King Pleasure: Moody's Mood For Love (aka I'm In The Mood For Love)

Vocalese sets words to preexisting instrumental passages, usually note for note. Invented by singer Eddie Jefferson in the early 1940s, vocalese broke through in 1952 when King Pleasure recorded Jefferson's words to a 1949 solo by tenorman James Moody. In 2001, the Grammy Hall of Fame inducted this track but misidentified its artist as Moody, not Pleasure. At least, we think that's what Grammy meant, bless her heart. (Alzheimer's, you know.) Singing with more gusto than skill, Pleasure put vocalese on the map and then, as online biographer Alex Henderson writes, "faded into great obscurity." Isn't that the best kind?