "Yeah, I sang a song.

Yeah.

What?"

"You were in tune."

Wasn't I supposed to be?

I mean, I was so startled, but it was the beginning 'cause these guys wrote great reviews in important newspapers, which were read by everybody.

And within few weeks, I was offered a contract with Columbia Records.

- [Announcer] A star that is taking her first giant step forward and up.

Don't consider her local for much longer.

- I can't do much more of this.

I really can't.

'Cause I remember it so well.

I was at my first record date and I was scared to death.

It was an unreal debut for frightened young woman who felt she was way the hell out of her depths when she did that.

You just tore my heart out, you know that, Michael?

I haven't heard that woman's voice in a very long time.

(lively Jazz music) From there, I was asked to open for Oscar Peterson at the Village Vanguard.

He was a giant, he was a big man, but a giant in every other sense as well.

Pure luck, being in the right place at the right time, that was all that was.

- I would like to once again welcome one of the best singers in the business.

Let's welcome Carol Sloane, here she is.

♪ All the fellas that she can't get ♪ ♪ They're the fellas that she ain't met ♪ ♪ They named her, they claim her Georgia Brown ♪ - Carol very quickly established herself in the first class of female Jazz singers (lively music) (Announcer) Here's Johnny!

- [Johnny] Here is a gal opening our show tonight, one of the most musical, fine voices.

I mean that from the heart.

Would you welcome Ms. Carol Sloane.

- I was on that first 15 minutes.

I was called the Queen of the first 15.

I lived on 30-something street, NBC's on 50th Street, they'd call me and say, "Can you do the show tonight?"

"Yeah, I can."

- [Arthur] That's Carol Sloane.

Boy, is she good.

♪ They sigh they gotta die for Brown ♪ ♪ I'll tell you why ♪ - I was on a show with Streisand, but because I didn't pay attention to Broadway, I didn't know who she was.

I had no idea who she was.

She said to me, only, "How do you do that?"

I said, "You mean how I sing like that?"

And so I tried to explain to her what Jazz meant to me and whatever I said.

Many years later, I'm at my hairdresser in New York.

The word goes round, Barbra Streisand is there.

My hairdresser goes completely nuts.

She was by then THE Barbra Streisand.

I said, "I'm not gonna go bother her.

But I'll send her a note."

She returned the note to me and said, "Dear you, Carol, I remember you and that night very well.

I was so envious that you were going to California to do a TV show.

You sing and still sing great.

All best wishes to you always, Barbra."

Isn't that sweet?

I opened for Phyllis Diller.

I opened for Lenny Bruce.

Richard Pryor opened for me.

I mean, I had all those famous musicians I knew and also got to even work with.

♪ There was a gal from Georgia ♪ ♪ Whoo-Hoo ♪ (lively Jazz music) (audience applauds and cheers) Oscar Peterson called me once and he said, "You have to come to Washington because there's a big concert."

And it featured Ella Fitzgerald and her trio and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

The next night he takes me to meet Ella.

(Carol giggles) And she said to me, "Oh, I know who you are.

You're the one they say sounds just like me."

I said, "Oh God, what?"

It was too ridiculous, I was frozen.

And Oscar was just beaming and laughing behind my back.

(calm music) Coming through an airport with her was just lovely.

I was sitting beside her and I said, "Ella, is it possible after all these years that you could have a favorite song?

I mean, you've recorded just about everything."

She said, "Oh yeah, I have a favorite song, yes."

And she went, ♪ I have almost everything ♪ ♪ A human could desire ♪ ♪ Cars and houses, bear skin rugs to lie before my fire ♪ ♪ But there's something missing ♪ ♪ Something isn't there ♪ And she said to me, "Do you know it?"

I said, "Yeah, I do.

I sing it too.

I love it too."

And then we started to sing it together.

♪ I ♪ ♪ Want something to live for ♪ ♪ Someone to make my life ♪ ♪ An adventurous dream ♪ Now I'm thinking to myself, I'm sitting in an airport sitting beside Ella Fitzgerald and we are singing together.

I thought, what am I doing here?

You know what I mean?

I'm glad to be here, but maybe I don't deserve to be here.

Something in myself is saying, "You're not quite good enough to be doing this, you know?

You're not quite good enough yet.

You haven't got there yet and you may never get there."

I'm not certainly anywhere near the four women we've talked about.

That great quartet.

(calm music) I have the history.

I was walking around on the earth at the same time that all the hierarchy of the Jazz world were performing.

I was there.

I was surrounded by it and it was so healthy.

It was how I maintained my sanity.

And then suddenly, it went away.

(lively music and audience cheers) Let me tell you, I was at Shea Stadium when those four guys were out there and I saw what was happening.

I saw this pandemonium.

I saw this frenzy.

I saw thousands of people screaming for these four young men, frivolous and happy.

A man I knew was in the agency that booked their first tour.

- Bob Bonis already represented Count Basey and Benny Goodman.

And then it was Bob Bonis who was asked to manage the first three or so US tours for The Beatles and The Stones.

I also liked The Stones, they were pretty good.

I went to the Apollo Theater with the four of them.

They wanted to go to see BB King.

So they kinda snuck in thinking they'll never recognize 'em.

And I was sitting beside Mick and Keith, and you know, it got around the theater that they were there.

We had to leave.

So we're coming back downstairs, back out to the car.

By this time, that entrance is surrounded by young women who are really ready to tear their clothes off, including mine.

They would say, "Who are you?

Who are you?

What do you want?

What do you want?"

Throw me in the car.

Throw me in the car.

They jump in the car.

We even got bodies hanging off the car.

Somewhere on the planet, unless it's totally been destroyed, there's a picture of, I think Keith or Mick holding my first album up.

I mean, I wish I had that.

I don't know what happened to that photograph, but it got it be worth millions of dollars, to me anyway.

But I also knew they were signaling a very serious shift in music.

Jazz was gonna take a direct hit from these kids because not only were they coming, but others were gonna follow them.

- For a few years, there really was a question about Jazz surviving - Problem with Jazz in the '60s, Jazz was trying to legitimize itself.

It was associated with drugs and prostitution and brothels.

It was a bad word.

(lively music) Well, rock and roll was doing the opposite.

Rock and roll was like, no, we're rebellious.

They were trying to do each other's gig.

You know, that's what was going on.

(lively music) Pop music is always a sign of its society at the time.

Young people were simply trying to find their own way, trying to find their own music, trying to find something that wasn't mom and dad.

And the TV shows were how rock and roll washed over the country.

Technology's always the thing that drives this new disruptive force.

So suddenly you have whole groups and they're usually guys.

Well, that just crowds out the single woman who wants to just be a singer.

That's what closed down the Jazz clubs.

- I don't think she had the exposure that some of the other artists had.

She was on television, you know, frequently in that period, but she didn't make movies, she didn't have her own television situation.

- When I got "The Tonight Show", it came on air at 11:30 all over the country, but I went on at 11:15.

Not every market in the country took it.

Providence did, so my parents always saw me when I was on that first 15 minutes, but because I was in the first 15 minutes, I wasn't really star time.

And I never really had any representation.

And I'm not a kind of person who's a hustler.

I don't pick up the phone and say, oh, by the way, I'd like to work in your room.

And furthermore, I never got paid a lot of money for doing what I was doing.

Just to have a record company come to you and say, we're gonna record you, it was usually a two record deal and they'd pay you for the session and that was it.

Musicians never got royalties, I never got a royalty.

It's ridiculous, but we were willing to agree to those kinds of crazy terms because we had a product that was gonna get played on the air.

That might generate some work.

That was the sacrifice: no money, but maybe a gig.

Maybe a gig.

(Bass riff) You know, this time around at Birdland, I'm really not gonna come home with a lot of money in my pocket, but it's the way it always has been.

So there's nothing new for me.

This is an art form, you know, and art don't pay.

It's too bad, but art don't pay.

- But I mean, there's so many things that go into what we get paid.

You know, the realities of Black music in America and Black artists not getting what white artists often get in the same genre, historically and currently.

And you know, "girl singer", like that idea that we are not musicians.

So we don't necessarily get paid the same sometimes.

You have to decide what success means to you.

If it means a few houses and a private jet, then don't become a singer.

Like, don't do that.

But she so clearly knew who she was.

(calm music) - But in 1969, I didn't really know how I was gonna survive and I was the only one that had paid the rent.

And if I wasn't working, I didn't know where I was gonna get the money to pay the rent.

I mean, frequently I was on the verge of being evicted.

I mean, some serious stuff for a woman who's sitting all by herself.

(lively music) I had no idea that I would suddenly live in North Carolina.

What?

A freelance agent said, "This guy just opened this club down there in Raleigh, North Carolina, called The Frog and Nightgown."

Said "Raleigh, North Carolina.

They don't have Jazz down there, do they?"

He said, "Yeah, yeah.

His name is Peter Ingram and he plays the drums and he's British.

It's not great bread, but we can send you down and he'd love for you to come."

I didn't have anything else to do.

But when I was there, he was presenting major, major names.

The Modern Jazz Quartet, George Shearing, Teddy Wilson, Maxine Sullivan.

I mean, it wasn't golden time for Raleigh.

- When I first started working, people would continually ask me, "Have you heard Carol Sloane yet?"

It was a real education.

- However, I couldn't just live on whatever I was making at The Frog and Nightgown.

I was only working there maybe once every six weeks.

So I had taken a job as a legal secretary with Terry Sanford's office and I enjoyed that because they were progressive politicians.

So I had all of these wonderful people I was meeting.

I don't know, something persuaded me that I could just have a normal existence, be a legal secretary, go to work nine to five, come home, feed the cats, and that'd be my life.

And I stayed until at least '76 or '77, I think.

(calm music) - I don't, I get nervous as hell.

I forget to breathe, which is really not very good for a singer.

You sort of really have to breathe.

Then I don't really calm down until I've been on stage for about 10 minutes.

Plus, when I've got a back that's doing this, I really have to think a couple of times before I agree to go again.

It used to be just a nuisance, but now it's just kind of really troublesome.

- Oh, oh, I'm so sorry.

- It's okay.

- I'm so sorry.

- Nothing you can do about it.

I mean, I'm doing everything, physical therapy, acupuncture, cannabis, everything, and nothing is relieving the pain.

And I say to myself, "How the hell are you going to make the trip to New York?

Go to Mark's, get a shower, get a sound check, get makeup, and do a show at seven o'clock and expect to be fresh as a daisy?"

I don't think so.

And yet I've got to touch base with all the people who are kind enough to come to see me.

And there are people traveling from Chicago and San Francisco and Japan.

Plus, you know, I've got this documentary.

Here you all are making my voice get croaky.

All of that to get to that moment when the light is on you.

But I've got wonderful musicians and that helps so much.

(lively Jazz music) Because I know that the piano player in this case, Mike Renzi, who's one of the world's best.

Mike is never going to let me down.

- [Mike] Do I smell a Sloane?

- [Carol] Let me have your hand.

- Oh, what, we getting married?

Let me have your hand.

Let me have your hand in marriage.

- [Carol] Well, I know I don't wanna marry you.

- What?

- You don't wanna marry me.

- She could do worse.

Let's get a key on "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams".

- [Carol] Okay.

- I think it's C, but I'm not sure.

(lively music) ♪ When skies are cloudy and gray ♪ Yes, you're right.

♪ They're only gray for a day ♪ ♪ Wrap your troubles in dreams and dream your troubles away ♪ Mike knows so many songs.

Never says, "I don't know that song."

Never says that.

- [Michael] Wow.

- He played for Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Jack Jones, Tony Bennett.

I mean, he just has an endless parade singers who really want him because he has a reputation for being so sensitive to the singer he's playing for.

He just knows how much to play, how much to leave out, how much help you need, and how much you don't need help.

♪ You got to wrap your troubles in dreams ♪ ♪ And dream your troubles away ♪ Um-uh, yeah, Mike, yeah.

- Okay.

- That's beautiful.

You're so good.

- Okay.

(lively music) (calm music) There is no such thing as an easy song to sing.

There isn't.

You chose it because it says something to you, about love and loss.

Jazz singing is so personal, it's a very intimate conversation in a way.

It's really, I'm gonna tell you this story and I'm gonna tell it to you very quietly, but it's gonna have so much impact.

And it's to be able to convey to the audience that I have been through this.

I can still remember the heartbreak and I can tell you that it's right here where it was when it was fresh.

And somehow, I've survived.

♪ From every single window ♪ ♪ I see your face ♪ (calm music) Unless you've known it, how can you explain it to somebody?

Unless you've actually had your heart torn out and somebody stomped on it after it came outta your body.

You know?

Ira Gershwin said it so beautifully: "This is the story I lived."

And so if someone hears me sing and says to me, "I absolutely was riveted and I've heard this song a million times, and somehow what you did with it persuaded me that I couldn't move, that I was so involved with you telling me that story."

That's the gold right there.

- We all have relationships with music and we have relationships with stories.

And in the case of vocalists, they pick a song or a song picks them and they choose to sing it and share it in a way that is theirs.

When you hear Carol Sloane love a song, love a melody, it's clear those words mean something to her.

And she is giving you every little bit of everything she's got while she's singing these songs.

- She's keeping me on that journey with her.

Throughout the whole song, 'til after the last note.

(calm music) That's the artistry of it, of Carol Sloane.

(audience applauds and cheers) (lively music) - When I was still living in North Carolina, the famous Jimmy Rowles was playing piano.

So I went in there and the club owner Bradley said, "You gotta sing."

And I said, "You know, I came to hear Jimmy."

But Bradley persisted.

So I stood up and went over to the piano.

(calm music) And Jimmy said to me, "What do you wanna sing?"

I said, "I wanna sing, 'My ship'."

♪ My ship's aglow ♪ ♪ With a million pearls ♪ [Carol] "My Ship" is in the score of "Lady in the Dark".

It was this lovely longing for something that was gonna really be significant in that person's life.

♪ The sun sits so high in a sapphire sky ♪ [Carol] So she sings "My Ship."

Someday my ship will come in.

♪ When my ship comes in ♪ (calm Jazz music) And he told me later, "I fell in love with you the moment you start singing."

He fell in love with me when he heard me sing "My Ship".

And then I felt sufficiently refreshed to come back and face New York City.

(lively music and audience applauds) - Carol and Jimmy had worked so well together artistically and Jimmy was an extraordinary talent.

- [Carol] He played for the best singers.

He played for Sarah, he played for Lady Day.

- [Gary] He played for Ella Fitzgerald.

- [Carol] He played for Ella.

- [Gary] He now plays for Carol Sloane.

- [Carol] Yes, the woman who washes his socks.

(Carol giggles) - [Dan] What was going on personally?

It was a stormy relationship and it had to do a lot of was Jimmy's drinking.

(sad music) - [Carol] He was impossible to live with because all he wanted to do was to drink and then if there wasn't any drink in the house, he would get dressed and leave the house and just be gone.

And then I wouldn't see him for a few days.

And I really was stuck because I had no place else to go.

And I had no one to go to, to say, "Can you please help me?"

I didn't have anybody.

(sad music) And it seemed I couldn't do anything to reinvigorate my own career.

And it began to take over and consume my days.

It was no phone calls.

Essentially I was disappearing.

People completely forgot that I was even around.

(sad music) I felt ashamed and I thought, I mean, I'm to blame.

I got myself in this mess somehow and I should be able to get myself out of it.

That's what I was always taught when I was growing up.

You made your own bed, so you lay in it.

It's your fault.

So I took a whole bottle of sleeping pills.

(sad music) Jimmy realized that I really did it and I had taken all those pills.

I don't know what he'd have done because he was out of his noodle anyway.

So he called the wife of a colleague of his and the next thing I knew, she was standing over me.

I don't remember getting to the hospital and I don't remember much of anything except that I slept very solidly for two days.

(siren wails) (light clicks) It's painful for me now to even tell you about that.

I had done it.

I mean, if he hadn't called that woman, I don't know.

She did snatch me from the jaws of oblivion.

And I really believed that with some kind of a message.

Some good spirit was giving me the courage to go on.

I came across this just the other day.

This is from Albert Camus: "Don't just wait for a man to come along.

Find your happiness in yourself.

The most important thing you do every day you live is deciding not to kill yourself."

(waves rustle) (sad music) But there was a long period where I was by myself and that meant disaster financially.

So I actually interviewed at a law firm in Boston and they actually hired me.

I was going to start in two weeks time.

Got a phone call from a man named Stephen Barefoot.

He said, "Listen, I'm opening this wonderful club.

It's gonna be called Stephen's, After All.

Can you come down and help me?"

- When I called her about actually becoming my partner at Stephen's, I didn't know anything about booking Jazz.

I was a bartender.

- [Carol] I called the law office and said, guess what?

Find somebody else for that slot 'cause I think I'm moving again.

(lively music) - Had it been me by myself at Stephen's, I can't guarantee that any of those people would've ever so readily said yes because all it took was Carol Sloane getting on the phone and calling them at home and saying, you gotta come down here.

- [Carol] Oh, what a dream place that is.

What he's got there is my dream.

I mean, I would have dark blue tablecloths, but everything else is a clone of my dream of what a club is supposed to look like and what it's supposed to present.

There isn't any way it can fail.

It cannot.

(lively music) -[Richard] Would you welcome, please Ms. Carol Sloane.

- [Stephen] Carol would be there for all the performances, greeting people at the door and sitting at the bar and sometimes just could not stop herself from joining in.

- [Paul] I've got a good one.

- [Carol] Have you got a good one?

- Yeah.

- Alright.

- [Paul] If you remember the words.

(audience laughs) - There would just be these moments between these artists.

♪ We'll turn Manhattan ♪ ♪ Into a land of joy ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ - It was just magic and they happened to be one night and they'll never happen again, but people got amazing experiences and we were sold out every night for Carol Sloane.

- [Stephen] It's about time she had somewhere decent to work.

Ms. Carol Sloane.

(audience applauds) - [Carol] I think Carnegie Hall and Stephen's, After All, are the two finest rooms I've ever worked in my life, and I'm not joking.

So there.

It was a very painful decision to close.

It was a club who was living paycheck to paycheck essentially.

When it was a major name, you would be filled and you would be sold out.

But if it was a less than major name, then you were gonna have empty tables.

(car rumbles) To see what all of these people had touched go was hard.

Besides my own memories, this is Stephen's on the wall and a lot of these people are, are gone now.

- [Carol] When that whole thing started to deflate for the Jazz community particularly, I went into the doldrums like a lot of people did.

And I even played with the idea in the '80s and '90s that I would quit.

I just didn't wanna do it anymore, I was done.

(calm music) ♪ You might as well surrender ♪ - [Stephen] And she lived here with me in my house for a few months.

- I remember Carol as being very alone and sort of nowhere to turn.

I mean, it's just that, the story of her life, the up and downs and up and downs and the downs go very far.

(calm music) - Just a little, like one inch more.

- This way?

- Just push it this way towards me, one inch.

No, no, no, yeah.

I think that's good.

Oh God.

Oh, oh.

Oh.

I mean, how the hell am I gonna do it this weekend?

I have no idea.

I have no idea.

Pavarotti used to come out of his dressing room and as he walked to the stage to go on, he used to say, "I'm going to die".

Very dramatically, "I'm going to my death.

I'm going to die."

Most of the 1980s, I lived alone.

Usually, to be perfectly honest, I had enough money to buy cat food and a bottle of scotch.

You know, and that's how I got along.

I mean, I wasn't eating, I was drinking.

And then eventually, of course my phone was shut off and I thought, well, the electricity is gonna go next.

And I just picked it up for some reason, I just picked up the phone and there was a dial tone and I couldn't believe it.

(calm music) I called Boston.

I called a man named Buck Spurr because he was running a club.

Even though he didn't have an immediate date for me, at least the tunnel suddenly had a light at the end of it.

Somebody was telling me something: "If you're going through hell, keep going."

"If you're going through hell, keep going!"

And I did.

And sure enough, the phone was off on Monday after the weekend.

(calm music) He was running a room in Boston called The Starlight Roof, which was then located in the top floor of a Howard Johnson's.

In fact, the room itself was staring flat at the Citgo sign.

Bing, great room.

Then I was getting some gigs in New York and he would come to New York to be with me, just to be in the room.

And he was a sensitive, sweet, loving, caring man.

He loved country western music.

And I'd say, "Listen, I'm sorry, but you know, if you're gonna play this, put the earphones on 'cause I don't want to hear this stuff."

- [Camera Operator] What can I say?

I love country music.

I got a bell buckle that says so.

- I understand it.

But there are other, you know?

- [Camera Operator] Hey listen, I've got plenty of Miles Davis records.

Got tons of Thelonious-- Which you never listen to.

- [Camera Operator] I do not.

No.

(calm music) -[Daryl] He surprised her.

She knew this was serious.

No more little girl blue.

(calm music) - We got married in that room, at The Starlight Roof.

The minister was telling us, you know, "Do you take this woman?"

All that stuff.

And I'm looking at the Citgo sign.

Very romantic.

(calm music) (lively Jazz music) ♪ Oh and ladies, so nice to be coming home ♪ ♪ To your piece so nice ♪ ♪ By the fire ♪ I got very lucky here in the last two or three years and it's all because I turned age 50 and I got married.

Now this and travel again to Japan and lots of work is coming now.

- I would say Carol got used to recording an album every year or two when she was with Concord Records and Carl Jefferson.

- She got very popular in Japan.

♪ You'd be so nice ♪ ♪ You'd be paradise to come home to ♪ ♪ And [scatting] to come home to ♪ (Carol scatting) ♪ You'd be so nice ♪ ♪ To come home to and love ♪ (dramatic Jazz music) So I feel it's gonna be very good now.

It's on the right track.

(audience applauds) Don't tell me that love lasts forever.

And young people really believe it's true.

Love lasts forever.

No, it doesn't.

(Carol laughs) I mean it really doesn't.

He had his first heart attack about six months after we got married, but he survived that.

Then he was diagnosed with colon cancer and then he had an operation for that.

Then the cancer returned and then came the first signs of dementia.

♪ Fairytales ♪ ♪ Are for the young ♪ So I really had to say, no, I'm not gonna accept any invitations to sing.

I was caring for my life partner.

I wasn't gonna abandon the man.

He was growing more and more dependent on me.

I watched him not able to tell me what he wanted for lunch.

If I said, "You can have toast or you can have a boiled egg or I'll make you a sandwich, do you know what you want?"

He'd just look at me.

It was almost as if he didn't know what a sandwich was.

The last thing he said to me, he said, "I hope I see my father."

You know, I don't believe in all this stuff, but I really hope that Buck saw his father again.

I really do.

♪ And I'm left with reality ♪ ♪ And half my heart ♪ (sad music) (seagulls) -[Carol] So after my husband died in 2014, I was hovering near 200 pounds.

And for about a year, I had to look at myself and say, "Are you going to get serious about your life?"

Bill Charlap told me that if I didn't go back to singing, I was committing a sin, neglecting my gift.

And he was absolutely right; you're neglecting your gift.

That's the greatest sin.

♪ But oh my dear ♪ ♪ However far away I flew ♪ ♪ No matter where I travel to ♪ ♪ I never went away from you ♪ ♪ I never went away ♪ (calm music) ♪ Whenever I would lose my way ♪ - She hasn't sung with and hung with him, is certainly counted above the best in the business.

Ms. Carol Sloane.

(audience applauds) ♪ And you'd be there beside me ♪ - It really is a matter of reaching the age of 82 and looking back and saying, okay, it's not gonna be a piece of cake.

You have to do certain things and you will because you've done it before, so you can do it again.

There's no one around to tell me that I can do it unless I tell myself that.

♪ I never went away ♪ (calm music) Jazz is struggling for its existence.

I don't wanna see it die.

Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going.

See how far you can go with it.

(calm music) And it was one of the reasons I decided to conduct some vocal workshops.

I wanna put them on a path to respect for the composer and really going back and singing the songs from "The Great American Songbook".

They cannot be neglected.

-[Carol] This is your expression and your interpretation of this lyric.

And if you use that space effectively, the audience goes, "Oh God, oh wow."

So you have to understand that if you are there in that light, you're privileged.

Some group of people are assembled 'cause they want to hear you sing.

(calm music) - It's a particularly poignant thing for me to have the opportunity to have Carol come to Duke.

You're standing in a room and you're looking at a Duke Ellington composition and I'm thinking now, as a musician, I picked this song for my students because I want to help them understand how they need to approach it.

And to then look to my left and see Carol sitting there who can just say, "Well, we did it this way."

You know?

- Now I've seen Ella Fitzgerald pacing backstage, I'm so nervous, I'm so nervous.

I'm saying to myself, "My God, this is Ella Fitzgerald and she's nervous."

- So she can give us all those perspectives.

- Those of you who really want to be musicians as a career, you know, where are you gonna take it?

(calm music) If you wanna stick with it, if you really wanna stick with it, your heart will gladden, your heart will expand.

(lively music) (everyone laughs) - It will keep you alive, even when you haven't got a penny to pay the rent.

Mozart, Miles, Ellington, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson, they'll all keep you alive.

♪ I never went away ♪ (calm music) (truck rumbles) (calm music) I think all of us think, how much longer have I got to live and enjoy friends and everything that life gives us?

A good meal, a good movie, a good laugh, a good journey.

Feeling, yeah, I'm doing what I was put here to do and I'm doing that.

Brady went in.

Did Brady go in to do it?

Brady went in.

Oh God.

Yippee.

I mean, that's it.

That's the best.

Oh, oh, oh, ho ho hoo.

Yee-hoo - You know what you need, Carol?

What I'm gonna have.

- Yeah, I know it.

We're both gonna have one.

- A martini, kiddo.

- Damn straight.

(Mike chuckles) When Renzi makes a martini, it is a work of art.

- [Mike] You're gonna love them.

- You know what, we have put together one hell of a set.

This is going to kill everybody, including me.

(shaker clanks) Shake it, love it.

- Here you go, my dear.

(glasses clink) Carol, he's to a great performance.

- My darling.

- A great recording with Scott Hamilton, who's great, and Jay Leonhart, who's great.

- And Mike Renzi, who's great.

- I'm doing what I usually do.

- Accompanying a great singer.

♪ I'm having myself a time.

♪ (calm Jazz music) - You are not gonna get better writing than what we call now "The Great American Songbook".

Great interpretations of those songs will never die.

- And somebody who really does justice to all that, like Carol does, is also going to remain as one of the primary examples of what you can do with this.

She has remained true to herself.

She hasn't gone off in, you know, some fashionable direction.

If you're an artist, what you're expressing comes from inside, you know?

It sounds like a cliche or whatever, but it's really true.

It stays there as long as you're alive.

- I mean, it sounds silly, but what I want to hear is, "Ms. Sloane, the house is SRO."

And then when I finish my set, I want vigorous applause and an ovation, a standing ovation that I deserve, not because it's the fashion to do it, but because I really did earn it.

That's what I want.

What time is it now?

And you all are gonna go?

- [Michael] It's like 7, 7:30.

I was gonna ask if there's one other thing we could do...

This would be more of a pre-bedtime routine.

- Michael, who the hell gives a **** what I do when I get up?

That's done.

-I think we just need some action.

- No we don't.

No, you're wrong.

We don't need that action.

We don't need that action.

What's so special about that?

I'm just an ordinary person going to bed.

Right now, all I wanna do is shut this damn thing down, say goodnight to all of you and thank you very much and I'll see you tomorrow.

All I know is I'm starting to feel this compression.

I'm starting to feel the walls closing in.

I should not be talking.

- [Michael] Then let's call it a night.

I think that's a great idea.

- That's exactly what we're gonna do.

- Alright.

- Okay.

- Alright.

- Thank you, good night.

(crickets chirp) - [Carol] Having to do all this is kind of making me nervous.

- [Crew Member] You can sit down if you need to.

- [Carol] I do need to.

Let's go get ready, what time is it?

- [Michael] It is 12:51.

- Come with me, somebody who's not holding a camera.

(zipper zips) Good.

Right.

And that goes over that.

- Great.

- Wonderful.

That's good.

If I've forgotten something, I've forgotten something.

I'll have to go on stage wearing tennis shoes.

Lights are going out, guys.

(frenetic jazz drums) I just wanna get from A to B as quickly as can and go to sleep.

(frenetic jazz drums) Breathe now, come on.

Calm down, breathe.

I'm talking to myself.

(frenetic jazz drums) (car horn hoots) -[Carol] I'm filled with every kind of negative feeling there can be: I'm gonna fall flat on my face, my voice is gonna fail me, and I'm gonna look like ****.

I am absolutely terrified.

- Oh, hi, hello Stephen.

- I'm your doorman.

- [Carol] How are you?

(cars rumble) (Carol sighs) Hello, hello everyone.

-[Gianni] Oh my God, baby, hi baby.

- [Carol] There's my darling, hello.

- We did it, we did it, we did it, we did it, we did it.

- [Carol] Okay I'm gonna get some water and just sit down.

- [Gianni] Okay, you know where to go.

(lively music) - [Carol] I felt exactly this way last night.

- [Eric] Yeah?

- Yeah and I felt tired, I felt - my legs were sore.

- [Eric] The minute you get up there and get in the groove, - [Carol] Something happens.

-[Eric] it transforms.

♪ When glamour girls have lost charms ♪ ♪ When sirens just mean false alarms ♪ ♪ When lovers head no call to arms ♪ ♪ Will you still be mine?

♪ - [Eric] There's more on that side.

- There's more on that side.

This is what, oh.

- Let me see.

You know, if I didn't love you, I would kill you.

- I know.

(lively Jazz music) - Have fun.

- Yeah, it's quite high on this side.

- No, I think it's higher on the other side.

We always have this conversation.

- No, no, it really is.

(both laugh) Stupid.

(Carol laughs) All right, we're getting there.

♪ When all the Crosby's disappear ♪ ♪ Milwaukee stops producing beer ♪ ♪ When man come back from atmosphere ♪ ♪ Will you still be mine ♪ (chattering) - [Gianni] Where's Carol?

(chattering) -[Gianni] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to Birdland.

(audience applauds and cheers) Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us.

Please welcome Ms. Carol Sloane.

(audience applauds and cheers) - I thank you very much on behalf of Jay Leonhart, Mike Renzi and our special guest, Scott Hamilton.

Yeah.

(audience applauds and cheers) ♪ When skies are cloudy and gray ♪ ♪ They're only gray for day ♪ ♪ You gotta wrap your troubles in dreams ♪ ♪ And dream your troubles away ♪ ♪ Until the sunshine peeps through ♪ ♪ There is only one thing to do ♪ ♪ You got to wrap yours troubles in dreams ♪ ♪ And dream yours troubles away ♪ (lively Jazz music) (audience laughs) (lively Jazz music) ♪ Just remember that sunshine ♪ ♪ Always follows the rain ♪ ♪ Wrap your troubles, wrap your troubles ♪ ♪ Wrap your troubles in dreams ♪ (Carol scatters) ♪ And dream your troubles away ♪ (lively Jazz music) (audience applauds) Mike Renzi, yeah.

♪ I know the Deep Blue Sea ♪ ♪ will soon be calling me ♪ ♪ It must be love, say what you choose ♪ ♪ I gotta right ♪ ♪ To sing the blues ♪ (calm Jazz music and audience applauds) ♪ I got a right to sing the blues ♪ (calm Jazz music) (audience applauds and cheers) I'm glad you like that 'cause I haven't got another high note in me.

That's the last one.

This, I really want to sing this to you because it means so much to me.

And it may speak to some of you if you're as old as I am.

And nobody in the house is old as I am, eh?

Anybody in the house as old?

The song was written by Johnny Mendel, composer.

The lyrcist, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and Franklin Underwood, who happens to be in the room this evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Franklin, where is he?

There you are.

Hi, Honey!

So happy to see you!

I'm so glad you're here.

I've always wanted you to be in the room when I sing this song.

♪ When I was young, the world was full of treasures ♪ ♪ And every star was shining just for me ♪ (calm music) ♪ So many prizes ♪ ♪ So many pleasures ♪ ♪ All my tomorrows still to be ♪ ♪ But as the saying goes ♪ ♪ Time can fly so fast ♪ ♪ The bud becomes the rose ♪ ♪ And roses never last ♪ ♪ But I'll always leave the door ♪ ♪ A little open ♪ ♪ I love to feel the breeze that passes by ♪ ♪ And though my dreams are few ♪ ♪ Unlikely to come true ♪ ♪ I'll always leave my heart a little room to fly ♪ ♪ I'll always hold the day ♪ ♪ A little closer.

♪ ♪ There'll always be another song I wanna sing ♪ ♪ And so I'll never care if winter's in the air ♪ ♪ I know I'll always see a sign of spring ♪ (calm music) ♪ And when I see that sign ♪ ♪ Will I close the door again ♪ ♪ Be alone once more again ♪ ♪ In my cozy shell?

♪ ♪ And when I taste the wine ♪ ♪ Will I drink my fill again ♪ ♪ Start to feel the thrill again ♪ ♪ And surrender to the spell?

♪ ♪ Yes, I'll always leave the door ♪ ♪ A little open ♪ ♪ 'Cause that's the only way I know I can survive ♪ ♪ Believing that's a chance ♪ ♪ For more the just romance ♪ ♪ Believing that it's wonderful ♪ ♪ It's magical, it's beautiful ♪ ♪ Believing ♪ ♪ It's good to be alive ♪ Thank you all.

(audience applauds and cheers) (audience applauds and calm music) (calm music continues) (calm music continues) ♪ My ship has sails ♪ ♪ That are made of silk ♪ ♪ The decks are trimmed with gold ♪ - You killed me today.

You killed me.

♪ My ship's aglow ♪ (guests chattering) ♪ When my ship comes in ♪ - [Carol] Oh.

♪ One fine day one spring ♪ ♪ I do not care ♪ - Where's Stephen?

-Do you know where Stephen is?

Stephen Barefoot.

- [Crew] Somebody get a picture of us?

- You sang everything I love and you sang it so beautifully.

I love you, Carol.

♪ If the ship I sing ♪ ♪ Doesn't also bring ♪ ♪ My own, true love ♪ (calm music) ♪ I know a place ♪ ♪ Where dreams are born ♪ (calm music) (audience applauds and cheers) ♪ We'll have Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, too ♪ ♪ It's lovely going through the zoo ♪ -[Carol] Oh, this is nostalgia time, isn't it?

♪ It's very fancy ♪ ♪ On old Delancy Street, you know ♪ ♪ The subway charms us so ♪ ♪ Where balmy breezes blow ♪ ♪ To and fro ♪ ♪ And tell me what street compares with Moth street in July ♪ ♪ Sweet push carts gently gliding by ♪ ♪ The great big city's a wondrous toy ♪ ♪ Just made for a girl and boy ♪ ♪ We'll turn Manhattan into an Isle of joy ♪ ♪ We'll have Manhattan ♪ ♪ We'll have Gibsonville ♪ ♪ The Bronx and Staten Island ♪ ♪ Elon College and Graham and Burlington too ♪ (audience laughs) ♪ Lovely going through ♪ ♪ The zoo ♪ ♪ It's lovely going through ♪ ♪ Asheboro zoo with you, ah-ha ♪ ♪ Very fancy ♪ ♪ Go into Hillsborough ♪ ♪ Carrboro, Pittsboro ♪ ♪ Tarboro, Rocksboro ♪ ♪ Greensboro, Goldsboro ♪ ♪ And I'd like to say to all those boros, welcome ♪ (everyone laughs and applauds) ♪ The city charmer ♪ ♪ Oh yeah, great big joy ♪ ♪ You better ♪ ♪ Just made for a girl and boy ♪ ♪ We'll turn Manhattan into a land of joy ♪ ♪ Whoa ♪ ♪ We'll turn Manhattan into a land of joy ♪ (lively music) ♪ Oh yeah ♪ (audience applauds)