GREAT MELODY, GREAT LYRIC, GREAT RENDITION

[Mark Blackburn]

CREED TAYLOR – The Music Came First (documentary)

“Creed (Taylor) was my absolute favorite jazz producer,” says trumpet great Herb Alpert at the start of a superb in-depth tribute video marking Creed Taylor's passing last summer at age 93. My life-long guitar hero George Benson provided fans with a link -- and is among those interviewed, along with my all-time favorite bass player, Ron Carter – and favorite flute virtuoso, Hubert Laws -- and others, including arranger Don Sabesky and a list of jazz educators who “join Creed's family in painting an intimate portrait in which Creed Taylor takes center stage, "sharing memories of Rudy Van Gelder, Stan Getz, and the classic records Creed produced."

Deepest thanks to Mr. Benson for providing a link to this joyful tribute, titled CREED TAYLOR – THE MUSIC CAME FIRST [running time 1:24:31]  Press "Watch on Vimeo" below.

 

https://vimeo.com/744434960?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=1123795

 

Wikipedia

Creed Bane Taylor V[1] (May 13, 1929 – August 22, 2022) was an American record producer, best known for his work with CTI Records, which he founded in 1967. His career also included periods at Bethlehem Records, ABC-Paramount Records (including its jazz label, Impulse!), Verve, and A&M Records. In the 1960s, he signed bossa nova artists from Brazil to record in the US including Antonio Carlos Jobim, Eumir Deodato, João Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, and Airto Moreira.

Taylor won numerous Grammy Awards for his decades of production work. These include awards for: Focus (Stan Getz, 1961), "Desafinado" (Stan Getz/Charlie Byrd, 1962), Conversations with Myself (Bill Evans, 1963), "The Girl from Ipanema" (Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto, 1964), "Willow Weep for Me" (Wes Montgomery, 1969), and "First Light" (Freddie Hubbard, 1972).[6]

Taylor died on August 22, 2022, at the age of 93.[1] Taylor had been visiting family in Winkelhaid, Germany, where he suffered a stroke on August 2.[1] He was taken to hospital in nearby Nuremberg, where he died.

 

https://snapshotsfoundation.com/index.php/articles/154-creed-taylor-documentary?fbclid=IwAR0Q4ByIDhghyzpvoq6cNWsUJ-iI2i98O_j9ishQEPk0C4VHWDLWghspxuE

 

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

ELLA AND OSCAR – There's a Lull in My Life

 

My musical sister's favorite singer is Ella Fitzgerald. She knows that my own favorite recordings by Ella involve solo piano accompaniment. At this moment Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing a perfect example – “There's a Lull In My Life” – from the ELLA AND OSCAR album of 1975. Recorded in one day. No second takes required. I imagine Ella telling her virtuoso accompanist, “Play your solo up front, Oscar. Then I'll join you.”

Since the last time I checked, this album has finally acquired a brief Wiki entry (below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGWXFjTnoPI

 

 

Ella and Oscar is a 1975 album by Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by pianist Oscar Peterson and, for the second half of the album, double bassist Ray Brown.[2]

Fitzgerald's two previous albums with piano accompaniment were 1950's Ella Sings Gershwin (with Ellis Larkins) and 1960's Ella Fitzgerald Sings Songs from Let No Man Write My Epitaph with Paul Smith.

 

Track listing[edit]

1. "Mean to Me" (Fred E. Ahlert, Roy Turk) – 3:30

2. "How Long Has This Been Going On?" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 4:59

3. "When Your Lover Has Gone" (Einar Aaron Swan) – 4:58

4. "More Than You Know" (Edward Eliscu, Billy Rose, Vincent Youmans) – 4:37

5. "There's a Lull in My Life" (Mack Gordon, Harry Revel) – 4:58

6. "Midnight Sun" (Sonny Burke, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Mercer) – 3:40

7. "I Hear Music" (Burton Lane, Frank Loesser) – 5:12

8. "Street of Dreams" (Sam M. Lewis, Victor Young) – 4:08

9. "April in Paris" (Vernon Duke, Yip Harburg) – 8:37

Personnel[edit]

• Ella Fitzgerald – vocals

• Oscar Peterson – piano

• Ray Brown – double bass

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA – It's All Right With Me

 

At this moment Channel 70 satellite radio is playing Sinatra's 1984 studio recording of Cole Porter's “It's All Right With Me” – featuring George Benson! I'd know that sound anywhere: unsurpassed electric guitar tone, combined with tasteful, talented technique. From Sinatra's “57^th and final solo studio album – L.A. IS MY LADY.”

There is a television video of the actual recording session, with opening remarks by co-producer Phil Ramone and arranger Quincy Jones, as well as the husband-and-wife lyricists Frank so loved – Marilyn and Alan Bergman. A five minute video. If you must skip ahead, the music begins at 2:25 – with the great Ray Brown playing bass.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Vn4nyf3pc

 

Thanks for sharing All That Jazz Don Kaart. Celebrated elsewhere [search] “ Great Melody, Great Lyric, Great Rendition, Songwriting Workshop, Harmony Central ”

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA – My Shining Hour

 

My favorite show on channel 70 Sirius/XM is “The Chairman's Hour” with producer, and long-time Sinatra family friend Charles Pignone. At the moment, just when I was thinking of arranger Don Costa's finest hours with Sinatra, Mr. Pignone is playing perhaps my most favorite Costa arrangement of MY SHINING HOUR. [Correction:  Billy May 'channelling' Don Costa.]

Google to be reminded that “My Shining Hour is a song from Sinatra's 1980 album TRILOGY: PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE.” My favorite song from Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen (1943). “My favorite lyricist” – I told Sinatra in my letter (of Christmas '92) – long before I'd ever heard his version. Isn't it a nice feeling to hear a favorite old recording, and still get goosebumps? This one never fails!

[From memory imperfect]

This moment, this minute, and each second in it will leave a glow upon the sky. And as time goes by, it will never die.

THIS will be my shining hour, calm and happy and bright. And in my dreams, your face will flower, through the darkness of the night. Like the lights of home before me, or an angel watching o'er me, THIS will be my shining hour – 'til I'm with you, again.

----

Indulge me please: There was a speech of Britain's wartime prime minister Winston Churchill's – on a black vinyl LP of his speeches my Dad acquired just for me in my early teens – one of which I can still recite in its entirety -- the content and the cadences were that memorable. From the darkest hours of WWII (in my best Churchill accent):

 

“If we succeed then the whole world will move into broad sunlit uplands. But if we FAIL, then the whole world will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and more protracted, through the light of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves, and so bear ourselves, that – if the British Empire and her Commonwealth last for a thousand years – men will still say … THIS was their finest hour!”

 

[Imagine my delight, checking the song's Wikipedia entry and finding this.]

 

"My Shining Hour" is a song composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Johnny Mercer for the film The Sky's the Limit (1943). In the film, the song is sung by Fred Astaire and Sally Sweetland, who dubbed it for actress Joan Leslie. The orchestra was led by Freddie Slack.[1] "My Shining Hour" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song but lost to "You'll Never Know".[2]

 

The song's title may have been a reference to Winston Churchill's speech to British citizens during World War II: "if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour."[1]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4wpqdu3P7A

 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

NAT KING COLE – I Remember You

There's an interesting story beyond the small Wikipedia entry for Johnny Mercer's favorite of his own compositions – I REMEMBER YOU. Mercer's friend, Hollywood film director Vic Schertzinger had asked Johnny if he could write some lyrics for two tunes he'd just composed for a 1941 movie “The Fleet's In.” Vic died before the movie premiered, at the young age of 53. But not before he had the thrill of being first person to enjoy what Johnny had come up with, for I REMEMBER YOU and TANGERINE.

Oddly, Tangerine was the big hit; I Remember You had to wait two decades until Nat King Cole included it as a slow ballad – beautifully arranged by Ralph Carmichael (who left us last year) for Nat's "The Touch of Your Lips" album. 

Nat was Mom's favorite singer, and Dad gifted her with that black vinyl LP – whose title track Dad told me was playing when they danced in her parents' parlor (living room) and shared their first kiss. Christmas of 1936. I shared that story with Ralph Carmichael a year before he died and the great arranger (and Gospel music writer) replied, “Thank you very much, Mark!”

That same year – 1961 – an Australian-born Englishman, Frank Ifield had introduced my generation to I REMEMBER YOU but as a walking-tempo countrified rendition that sold two million records (“1.1 million in the UK alone”).

Because of which (I believe) Sinatra never went near Johnny Mercer's favorite of his own songs and the brief Wiki entry states,

 

I REMEMBER YOU has since been covered most notably by Frank Ifield, Glen Campbell and Björk.

 

The Beatles covered the song on stage early in their career, as recorded on an amateur taping made at the Star Club in Hamburg in December 1962. That version was ultimately published in 1977 on the bootleg recording "Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962".[5]

 

Nat's 1961 recording included the seldom-heard opening verse – one of Mercer's best. And one more reason this one's still my favorite version.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7LHDEcNc_E

 

The album cover graphic selected by Wikipedia for "The Touch of Your Lips" LP

  

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

RAY CHARLES – Till There Was You

Frank Sinatra famously dubbed Ray Charles “the only true genius in the business” (the business of singing). What did Frank have in mind? I believe it was all the songs that other jazz and blues singers might have overlooked completely, but for Ray making them his own.  You'd swear he wrote them, words and tune.

Including or especially the songs Sinatra himself never got around to singing. Like YOU DON'T KNOW ME – the centerpiece of Ray's iconic album of all Country songs in 1963. At the time, record company executives thought he was crazy. But that album quickly turned into his all-time best seller – increasing Ray's fan base by millions, almost overnight. Future Country stars like Vince Gill would one day attest that “among all the Country records in my home when I was growing up, that record of Ray's was the one we played the most.”

At this moment Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing another favorite example from 1974:  Ray taking a Broadway show tune from 'The Music Man' (1957) and imparting such pleasurable 'soul' with a pure Ray Charles' arrangement, including an old-fashioned vocal chorus that Ray knew, in his hands, would never be out-of-date.

Search for it at YouTube and we find something even more useful – a “live” performance which I see my namesake reviewed “3 years ago”: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwDHfKNETsQ

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

FRANK & RAY – Moonlight in Vermont

 

My Irene is doing her word search in today's newspaper and just asked, “What's ordinary writing, 'not verse'?”

“Prose” I said. “From which we get the adjective 'prosaic' – meaning ordinary.”

But she was on to the next word, and cut me short, before I could get warmed up.

Made me think of “my favorite song composed by a Blackburn” -- MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT and its unique lyric in which there are no rhymes at all. On the printed page it reads like prose.

Best ever version? A tie for first place. So, let's share both.

Ray's rendition followed by Frank's 'live' TV performance. You be the judge.  I can never decide which one I love best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuoU7XW2ops

 

Frank's 'live' television version with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08D9N4OigC4

 

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA – I'll Be Seeing You

 

I'll find you in the morning sun

or when the night is new

I'll be looking at the moon …

but I'll be seeing you

 

Siriusly Sinatra is playing I'LL BE SEEING YOU my favorite track from Sinatra's last album at Capitol Records – whose vinyl LP cover painting (I used to know the name of the artist) is also my favorite:  I can FEEL the cool night air of a rainy autumn twilight in New York City– just outside The Plaza Hotel where my Dad and I rode briefly in an elevator with Richard Rodgers. In 1960, the year before this album was recorded. The final orchestrations from Sinatra's early (1940s) great arranger Axel Stordahl, who died a few months later.

 

As for the song, it is perhaps the most poignant of its kind – speaking as it does, to the hearts of those who have lost a loved one. [Wiki note below.]

 

 

Wikipedia

"I'll Be Seeing You" is a popular song about missing a loved one, with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal.[1] Published in 1938, it was inserted into the Broadway musical Right This Way, which closed after fifteen performances.[2] The title of the 1944 film I'll Be Seeing You was taken from this song [which was] included in the film's soundtrack.

 

The earliest recording of the song was by Dick Todd in 1940 on the Bluebird label.[4]

• The recording by Bing Crosby became a hit in 1944, reaching number one for the week of July 1.[5]

• Frank Sinatra's version with Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra from 1940 charted in 1944 and peaked at No. 4

----

Thanks to Sinatra Family Forum alumnus Bob Freed ("Bob in Boston") for a link to this:

Guy Deel: His novel art made West come alive



Guy Deel's brush depicted the cowboys, good guys and gunslingers of lead-slinging literature.

The artist who illustrated the covers of hundreds of Western novels died Dec. 13, 2005 at age 72 in Cambria, Calif., of complications of Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Deel was born July 7, 1933, in Tuxedo, Texas about 50 miles north of Abilene TX. His grandparents were ranchers, and his father worked as a cowboy before the family moved to Irving in 1939.

Mr. Deel graduated from Irving High in 1950. At 17, he attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., on a scholarship.

Following art school, Mr. Deel served in the U.S. Army, where he designed recruiting posters at an Army installation on Governor's Island in New York Harbor. While in New York, he picked up freelance art assignments for magazines such as Redbook, The Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest.

When the magazine market began to dry up for illustrators, Mr. Deel turned to the book market. That's when he headed to California.

A prolific illustrator, Mr. Deel produced artwork for more than 250 book covers, most for western novels by authors such as Louis L'Amour, Elmer Kelton and Gary McCarthy. He also created covers for 15 Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The illustrations were created as oil paintings that Mr. Deel allowed publishers to reproduce but not to keep.

Lynne Deel, Mr. Deel's wife, said that his fondness for depiction of the American West was part of his heritage.

"His whole family was sort of cowboy folks," Mrs. Deel said. "He always had an affinity for the West. He spent much of his youth on family farms and ranches."

Mrs. Deel said that Mr. Deel's hallmark was historical accuracy in his paintings.

"If the time period called for a specific gun, that was the gun. The horse's tack would be right for the period," Mrs. Deel said. "He was a very accurate historian."

In terms of scale, Mr. Deel's most epic work is a 130-foot mural painted for the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles. The "Spirits of the West" mural takes up three walls of one level of the museum and depicts the story of the American West.

Mr. Deel also worked in advertising and film. He received a silver medal award in 1963 from the Dallas-Fort Worth Art Directors Club for advertising illustrations he did for retailer Neiman-Marcus. In 1974, his documentary film Artists at Work was screened at the USA Film Festival in Dallas.

Mr. Deel later worked with Walt Disney artists on several animated productions. His credits include The Lion King, Pocahontas, and Fantasia 2000.

In 2001, Mr. Deel's old hometown of Irving commissioned him to re-create in a painting the 1903 land auction that was the birth of the city. The painting was unveiled at the city's centennial celebration.

Mrs. Deel said that her husband was no brooding artist. He was a happy man who enjoyed the life and vocation he chose.

"He never made a dime doing anything but painting," Mrs. Deel said. "He enjoyed life. He brought a lot of pleasure to a lot of people."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Deel is survived by a brother, James Deel of Houston; two sisters, Louise Gill and Bunis Marykwas, both of Irving; a son, Christopher Deel of Agora Hills, Calif.; a daughter, Kimberly Deel of Westlake, Calif.; and one grandson.

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

Frank Sinatra & Tom Jobim - Bossa Nova Medley [Remastered in HD]

 

Siriusly Sinatra is playing a live TV performance by Sinatra and A.C. Jobim – Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars, in medley with Irving Berlin's Change Partners and Dance, and Cole Porter's I Concentrate On You, and Jobim's most famous song Girl From Ipanema – the last sung in Brazilian Portuguese. Six minutes of TV perfection from 1967. Timeless beauty, you may agree.

That first song “Quiet Nights” was one of five Jobim tunes for which my compatriot Gene Lees wrote the English lyrics.

Check YouTube and – voila! Posted “7 months ago” when I wasn't looking:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mj1M4ejEGg

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA – When The World Was Young

 

I love the words of advice given by a famous French jazz violinist (who played with Gypsy guitar giant Django Reinhardt) to a then- up-and-coming guitar virtuoso from England Martin Taylor, that when it comes to programming your concerts:

 

“Begin strong. End strong. The middle parts will take care of themselves.”

 

Same applies to albums and Sinatra did it here on POINT OF NO RETURN selecting WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG – for what he thought was the best-of-the-best of Axel Stordahl's arrangements, on an album chock full of them.

The song's Wikipedia entry reminds that this was yet another French song (think AUTUMN LEAVES) that Johnny Mercer rescued from certain oblivion;  the original French song writers names are in red – meaning you can't click them, to 'learn more' -- never heard-from again.

 

Wikipedia

(Ah, the Apple Trees) When the World Was Young" is a popular song composed by Philippe-Gérard [fr], with lyrics by Angèle Vannier [fr]. The English lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer. The original French title was "Le Chevalier de Paris". Apart from a reference to apples, the English lyrics only have minor commonalities with the original French words.

English lyrics were originally written by Carl Sigman, but these were rejected by the music publisher, Mickey Goldsen. Sigman suggested Mercer, and Mercer wrote the English lyrics (three verses and three choruses) in three days.[1]

The song is from the perspective of an aging Parisian "boulevardier"/"coquette", as they review their life.

----

Maybe more coquette than boulevardier: You could be forgiven for thinking it was a girl song.  After Bing Crosby was first to record it in 1951, every single 'cover' for the next decade (nine in all) were from great female singers. But then this. The definitive recording as Frank's show opener here. Really, isn't this luverly?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEq6p8FQ8vY

 

Notable Recordings

Bing Crosby - recorded in Los Angeles on October 4, 1951 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra[2]

• Peggy Lee - Black Coffee (1953)

• Polly Bergen - Little Girl Blue (1955)

• Jane Morgan - The American Girl from Paris (1956)

• June Christy - Gone for the Day (1957)

• Eydie Gormé - Eydie In Love (1958)

• Dinah Shore - Moments Like These (1958)

• Eartha Kitt - The Romantic Eartha (1962)

• Julie London - Sophisticated Lady (1962)

• Anita O'Day - Anita O'Day and the Three Sounds (1962)

• Frank Sinatra - Point of No Return (1962)

• Marlene Dietrich - as "Die Welt war jung" (1962) (lyrics by Max Colpet)

 

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JOHN PIZZARELLI – Too Marvelous for Words

 

“Without the 'rendition' there IS no song!” So declared one of my favorite melodists Jule (Time After Time) Styne.

If you Google this day the song title “Too Marvelous For Words” the first offering is “Song by Nat King Cole” – and not, “Lyric by Johnny Mercer.” Completely understandable of course, since few of us would ever care to ask, “Who wrote that?”

The version playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is a studio recording by John Pizzarelli, who, with his trio, does better 'live' performances of Nat Cole songs and Johnny Mercer lyrics than anyone else I know. Be at YouTube please. But of course, his tribute to Nat album.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOjepqH3sCQ

 

 

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

RAY BENSON & THE TEXAS PLAYBOYS – Route 66

 

As the lead singer / guitarist for 'Asleep at the Wheel' – for almost 50 years most everyone's favorite Country Swing band, since the originators, 'Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys' – 'Big Ray' Benson delivers my “other favorite version” of this song – at a slightly slower pace than the original hit recording by Nat King Cole. A song I recall was composed by someone whose other greatest thrill was being married to Julie London. [Wiki note below]

In his extro at song's end, (around the 5:07 mark) Ray Benson has an articulate appreciation of the song and the singers: the 'old guys' are the actual Texas Playboys. I note stage left on fiddle, one of the giants of Country Swing Johnny Gimbel; stage right, someone I don't recognize, but would surely appreciate taking instruction-from on steel guitar.

 

RAY BENSON: “Route 66 was really a part of everyone's repertoire back then – whether you were a Black band, a Cowboy band, a 'society' band – you probably played a lot of these same songs. We just give it a little bit of a twist . . .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9FzAnFPhJs

Wikipedia

"(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" is a popular rhythm and blues song, composed in 1946 by American songwriter Bobby Troup. The lyrics relate a westward roadtrip on U.S. Route 66, a highway which traversed the western two-thirds of the U.S. from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California. The song became a standard, with several renditions appearing on the record charts.

 

Bobby Troup got the idea for the song on a cross-country drive from Pennsylvania to California.^[1] Troup wanted to try his hand as a Hollywood songwriter, so he and his wife, Cynthia, packed up their 1941 Buick and headed west. The trip began on US 40 and continued along US 66 to the California coast.^[1] Troup initially considered writing a tune about US 40, but Cynthia suggested the title "Get Your Kicks on Route 66".

The song was composed on the ten-day journey and completed by referring to maps when the couple arrived in Los Angeles. The lyrics mention several cities and towns encountered along the way;^[2] Cynthia later commented: "What I can't really believe is that he doesn't have Albuquerque in the song."^[1]

Nat King Cole, with the King Cole Trio, first recorded the song in 1946 at Radio Recorders in Los Angeles. Capitol Records released it as a single, which reached number three on Billboard magazine's Race Records chart and number eleven on its broader singles chart.^[3] Cole later re-recorded the tune for the album After Midnight (1956) and The Nat King Cole Story (1961).

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DIANA KRALL & RUSSELL MALONE  and the best 'live' performance of ROUTE 66 I ever saw. Diana's first appearance at our Winnipeg Jazz Festival fully two decades ago:  As a guitarist, I remember vividly Diana inviting Russell Malone to play a five-minute, solo introduction -- that turned into a quick history of blues guitar. I'd never seen anything like it. And haven't since. Really, is there anything you cannot find at YouTube?

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES -- Vaya Con Dios / How High The Moon

 

It's a measure of the great ones' virtuosity that they never play a song the same way twice. After opening with Les and Mary's VAYA CON DIOS -- a million seller that spent eleven, non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 (on the Billboard chart) the summer of '53, Doyle Dykes launches into the most amazing rendition of HOW HIGH THE MOON -- amazing because he's simultaneously channeling Chet Atkins while playing Les Paul licks and including glorious variations that are pure Doyle Dykes -- and little touches we've not heard before. You realize he could go on improvising like this by the hour. Breathtakingly beautiful. Thank you for sharing, moments ago on YouTube.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/doyledykes

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

CILLA BLACK  –  Alfie

 

Burt Bacharach has died, at home in Los Angeles “of natural causes” – age 94.

Hal David was his favorite lyricist: together they wrote utterly unique popular songs. Among my favorites, Do You Know the Way to San Jose – which included the most memorable bridge – conveying so much in so few words. I needed to hear it only once or twice for it to stay with me a lifetime. These words, set to the perfect tune.

 

“LA is a great big freeway, put a hundred down and buy a car. In a week, maybe two, they'll make you a star. Weeks turn into years – how quick they pass. And all those stars, that never were, are parking cars, and pumping gas.”

Their finest collaboration may have been one they wrote for an English movie – about a womanizing young man -- ALFIE (What's It All About?). Burt Bacharach's best melody (he said so). I remember age 18 playing it daily, finger-style on guitar, cherishing the chord changes – but without ever singing the lyric. Only later, did the words resonate with me, heart and soul. [From memory imperfect:]

 

What's it all about, Alfie? Is it just for the moment we live? …. Are we meant to take, more than we give? … And if life 'belongs only to the strong,' Alfie then I guess it is wise to be cruel .... but then what would you lend, on an old Golden Rule?

As sure as I exist, there's a heaven above Alfie. I know there's something much more, something even non-believers, can believe-in ... I believe in Love, Alfie! Without true love, you just 'exist' ….

----

An official video (posted 6 years ago) with “1M views” – of the recording session with Burt Bacharach conducting. Small screen black and white, yet powerful you may agree.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glpIgnmKrZc

 

Wikipedia

"Alfie" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David to promote the 1966 film Alfie. The song was a major hit for Cilla Black (UK) and Dionne Warwick (US).

Although Bacharach has cited "Alfie" as his personal favorite of his compositions, he and Hal David were not eager to write a song to promote the film Alfie  [because] Hal David thought the title character's name pedestrian: "Writing a song about a man called 'Alfie' didn't seem too exciting at the time."

Although Bacharach and David suggested "Alfie" be recorded by Dionne Warwick, their most prolific interpreter, Paramount felt the film's setting demanded the song be recorded by a UK singer.

Cilla Black recorded it first in London, with a 48-piece orchestra arranged and conducted by Burt Bacharach. She died in 2015 and some words from ALFIE were inscribed on her gravestone in Liverpool England.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

WILLIE NELSON / RAY BENSON – Hesitation Blues (live)

 

Just yesterday I deadpanned a request to my favorite jazz singer / guitarist John Pizzarelli that he include in his weekly Thursday 'live stream' show “Hot Rod Lincoln” – adding that he could check out Asleep at the Wheel's version “for inspiration” -- predicting it would take John "about a minute to master the guitar break and take it uptown” for us.

I'd been thinking how the same album featured Willie Nelson harmonizing with Big Ray Benson on Harry Warren's CHATANOOGA CHOO CHOO. Lo and behold, the youngest Wise Man alumnus at the former Sinatra Family Forum website Matt M, just sent me this. What a treasure for those who can appreciate Country Swing.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjQvqxaFrFE

 

"Marsha and me accepting the Grammy for biggest male singer" [Big Ray Benson's caption:] 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

PEGGY LEE – I Love Being Here With You

 

Peggy Lee has always been my “other favorite singer.” And at any given moment day or night, Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio may be playing one of her songs. Channel 70's producer extraordinaire Charles Pignone (who hosts my favorite show, “The Chairman's Hour”) told Peggy's granddaughter Holly Foster Wells: “Peggy gets almost as much airplay here as Frank!" The simple truth. And Sinatra would have loved knowing that.

On her greatest album of ballads 'The Man I Love' it was Sinatra himself conducting the Nelson Riddle orchestra. Coincidentally or not, I was poised right now to talk about my favorite track on that album, 'The Folks Who Live on the Hill' – and the fact that Peggy said it was her all-time favorite song. Her granddaughter Holly speculates that the song's images of 'home life on a hilltop high' -- in old age with the one you've always loved -- were a lifelong dream that was denied her.  (His name was Dave Barbour – her first husband; a terrific guitar player, who co-wrote some of her earliest songs. They were still friends at the time of his death.)

 

Peggy Lee was such a gifted lyricist --  wrote so many great lyrics -- including witty words to a song, that is playing right now as I type this:  I LOVE BEING HERE WITH YOU.  It's Peggy at the peak of her powers, accompanied by a great jazz band, with a tight arrangement that sparkles thanks to the best jazz musicians who loved spending time with her.

 

“I love the East! I love the West!

And North or South, they're both the best.

But I'll only go there as a guest –

'cause I LOVE bein' here with you!

 

Oh, and the laughter in her voice, when she sings just one phrase with a cockney accent (she loved London) that, “ … they just wind it up, and let it go!”

 

Is it at YouTube? Even better! A live early TV appearance – a small screen, black & white 'kinescope' with  monaural sound -- but nevertheless a treat I've never seen before this moment. Have you? (She retained that East London accent for the end of that same phrase:)

 

"I like Ella's singing – because it's 'something else' you know

they know how to say it, they know how to play it

they wind it up and let it go!"

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptsjZIcD-gU

 

 

Wikipedia

"I Love Being Here with You" is a song written by Peggy Lee and Bill Schluger. It was released by Capitol Records in 1961 as the B-side to her single "Bucket of Tears", and then on the album Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee. Orchestration was arranged and conducted by Bill Holman. Though released as a B-side, it quickly became a popular song with other artists.

"I Love Being Here with You" was the 44th most-covered song in the world in 1961.[8] Notable artists who have recorded it include: Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Greco, Ernestine Anderson, Bette Midler, Diana Krall and Queen Latifah.[9] Peggy Lee and Judy Garland sang a personalized version of it as a duet on the December 1, 1963 episode of The Judy Garland Show.[10]

"I Love Being Here with You" became a central part of Peggy Lee's touring act,[11] and many other performers acts as well.

The song was performed on The Ed Sullivan Show by Peggy Lee on October 6, 1960, and Ella Fitzgerald on February 2, 1964.[12][13]

The television series Six Feet Under featured it in three episodes and included on the Six Feet Under Original TV Soundtrack.[14][15]

Edited February 11, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

KENNY RANKIN – The Way You Look Tonight

 

Once a month Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio plays something by my all-time favorite jazz singer / guitarist, the late Kenny Rankin:  A 'musician's musician' especially beloved by the greatest sax players for his vocal virtuosity. Like Sinatra, a baritone with tenor strength for high notes. Tenor sax great Stan Getz referred to Kenny as “a horn with a heartbeat.” (Wiki note below)

Coincidentally I'd just been imagining a favorite rainy night experience in summer – when you're driving in the car and the song playing on the radio is perfectly in sync with the tempo of windshield wipers on low and slow setting; a song like the one playing right now on Siriusly Sinatra – Kenny Rankin's hard-to-beat rendition of THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT.

You have to love an arrangement that opens with a good jazz guitarist (wonder who?) 'channeling' Wes Montgomery; rhythm guitar with lovely chords played by Kenny himself.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BovChXkSC0

 

Wikipedia

Kenneth Joseph Rankin (February 10, 1940 – June 7, 2009) was an American singer and songwriter in the folk rock and singer-songwriter genres; he was influenced by jazz. Rankin would often sing notes in a high range to express emotion.

He was a guitarist on the album Bringing It All Back Home by Bob Dylan.[3] He appeared on The Tonight Show more than twenty times.[3]   Johnny Carson wrote the liner notes to Rankin's 1967 debut album, Mind Dusters,

When Rankin worked with Alan Broadbent, Mike Wofford, and Bill Watrous, his music got closer to jazz. His songs were performed by Peggy Lee, Mel Tormé and Carmen McRae; Stan Getz said his voice was like "a horn with a heartbeat".[2]  

After recording the Beatles' song "Blackbird" for his album Silver Morning, he was asked by Paul McCartney to perform it when McCartney and John Lennon were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[2]

 

 

Edited February 12, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DIANA KRALL – Why Should I Care

Siriusly Sinatra is playing (as it does once or twice a year late at night) Johnny Hartman's most famous ballad – My One and Only Love. Clint Eastwood's all-time favorite jazz singer, whose (posthumous) record sales climbed straight up like a rocket after Clint inserted in his films a couple or three of Hartman's best ballads.

This one was recorded for an album with John Coltrane – the only such album with a vocalist that the sax giant ever recorded before his untimely death. It sets the mood for a love scene in my favorite Eastwood film, 'The Bridges of Madison County' – for which Clint himself composed the love theme. Something he's done a few times.  

Clint Eastwood asked Diana Krall to record this song WHY SHOULD I CARE that he'd composed with a former wife of Burt Bacharach's Carol Bayer-Sager.

Wikipedia reminds us why most people have never heard this one:  a “hidden” track (13) on one of my favorite of Diana's early 'orchestral' albums, 'When I Look In Your Eyes.' Hidden in plain sight then, on a multi-platinum selling CD. With an arresting, night-time cover photo that's also my favorite picture of hers, for reasons I can never explain. Maybe the fabric of her dress, combined with the joyful body language of her arms. In any case, the perfect picture for the music that awaits us inside this old (1999) album. The Wiki entry doesn't identify the arranger, but I'm hearing Johnny Mandel. You too?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfj3FyuCNjQ

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TIERNEY SUTTON – Flying Home (Sully's Theme)

Just reminded of another of Clint Eastwood's musical collaborations, while re-watching the closing credits for SULLY – the movie about the “Miracle on the Hudson” –  how a distinguished airline pilot (perfectly personified by Tom Hanks) managed to save an entire planeload of 150 passengers, by gently setting down his Boeing 737 in New York's Hudson River off Manhattan in 2009.

Clint Eastwood composed the theme song FLYING HOME -- “in collaboration” the credits say, with jazz singer Tierney Sutton and her band's pianist-arranger Christian Jacob.

Just one official version at YouTube posted by Clint Eastwood, with “comments turned off” (so we can't "learn more" can we?)  A good tune, I believe, with an evocative lyric, worth hearing again from time to time.

 

Tell me your story, I'll tell you mine. Sing me your song, I'll follow line-by-line
Draw me near, let me hear the things you've treasured . . .
Within your trials, I see my own

Still, these are journeys that are yours alone
You were born for the storm you have to weather . . .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RGpSZQ_ZuU

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

BEVERLEY CHURCH HOGAN – Falling in Love with Love

 

As if to say, “this lady is a compatriot of yours, Mark – check her out!” Siriusly Sinatra – as it so often does, is introducing me to a terrific female singer I never heard before 'right this minute.' BEVERLEY CHURCH HOGAN whose on line bio says she is 83 and grew up in Montreal, “next door to Oscar Peterson.” She didn't know him personally but his music led her to become a jazz singer. She can still “fill a jazz club with fans in Los Angeles” whenever she makes a rare appearance.

At this moment Beverley is singing FALLING IN LOVE WITH LOVE. No one else is singing it these days! After it was introduced in a Rodgers & Hart musical in 1938 no one of note recorded it until 20 years later – the '50s, when instrumental versions by jazz giants started to appear – beginning with alto sax virtuoso Cannonball Adderly interspersed with top female singers – so a 'girl song' – until Sinatra got to it in 1961. Wiki note below.  Is Beverley's version at YouTube? Yes. “Updated yesterday” alas, with “comments are off.”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X4BGpFQvHw&list=OLAK5uy_lgnszkpuVyZp-E2_CcMcjJ_8AZwTTcLSs

 

 

Wikipedia -- “Falling in Love with Love”

Notable recordings[edit]

• Cannonball Adderley – Julian Cannonball Adderley and Strings (1955)

• Helen Merrill – Helen Merrill (1955)

• Clifford Brown – Memorial (1956)

• Jimmy Smith – A Date with Jimmy Smith Volume One (1957)

• Julie Andrews – Julie Andrews Sings (1958)

• Wes Montgomery – Far Wes (1958)

• Carmen McRae – Something to Swing About (1959)

• Dinah Shore – Dinah, Yes Indeed! (1959)

• Vic Damone – On the Swingin' Side (1960)

• Anita O'Day – Anita O'Day and Billy May Swing Rodgers and Hart (1960)

• Alma Cogan – With You in Mind (1961)

• Frank Sinatra – Sinatra Swings (1961)

 

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY – Angels On Your Pillow

About a year ago I heard for the first time a “lullaby by Peggy Lee” sung and played on her piano by Canada's “other great jazz singer / pianist” Carol Welsman (on one of her 'live from my living room' shows). I think Carol said at the time that she and Michael Feinstein were the first to perform it. I've been waiting ever since, for someone to record it anew.

Lo and behold! Ann Hampton Callaway – from her brand new Peggy Lee tribute album. As I type this Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing a 'Peggy Lee Tribute' special with Ann Hampton Callaway and her friend, Peggy Lee's granddaughter Holly Foster Wells, hosted by producer Charles Pignone. 

Recalling my own mother stringing together consecutive lullabies to sing me to sleep when I was little -- usually concluding with a few bars of 'Try a Little Tenderness.' [ ! ]  Mom would have loved this one. (Composed by Peggy and “a friend, Paul Horner.”)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL8aseSan6Q&list=OLAK5uy_mMw6Ug7ThBzWAp2uw4KUe8nwysjdmxBPo&index=14

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER – A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

 

I'd been thinking today of all the wonderful renditions I've come to cherish of most everyone's favorite English song from WWII – A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

Top of the list -- Sinatra's recording on a June night in London (1962) London symphony musicians, arranged by Canadian-born Robert Farnon. Tied for first place  – Nat King Cole's recording from the same year, arranged by Ralph Carmichael, who also orchestrated Nat's multi-platinum, all-time best-selling Christmas LP and who died a year ago.

But then there's there's the choral magic of THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER – playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio: a Grammy-winning arrangement by Gene Puerling (originator of The Hi-Low's, and The Singers Unlimited). If like me, you're a sucker for great choral arrangements, you might have to say this tops them all.

It's a lengthy list of other favorite versions in the song's Wikipedia entry, which notes,

A version by The Manhattan Transfer[19] won a Grammy Award in 1981 for its arranger, Gene Puerling. 

Most viewed version at YouTube? A color TV recording from 40 years ago. Overlook the dated video tape quality.  Isn't this a treat?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkJ2-TKwCUc&t=30s

 

Wikipedia

 

Eugene Thomas Puerling (March 31, 1929 – March 25, 2008) was a vocal performer and vocal arranger. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Puerling created and led the vocal groups The Hi-Lo's and The Singers Unlimited.[1] He was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices in 1982 for his arrangement of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" as performed by The Manhattan Transfer.

A Latin song he arranged for The Singers Unlimited, "One More Time, Chuck Corea" – inspired by Chuck Mangione and Chick Corea -- has been adapted and used by marching bands, drum and bugle corps and jazz ensembles. He died just six days before his 79th birthday, due to complications from diabetes.[2]

Puerling's vocal arrangements and chord structures were classic and instantly recognizable. In addition to the Hi-Lo's and The Singers Unlimited he mentored many other singers and groups, including Take 6.

John Neal of Harmony Sweepstakes said after his death: "As a craftsman of the art of blending and harmonizing the human voice in song, Gene has no equal."[3][2]

Puerling's innovative use of vocal harmony influenced many groups and musicians, including Take 6,[4] The King's Singers, The Manhattan Transfer, Chanticleer, Glad (band), The Free Design, and Brian Wilson.[5]

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

FOZZIE BEAR SEDUCED BY RAQUEL WELCH

 

Raquel Welch died today, age 82. Among the first to comment on her passing – “The Muppets” who tweeted:

“We’ll never forget our remarkable friend Raquel Welch, one of our favorite guests on The Muppet Show.”

 

My own favorite moment in Muppet Show history:  “Fozzie Bear seduced by Raquel Welch”

[Season 3, episode 11]

 

Fozzie goes to group therapy to become more assertive. He says he won't do his monologue because he doesn't need to use humor to buy friends anymore. When Kermit tells the audience that there won't be a monologue, Fozzie misinterprets their cheers as a sign that they love him, and he goes on anyway. Later, Raquel tells him that he's very sexy, and she sings him a song that boosts his confidence to the point that he decides to write "the world's funniest joke".

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOZhKNYwNLU&t=8s

 

[Mark Blackburn]

DIANA KRALL – Maybe You'll Be There

 

If I had to select a single favorite 'live' concert performance of Diana Krall's -- to be preserved and enjoyed by generations of music lovers yet unborn – without a doubt, it would be this one: from her Paris Concert – a song composed in 1947 (a very good year) by Rube Bloom (m) and Sammy Gallop (w).  A perfectly poignant song about lost love -- these words especially:

 

Someday, if all my prayers are answered

I'll hear a footstep on the stair

With anxious heart I'll hurry to the door

And maybe you'll be there.

 

A gorgeous symphonic arrangement – one of his best by the late Claus Ogerman. Great sound engineering, plus exemplary video quality – perfect camera work and lighting that captures, among its subtleties, a single tear streaming down the cheek of a pretty violinist (at around the 4:28 mark).  And someone else noted that  around the "2:54 mark, a cello player is so moved with emotion, he shakes his head in wonder.”

Another kindred spirit writes: “I've watched this dozens of times, and each time it brings a tear to my eye.”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWgqVqJTwt8

 

Edited February 17, 2023 by Mark Blackburn