The Farmer Takes a Wife (1935)

More than anything else, Lena Horne was a nightclub entertainer, and having completed her film commitments to MGM in 1956, she was free to turn her attention to performing full-time. Starting on New Year's Eve, she spent eight weeks at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, and at the end of the run RCA Victor Records brought in recording equipment. The result is an excellent representation of Horne in her natural environment. Backed by Nat Brandwynne's Orchestra as conducted by her husband, Lennie Hayton, Horne essays a series of vintage standards that go back to 1929's "Honeysuckle Rose," which she sang in the 1943 film Thousands Cheer.

More than anything else, Lena Horne was a nightclub entertainer, and having completed her film commitments to MGM in 1956, she was free to turn her attention to performing full-time. Starting on New Year's Eve, she spent eight weeks at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, and at the end of the run RCA Victor Records brought in recording equipment. The result is an excellent representation of Horne in her natural environment. Backed by Nat Brandwynne's Orchestra as conducted by her husband, Lennie Hayton, Horne essays a series of vintage standards that go back to 1929's "Honeysuckle Rose," which she sang in the 1943 film Thousands Cheer.