Rufus Wainwright does SJI ... or The Unfortunate Rake?

There are so many interpretations of SJI. So many.

I am planning to post a few recent variations, starting with Rufus Wainwright. This song was recorded in 1998, part of his first album but excluded from it and re-introduced on a 25th anniversary CD.

Rufus creates a link between The Unfortunate Rake and SJI. He mixes them together as a kind of gumbo, combining lyrical touches from SJI and Streets of Laredo. Mostly, though, it's The Unfortunate Rake that he references.

The song starts:
"Early one morning at the St. James Infirmary
Early one morning in the month of May
I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen
Wrapped in white linen, and as cold as the clay"

And later:
"Call for the doctor, come and heal my body
Call for the preacher to heal up my soul
For my poor head is aching and my sad heart is breaking
I'm a poor, rundown cowboy and hell is my doom"

Aside from the name of the institution (St. James Infirmary rather than St. James Hospital), this is pretty well The Unfortunate Rake - and nothing in this version, or any other version of The Unfortunate Rake, makes me think of SJI - either lyrically or melodically.

He delivers a good song.

This is not surprising: he is always brightly original, sparkling, in both his own compositions and his interpretations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmx20WwNOtA

Tony Bennett's first recording: St. James Infirmary

Tony Bennett in the U.S. Army, 1945.
(TonyBennett.com)

Tony Bennett, who died today at 96, made his first recording seventy-seven years ago:

After a distinguished career in the army (and a short-lived demotion for eating in a restaurant with a black friend, after which he was put on gravedigging detail), Tony Bennett recorded his first song. This was "St. James Infirmary," made in 1946. The song was on a V-disc, for American troops, and never released in the U.S. George Tannenbaum explains what V-discs are:

"V-discs were recordings done for American soldiers during World War II. Because there was a musicians strike in the U.S. at the time, V-discs were recorded but they never went on sale in the States. They were only for our overseas troops. Most of the records never came home and the masters of the recordings weren't treated with any special reverence. So for years it was rare to get a hold of a V-Disc recording--especially a rare one."

You can read about his army career here.

Bennett became Grandmaster of the Great American Songbook, a superb stylist whose recording history extended from 1952 ("Because of You") to 2021 ("Love for Sale," with Lady Gaga).

We miss you, Tony!

You can listen to the 1946 SJI here:

And here's a more contemporary version, from 1994: