Members LCK Posted July 27, 2012 Members Share Posted July 27, 2012 Originally Posted by Mark Blackburn Mercer, who died five years before Warren's passing, said this:His approval always meant a great deal to a young writer (lyricist). But he sometimes mistakes your motives. Warren referred to Mercer as "cloud boy," because instead of working on the lyric at the piano while the composer was playing the tune as most lyricists did, Johnny would often lie on a couch and hum to himself for a few hours, and then return to the "real world" with a finished lyric.There's a brief clip of Harry Warren discussing Mercer's tendencies in this regard in the BBC/Clint Eastwood documentary. He seems both peeved at Mercer, and kind of in awe of him.LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 28, 2012 Thank you Lee for that one! As if to say 'we're watching you' Siriusly Sinatra right this minute is playing Harry Connick's terrific (recent) take on Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe. Minutes earlier (just for me) it was my favorite recent recording of one of Ira Gershwin's best lyrics to his kid brother's magnificent melody, THE MAN I LOVE. Google those four words and the very first offering is the same small Wikipedia entry someone made three years ago, with an opening note from a Wiki editor, requesting proper references:This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (September 2009) "The Man I Love" is a popular standard, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira. Originally part of the 1924 score for the Gershwin government satire Lady, Be Good as "The Girl I Love", the song was deleted from the show as well as from both the 1927 anti-war satire Strike Up the Band (where it first appeared as "The Man I Love") and 1928 Ziegfeld hit Rosalie after tryouts. As with many standards of the era, it has become more famous as an independent popular song than as one from a Broadway musical. --- Looking over the list of Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 28, 2012 One of my ongoing joys is hearing a 75-year-old largely forgotten song -- I'LL STRING ALONG WITH YOU -- from my Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted July 28, 2012 Members Share Posted July 28, 2012 Al Dubin wrote some really great songs with Harry Warren. This isn't one of his all-time best lyrics, but it's pretty damn good. "I'll String Along With You" You may not be an angel Cause angels are so few But until the day that one comes along I'll string along with you I looking for an angel To sing my love song to And until the day that one comes along I'll sing my song to you For every little fault that you have Say I've got three or four The human little faults you do have Just make me love you more You may not be an angel But still I'm sure you'll do So until the day that one comes along I'll string along with you LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted July 28, 2012 Members Share Posted July 28, 2012 "Shanghai Lil," by Al Dubin & Harry Warren, written for a Busby Berkeley musical, starring James Cagney. I have no idea who this guitarist/singer is, but he does a nice job with the tune. LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 28, 2012 Cool! Thanks, Lee. Phil Collins: Thirty years ago he was a somebody -- an important singer-songwriter. In 1984 a song for which he wrote both words & music, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 29, 2012 There is just something about Gladys Knight. I have adored her (both the voice and her physical presence) for four decades, since the days of her 'Pips.' If such is possible, her way with a great old ballad just keeps getting better with each passing year. [because of such partiality I made allowances when Gladys Knight gave it her all in last season's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 29, 2012 As I type this Siriusly Sinatra is playing my favorite obscure Irving Berlin tune, REACHING FOR THE MOON. The definitive version recorded in 1965 for an overlooked gem of an album, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted July 29, 2012 Members Share Posted July 29, 2012 Originally Posted by Mark Blackburn There is just something about Gladys Knight. I have adored her (both the voice and her physical presence) for four decades, since the days of her 'Pips.' If such is possible, her way with a great old ballad just keeps getting better with each passing year. You'll get no argument for me on this, Mark. Working in Top-40 radio for 15 years, as I did, gives you an opportunity to make these kinds of assessments. I always thought Gladys Knight was the top female soul singer, bar none (except maybe my second favorite, Roberta Flack). This is blasphemy, of course, because we all know that Aretha Franklin was and is and always will be the Queen of Soul. Despite that, I would rather listen to Gladys Knight any day.LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted July 29, 2012 Members Share Posted July 29, 2012 Originally Posted by Mark Blackburn As I type this Siriusly Sinatra is playing my favorite obscure Irving Berlin tune, REACHING FOR THE MOON. The definitive version recorded in 1965 for an overlooked gem of an album, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 29, 2012 Lee your note about "Top 40 AM radio" (previous page) triggered memories of my first job (as a newscaster) in 1968. I spent a lot of time in the record library and remember finding a white label Warner Bros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted July 29, 2012 Members Share Posted July 29, 2012 I love Harper's Bizzare! Thanks for uploading this tune. Originally Posted by Mark Blackburn Top 40 play lists in those days did NOT include Cole Porter Not usually, although there were a few exceptions, most notably this song, which was a Top 10 hit! I think there might've been a Porter song or two from the doo-wop era that made the charts as well.LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted July 29, 2012 Members Share Posted July 29, 2012 Doo Wop groups seemed to have loved classic tunes written by the likes of Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, and Hoagy Carmichael. Here are just a few... "Blue Moon" went to #1 on the charts. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" also went to #1. This one went to #18. LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 30, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 30, 2012 As I type this Siriusly Sinatra is playing Peggy Lee's JOHNNY GUITAR and I'm thinking out loud: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 30, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 30, 2012 As most of you know, my primary source of inspiration is Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio, whose programmer "Jersey Lou" Simon reads my mind, if not this thread. Right this minute he's speaking to my heart by playing THIS TIME THE DREAM'S ON ME Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 31, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 31, 2012 Satellite radio is playing Sinatra's classic 1955 recording of IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS OF THE MORNING. It was the title track of an album that made it to "Number 2 on the [album] charts and stayed there for 18 weeks," according to Wikipedia which notes that since then it has sold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted July 31, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 31, 2012 Are you a "noticer"? Not everyone is . . . you may have noticed! Did you happen to note the date on that auspicious 'mug shot' -- taken in the wee small hours of November 27, 1938. I happened to play the next offering at YouTube -- a live television performance from an evening in New York EXACTLY 70 years later-- to the day (or night). John Mayer singing Wee Small Hours on the Letterman show -- with trumpet great Chris Botti in support, along with Grammy-winning members of the Botti band, including Billy Kilson on drums (the best since Buddy Rich -- see him in concert with Botti while you still may!) Yes, John Mayer and his take on Wee Small Hours from the evening of November 27, 2008. The singer, please note, solos on my favorite electric guitar, the Wes Montgomery weapon-of-choice, the Gibson L-5). Sadly Mr. Mayer -- who appears shy and nervous -- comes back after the instrumental bridge and flubs the lyric, substituting when your lonely hours for when your lonely heart (has learned its lesson). Still worth watching though, not least for Mr. Botti and his superb supporting cast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted August 1, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 1, 2012 Satellite radio is playing Sinatra's version (the only one I know) of a Teddy Rendazzo song written Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted August 1, 2012 Members Share Posted August 1, 2012 Teddy Randazzo wrote some killer tunes. I didn't think I would like this, just from reading the lyric, but I do. It's quite lovely. LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted August 1, 2012 Members Share Posted August 1, 2012 "Thanks for the Memory." When I was growing up Bob Hope was always on television. He hosted the Academy Awards many times, had his own variety show on NBC, and did many television specials (also for NBC). What I didn't know at the time was that he'd been the #1 box-office draw in Vaudeville, then the top-grossing star on Broadway for a year or two, then the most popular star of radio, then one of the top box-office stars in motion pictures (in 1949 he was #1). His theme song -- the tune they played whenever he took the stage* -- was "Thanks for the Memory." It came from a frothy little film called The Big Broadcast of 1938, starring Hope and W.C. Fields, and was directed by Mitchell Leisen, a poor-man's Ernst Lubitsch. The song was written by Ralph Rainger (music) and Leo Robin (lyric). It's laundry-list type song, but with numerous twists and turns. Personally, I think it's one of the best of its kind. There are many different versions, but I like the original film version the best. The back story is that Bob Hope is a popular radio emcee who's just been released from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted August 2, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 2, 2012 I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading your words, Lee -- and watching again that great old musical film clip. Thanks especially for taking the time to transcribe the lyric, and for your closing anecdote about your own appreciation as a teenager on a high school stage, of (my favorite tune by the Gershwins) "They Can't Take That Away from Me." I came here to post a "musical interlude" (three actually) of my favorite themes from John (Star Wars) Williams. I've been thinking a lot lately about the wealth of 'unused melodies' contained in great film scores Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted August 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 3, 2012 If you Google Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted August 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 3, 2012 Victor Young Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted August 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 3, 2012 Don't you love it when young singers 'discover' some old classic no one else is singing and give it new life? Doesn't happen very often, but I'm listening right now to a perfect example. The "SiriuslySinatra" satellite radio scroll reads: Nikki Yanofsky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark Blackburn Posted August 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 3, 2012 Singer Jo Stafford and her bandleader husband Paul Weston used to have fun at parties, with Paul pretending to be a much-lesser pianist than he was, accompanying a tone-deaf singer with as poor a rhythmic sense as his own. I've been waiting three years to post something by "Jonathan and Darlene Edwards" and the song history (above) provided the perfect segue. I defy you to keep a straight face for more than a few seconds of two great musicians . . . pretending not to be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSi6jdQAwBk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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