Helen O'Connell

Tangerine

Tangerine was originally a vocal duet hit for Helen O'Connell in her time with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. This version is from her 1951 Capitol Records sessions, though not in the end recorded and released. It is not a transcription, but a re-score of the Hal Mooney manuscript. Our only change is to augment the brass up to 8 voices from the original 7, and to score the vocal chart 'as sung' by Helen and Peter Marshall, including Helen's signature lyric changes - 'with mascara'd eye and chapeau by Dache...' . This is a boy / girl duet, with the boy taking the slow first chorus and the girl the second, up tempo chorus. The style and structure of the arrangement is based around the earlier Dorsey version, though without the instrumental tutti passage in the middle. The little alto sax solo which leads to the girl vocal is improvised. There are no sax doubles and the vocal keys are F (male) and C (female).