“It ain’t necessarily so” – just like in many songs, the chorus line gets repeated. I love this song and I love to sing it. It’s stuck in my memory and in my head forever.
I still can imagine Sammy Davis Jnr. performing this song with the limberness and vivacity of Sportin’ Life, the man who steals Bess from Porgy in George Gershwin’s famous first American Blues and Jazz Opera. How he twisted and turned and manipulated his voice, through its timbre, the slurring of notes and silent pauses. Magnificent! What a great performer, actor, singer, tap dancer and member of the famous “Rat Pack”.
Yes he made it into this legendary trio, which began performing in the early 1960s predominantly in Las Vegas, USA. Did I mention that he was African-American? He performed together with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Frank and Dean weren’t African-Americans. This was during a time before Martin Luther King wrote his famous speech “I had a dream”, which impacted and changed America’s cultural and social condition forever, and also inspired and gave hope to all African-Americans as a collective.
For Sammy David Jnr., it wasn’t necessarily so. His life wasn’t necessarily the same as it was for others in America with the same skin colour. He was even married to the Swedish blonde, May Britt. This was during a time when interracial marriages were forbidden by law in 31 US states – which is more than half of all 52 US states. But why didn’t he obey the social restrictions as others did? Why didn’t he buy into that belief that he as an African-American just can’t create the life he wanted? What made the difference?
Think about it. These are great questions. How can we use Sammy’s story to our advantage? He seemed to have been sitting on a career gold mine, hadn’t he? Where can it be “not necessarily so” in our own life? And if it isn’t necessarily so, how else can it be?
Sammy Davis Jnr. had a happy life, heaps of fun, was famous and married the woman he wanted. What sort of life do you want?
It ain’t necessarily so.
To Your Success
Elisabeth Peischl
www.CanDoResultsCoaching.com
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