Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters started as a blues singer, but over the years expanded her repertoire to include jazz and popular songs. She also became a dramatic actress. She also appeared on Broadway and vaudeville, and in movies and TV. She was born in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1900, and moved to New York in 1917, where she worked in vaudeville. She started working with Fletcher Henderson in 1921, the year that she made her first record. She performed in the stage musicals Plantation Revue, Hello, Africana, Blackbirds of 1930, Rhapsody in Black, As Thousands Cheer, At Home Abroad, Cabin in the Sky, and An Evening with Ethel Waters, and in the Broadway dramas Mamba's Daughters and Member of the Wedding. She also appeared in the movies On With the Show, Check and Double Check, Gift of Gab, Tales of Manhattan and Cairo, Cabin in the Sky, Stage Door Canteen, Pinky, and The Sound and The Fury. She performed in the television drama Beulah for one season. Over the years, she recorded with many great musicians and bandleaders, including Clarence Williams, James P. Johnson, Fletcher Henderson, Lovie Austin, Tommy Ladnier, Don Redman, Coleman Hawkins, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Ben Selvin, Frank Signorelli, Benny Goodman, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Duke Ellington, Bunny Berigan, and Benny Carter. Late in her life, she became associated with the evangelist Billy Graham. She was a model for other singers, including Mildred Bailey and Lena Horne.

Take What You Want

J. C. Johnson wrote Take What You Want, probably in 1926. He also wrote or co-wrote Dusky Stevedore; Guess Who's in Town; Do What You Did Last Night; The Joint Is Jumpin'; Louisiana; Don't Let Your Love Go Wrong and Believe It, Beloved.

I don't know of any other recordings of Take What You Want.

Do I Know What I'm Doin'

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