GREAT MELODY, GREAT LYRIC, GREAT RENDITION

[Mark Blackburn]

BARBRA STREISAND - Since I Fell For You

I've been thinking a lot lately of a song composed the year of my birth 1947 by American blues band leader Buddy Johnson. I was 16 before the song finally became a hit for Lenny Welch: the singer's online bio recalls that he had signed with Cadence Records in 1960 and had to wait three years till his biggest hit, SINCE I FELL FOR YOU sold a million copies.

His other hits included "Ebb Tide" in 1964, which was featured in the film Sweet Bird of Youth; and "You Don't Know Me." He also recorded the first vocal version of "A Taste of Honey" in 1962 and performed the theme to the 1967 CBS TV series Coronet Blue.

Lenny was something of a hero to Neil Sedaka and when Welch 'reimagined' Sedaka's "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" as a torch song (a minor Top 40 hit in 1970) Sedaka himself would re-record the song in Welch's style to make it a top-10 hit of his own.

Since I Fell For You has always had a special place in my heart; but I'd not heard Barbra Streisand's version until Channel 71 played it this hour. Dare I say, my 'new favorite'? In terms of blues singing, it brings out Barbra's best, you may agree. Wonder when & where this was recorded? (And who arranged the beautiful orchestration?)

First offering at YouTube – an “official” version alas, with “comments turned off”

Edited June 17, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

NAT KING COLE – I Keep Goin' Back to Joe's

Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing a song by Nat King Cole that I can't recall hearing before right this minute: I KEEP GOIN' BACK TO JOE'S.  Google, and learn that it was given a lyric by Marvin (Destination Moon') Fisher to a tune by pianist/composer Jack Segal – who wrote a bunch of favorites -- from Scarlet Ribbons, When Sunny Gets Blue, Here's to the Losers and . . . several lesser-known songs – like this one. Which I see Nat recorded with Gordon Jenkins on August 16, 1962. What a wonderfully evocative lyric, delivered as only Nat could.

But the man who plays piano never plays your favorite melody
Joe keeps busy at the bar, never asks me where you are
He was there, when you walked out on me

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / BILL CHARLAP – They Didn't Believe Me

Hard to believe that it's six years since Tony Bennett & jazz piano giant Bill Charlap “did” Jerome Kern – their Grammy-winning “Silver Linings” album of 2015. Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio right now is playing their simply beautiful version of Jerry Kern's very first great song, THEY DIDN'T BELIEVE ME (1914).

The “Tony and Bill Charlap” album has a Wiki entry that mentions 'Mrs. Charlap' – Canadian-born jazz pianist (just as great as her hubby) Renee Rosnes.

"The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern is a studio album by Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap, released by RPM/Columbia on September 25, 2015.The album includes covers of 14 songs [and] features Bill Charlap on piano, Peter Washington on bass, Kenny Washington on drums, and special guest, pianist Renee Rosnes on four, two-piano tracks."

The album topped the Jazz Albums chart -- debuted at 89 on the Billboard 200 albums chart -- and won the 'Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album' at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.

And the Grammy-winning engineer was one of Tony's sons!

Dae Bennett (born 1955, The Bronx, New York, USA) is an engineer, producer and owner of the Bennett Studios which closed in 2011. Son of Tony Bennett, brother of Danny Bennett (3) and half-brother of Antonia Bennett. Was drummer in Neon.

[Mark Blackburn]

Joni Mitchell - A Case of You

"Joni Mitchell's 'BLUE' at 50" says the New York Times headline. Shared by James Taylor with friends and fans at his Facebook page. [Compelled to leave a note:]

Love the recollection by James Taylor who was 'present at the creation' and who remembered the name of the man who 'engineered' this classic record:

'I played on four songs, “A Case of You,” “Carey,” “California” and “All I Want.” Those were songs that Joni had written while she was traveling the previous year, and she wrote most on an instrument called a three-string dulcimer, which is a very mobile and very simple instrument. But it left me a wide-open opportunity to pick whatever chords would work with the melody and her spare accompaniment on the dulcimer. That was great fun for me.

'The engineer was Henry Lewy, an old colleague of Joni’s. He was the person on the other side of the glass, and if we were pitching, he was catching. His ear was really important, and he really had us keep it simple.
Some of the songs had some percussion, but basically it was two or three instruments and Joni’s voice: very few elements clouding it up. It’s a minimal kind of accompaniment that you want, just to give you a sense of the song, harmonically, and then you can really focus on her voice and her attitude and all of those things that make this such a great Joni Mitchell album.'

[Personal note:] My wife and I, married almost 50 years, first heard this one on a cassette tape. Remember those? Funny, I always imagined James Taylor playing accompaniment on this one -- but never knew until right this minute, 50 years on, that he was! Yes, 'A Case of You' -- still gives me goosebumps, still crazy after all these years.

 

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT & BILL EVANS - Young and Foolish

Indulge me please -- a ramble ranging from 'Young and Foolish' to Camp Granada:

It's the season of 'summer camp' and I awoke today humming a song by Alan Sherman – “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” here I am at Camp Granada (sp?) I remember Sherman died young and was about to Google his name (see below) as I hit the Sirius radio 'back 1 hour' button: channel 71 is playing my favorite version of YOUNG AND FOOLISH – by Tony Bennett and Bill Evans. The jazz piano giant, who left us in 1980 introduced jazz fans to this great melody over 60 years ago.

Who wrote that song? I never knew. (What did we do before Wiki?)

"Young and Foolish" is a popular song with music by Albert Hague and lyrics by Arnold B. Horwitt, published in 1954.
The song was introduced in the musical Plain and Fancy (1955–56), and has been recorded by many singers, since.

Recorded versions[edit]

Franck Amsallem
Paul Anka
Tony Bennett – for the album The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975).
Eve Boswell
Sacha Distel
Jay Clayton
Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1955[1] for use on his radio show and it was subsequently included in the box set The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings (1954–56) issued by Mosaic Records(catalog MD7-245) in 2009.[2]
Bill Evans – on his 1959 album Everbody Digs Bill Evans
The Four Preps
Lesley Gore
Gogi Grant – for her album Torch Time (1959).[3]
Bill Henderson
Ronnie Hilton – his cover version reached No. 17 on the UK Singles Chart in 1956.[4]
Edmund Hockridge - this reached the No. 10 spot in the UK chart in 1956.[5]
Richard "Groove" Holmes - for his 1973 album Night Glider
Nancy Kelly
The Lettermen
Gloria Lynne
Dean Martin- this briefly reached the No. 20 spot in the UK chart in 1956.[6]
Johnny Mathis - for his album Love Is Everything (1965)
Chris McNulty
Brad Mehldau
Mark Murphy
Jackie Paris
Lucy Reed
Irene Reid
Tahna Running
Jo Stafford – a single release in 1955.[7]
Laura Welland
Joe Williams
Nancy Wilson – for her album From Broadway with Love (1966)


Who wrote Young and Foolish? A composer I never heard-of (not many of them left!) but we sure know the name of one of his collaborators Allan Sherman. Hague has a worthy Wiki entry reminding us that he composed the musical cartoon about The Grinch who Stole Christmas:

Albert Hague (born Albert Marcuse, October 13, 1920 – November 12, 2001) was a German-American songwriter, composer, and actor.

Hague was born to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. His father, Harry Marcuse, was a psychiatrist and a musical prodigy, and his mother, Mimi (née Heller), a chess champion.[1] His family considered their Jewish heritage a liability and raised him as a Lutheran[2] (although he would later embrace his Jewish heritage after coming to the United States).[3] Shortly before he was to be inducted into the Hitler Youth, he and his mother fled to Rome.[2]

Hague came to America in 1939 after his sister, who lived in Ohio, got him a musical scholarship at the University of Cincinnati.[2] However, as he did not have a legal immigration status to be in the country, he was adopted by an eye surgeon associated with the university. After graduating in 1942, he served in the United States Army's special service band during World War II.[2][4]

Hague's Broadway Musicals include Plain and Fancy (1955),[5] Redhead (1959),[6] Cafe Crown (1964),[7] and The Fig Leaves Are Falling (1969, with lyrics by Allan Sherman).[8]
Famous songs he wrote include "Young and Foolish", "Look Who's in Love" and "Did I Ever Really Live?" He was the composer for the TV musical cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas and some songs in the 2000 musical version.[9] He also was an actor, most notably on the TV series Fame, where he played Benjamin Shorofsky, the music teacher. It was a part he originated in the film of the same name.[10] Hague also played a small role in the movie Space Jam (1996), as the psychiatrist that the Professional Basketball players go to when they lose their "skill".[11]
Hague and his wife Renee occasionally presented a cabaret act, first as "Hague and Hague: His Hits and His Mrs." and later, in 1998, under the title "Still Young and Foolish".[12] They played at Carnegie Hall, the Cinegrill in Los Angeles, and Eighty Eight's in Manhattan.[13]
Hague was a member of The Lambs where he often taught musical theater to members.[14]
Personal life and death[edit]
His wife, Renee Orin, an actress and singer, with whom he often collaborated, died, aged 73, in August 2000 from lymphoma.[15] They had been married since 1951.[2] They had two children. Albert Hague died at age 81 from cancer[16] at a hospital in Marina del Rey, California in November 2001.[2]

----

Oh yes -- “Allan (with two L's) Sherman” – who died young: 48 years ago, at age 48 [!] A large Wikipedia entry that opens with those songs we most remember:

Allan Sherman (born Allan Copelon;[1] November 30, 1924 – November 20, 1973) was an American comedy writer, television producer, singer and actor who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer (1962), became the fastest-selling record album up to that time.[2] His biggest hit single was "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", a comic novelty in which a boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours.

 

[Mark Blackburn]

WILLIE NELSON - Young at Heart

Was just thinking about the 'Nancy for Frank' replay yesterday of a show from 2007 -- the part when Frank tells Nancy about the moment when he first met his great arranger Nelson Riddle, who said he had "this song that's been hanging around the recording studios that no one wants" to record. What is it? asked Frank. "It's called, 'Young at Heart.'

In turn I was reminded that the lyric was composed by one of Frank's favorite lyricists, Carolyn Leigh -- who offered it first to Nat King Cole. Whose first words on finally meeting Carolyn were: "I goofed!" He explained that he thought it was for the 'geriatric set.'

All this from hearing Willie Nelson's plain and simple rendition -- from one of his Sinatra tribute albums, playing right now on Sirius radio channel 71. Piano and steel guitar fills, and Willie does it again -- makes this old song new again.
 

Edited June 22, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

CHARLIE WATTS – My Ship

Charlie Watts turned 80 this month (June 2) and about once a month Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio plays a jazz standard by the “Charlie Watts Quintet” with a vocal by . . . ? it never says! The channel 71 scroll on my computer screen never names the vocalist.

As if to say, “You asked?” – the intuitive genius that is YouTube 2021 just sent my way a YouTube posting by Bob Costas – a 1993 interview he did with Charlie, when the Stones had already been together for 30 years: Costas asked him, “In those entire 30 years, when have you been the happiest?”

CHARLIE WATTS: One of the most thrilling moments was – in doing this record (album of standards) when I'd assembled this whole orchestra at great expense! .... the moment when Brian, the piano player with our (core jazz) quintet gave the downbeat, and the whole orchestra began playing 'My Ship' – with Bernard Fowler singing the vocal. And did it in one take. That is the one on the record. And I thought that .... [long pause to choose his words] very rarely do you experience such things.”

From the album “Warm and Tender” (1993 Continuum Records) just the one single upload of this song to YouTube a year ago, noting this is “Track 1 of 16” on the album and that Bernard Fowler is a back up singer for The Rolling Stones. 

From Wikipedia

"My Ship" is a popular song written for the 1941 Broadway musical Lady in the Dark, with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin.

The music is marked "Andante espressivo"; Gershwin describes it as "orchestrated by Kurt to sound sweet and simple at times, mysterious and menacing at other".[1]

It was premiered by Gertrude Lawrence in the role of Liza Elliott, the editor of a fashion magazine. In the context of the show, the song comes in a sequence in which Elliott, in psychoanalysis, recalls a turn-of-the-century song she knew in her childhood.[2]

The song was not included in the 1944 Hollywood film Lady in the Dark, a fact which Ira Gershwin found inexplicable:

[Gershwin wrote:]

Later, when Lady in the Dark was filmed, the script necessarily had many references to the song. But for some unfathomable reason the song itself—as essential to this musical drama as a stolen necklace or a missing will to a melodrama—was omitted. Although the film was successful financially, audiences evidently were puzzled or felt thwarted or something, because items began to appear in movie-news columns mentioning that the song frequently referred to in Lady in the Dark was 'My Ship'. I hold a brief for Hollywood, having been more or less a movie-goer since I was nine; but there are times ...

— Ira Gershwin[1]

In 2003, Herbie Hancock won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for a version of this song released on the album Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall.

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT & DIANA KRALL -- (Our) Love is Here to Stay

Last night I watched, for the first time on Turner Classic Movies, a musical biopic my late father enjoyed -- The George Gershwin Story with lots of piano playing by Dad's favorite Hollywood virtuoso pianist/composer, Oscar Levant.

The movie sticks closely to the facts of George's life, and didn't include the last melody that George wrote for what became “(Our) Love is Here to Stay.” The song's own Wikipedia entry notes:

Composition[edit]

"Love Is Here to Stay" was the last musical composition George Gershwin completed before his death on July 11, 1937. Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics after George's death as a tribute to his brother. Although George had not written a verse for the song, he did have an idea for it that both Ira and pianist Oscar Levant had heard before his death. When a verse was needed, Ira and Levant recalled what George had in mind. Composer Vernon Duke reconstructed the music for the verse at the beginning of the song.[1][6]

Originally titled "It's Here to Stay" and then "Our Love Is Here to Stay," the song was finally published as "Love Is Here to Stay." Ira Gershwin said that for years he wanted to change the song's name back to "Our Love Is Here to Stay," but he felt it wouldn't be right since the song had already become a standard.[6]

Favorite latter day version as duet -- played this hour on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio: Tony Bennett and Diana Krall – backed by the Bill Charlap piano trio. Complete with the song's "added later" opening verse.

[Mark Blackburn]

JOE PESCI – I'll Remember April

Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing Joe Pesci's latter-day jazz rendition of I'LL REMEMBER APRIL (incorrectly listed as 'I' Remember April) and I'm reminded again of what a fine jazz singer he is; with an almost unique vocal style (that's hard to describe). Joe Pesci surrounds himself with virtuoso soloists, on guitar, piano and bass. (Can't determine online their names: I'll have to buy the album to find out!)

It's at Youtube with “Comments turned off” (so, no -- we won't “learn more” will we?)

 

Google for the “most recent Joe Pesci jazz vocal album” and find one informed note by writer “Dom Nero” in Esquire magazine, two years ago:

His old-fashioned jazz albums, for the most part, are tender, playful, and sincere. They hail from an eclectic jazz history that includes the predictable influences like Frankie Valli, but also more esoteric artists such as the seldom-remembered blues vocalist, Jimmy Scott.

We've come to know Pesci on screen as an Italian-American angry man. But what's made Pesci such an enduring presence in Hollywood for so many years is not just his ability to accurately portray violent psychopaths onscreen. It's his range: Irishman, for the first time since perhaps Raging Bull, [gave] Pesci a chance to showcase his subtlety. That's exactly what we can see in his music career, which connects to hallmarks of jazz music and big band classics. Pesci may not ever get recognition for it –but he's got some serious range.

Pesci's presence in the music scene goes all the way back to the early '60s. A Jersey-born kid of a working class Italian-American family, he's partly responsible for the success of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons–Pesci actually introduced a few of the guys to singer and songwriter Bob Gaudio, who would go on to write many of the group's biggest hits. There's even a scene in the Jersey Boys musical about it.

Jersey Boys (2014) Cry For Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drpTj5jJXYk

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA - The Days of Wine and Roses

Sirius radio is playing Sinatra's up-tempo version of “The Days of Wine and Roses” -- title track from his “and other Academy Award-winners” album (1964) a then-recent Oscar-winner from 'Mercer & Mancini' that's almost always performed as a ballad, but which, for one moment in time, Frank redefined with an inspired, swing-tempo arrangement from Nelson Riddle.

[The song's Wiki entry now includes the historical note that:]

The phrase "days of wine and roses" is originally from the poem "Vitae Summa Brevis" by the English writer Ernest Dowson (1867–1900):
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.

Most viewed version and first offering at YouTube this day uploaded in 2017 with an informed note:

Written by Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer, "The Days of Wine and Roses" from the 1962 movie of the same name, was recorded by Frank Sinatra on January 28, 1964 with Nelson Riddle arranging and conducting. The track was included in the Reprise LP, Sinatra Sings Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, and Other Academy Award Winners, a collection of Oscar-winning songs, released later in 1964. "The Days of Wine and Roses” received the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1962. Sinatra and Riddle proved once more that their collaboration was one of the greatest of all time.

 

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

Hiroshi Nakamura - "Danny Boy - inspired by Bill Evans"

You know how some days you just need to hear a song for what you're experiencing (some sadness perhaps) in this present moment: hoping one will be sent your way by a kindred spirit who seems to be 'reading your mind.' This is such a day! and this was the very song I needed: from a gifted Japanese pianist Hiroshi Nakamura.

Listening while recalling those poignant words -- of invitation to kneel at the graveside of a departed loved one, and "Say an Ave (Hail Mary) for me."  Yes, recalling the lyric to Danny Boy while watching these gifted hands and an inspired transcription, of a favorite solo by most everyone's favorite jazz pianist.  Bill Evans recorded this one as a solo -- after almost a year away from playing concerts, in the wake of the accidental death of his great bass player Scott LaFaro.

Thanks, Hiroshi for sharing this day!

 

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

Eleven years ago at the Grammys – honoring the memory of Les Paul – Jeff Beck performed to perfection Les's most difficult licks for a 'live' rendition of 'How High The Moon' (a chart topping million seller in the early 50s). Dublin born singer and multi-instrumentalist Imelda May and her band replicated the multi-track Mary Ford vocals. The video which is not available disappeared from YouTube after that night. But the Grammy Museum offered up this audio recording.

If, like some of us, you know by heart every note of Les Paul's unique solos, you'd remember that night having goosebumps and – in my case, saying, not for the first time, That guy, Jeff Beck is the greatest all-'round guitarist to transcend his blues/rock roots. You may agree?

 

June 24 2011 Jeff and Imelda replicated their performance at New York's Iridium jazz club where Les had played one night a week for 15 years.

 

 

Edited July 3, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY & BILL “Together Again” – You Must Believe In Spring

“ .... and all the things you 'know' -- you can't be certain-of,
You must believe in Spring .... and Love”

Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing Tony Bennett at his softest. I've heard him 'live' and in person, at his loudest -- before an audience of a thousand at our Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg Canada, Tony conspicuously put down his mic and sang to us in an un-amplified voice that was beautifully loud: one reason Frank declared Tony's singing voice the “best in the business.”

But how softly can Tony sing? When he sings a lullaby to a newborn baby? He did it only once (that I know of) – in a recording studio 50 years ago, at “three in the morning” Tony said, alone together, with his dear friend Bill Evans.
The song: YOU MUST BELIEVE IN SPRING (18 months ago, when no one was looking) finally got a tiny Wikipedia entry (in its entirety):

"You Must Believe in Spring may refer to:
'You Must Believe in Spring', a popular song written by Michel Legrand and Jacques Demy for the 1967 French film The Young Girls of Rochefort
You Must Believe in Spring (Bill Evans album), recorded in 1977 and released in 1980
You Must Believe in Spring (Frank Morgan album), 1992
----
But no mention of this recording – from their second album “Together Again” (1976)

 

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JACK JONES – Who Cares? (so long as you care for me)

“Who cares, if the sky cares to fall in the sea? Who cares what banks fail in Yonkers – as long as you've got that 'kiss that conquers'? Why should I care? – life is one long jubilee, so long as I care for you, and you care for me.”

Not for the first time Channel 71 is reading my mind! I awoke today with the phrase “Who cares?” on my mind – and tried in vain to recall which composers (Rodgers & Hart?) wrote the song, that featured that “so long as .... you care for me” sentiment.

Playing right this minute -- as if to say, “Oh! You mean this one?” Thanks, Jersey Lou Simon, programmer extraordinaire!

It's from Jack Jones' THE GERSHWIN ALBUM (1992) – a CD I complimented so many times in public settings for almost 30 years that I finally acquired a used copy last year! Arranged, I see by five different orchestrators:  This track, Who Cares, was arranged by “Byron Olsen” (Olsen with an E, not an O).

There is only one version uploaded to YouTube, in July one year ago: to 68 views and one 'thumbs-up' posted with an informed caption -- with “Olsen” misspelled with an 'O' -- but, really, who cares! So long as there's this one rendition.

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

But this is where I came in . . .

Playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio – maybe my all-time favorite swing tune by Sinatra (yours too?) Love the subtle way Nelson Riddle's arrangement takes flight on the bridge/release. In the 86 years (correct) since The Way You Look Tonight was composed by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, no one ever sang these words better:

With each word your tenderness grows, tearing my fears apart
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose, touches my foolish heart
Lovely – never, never change -- keep that breathless charm
won't you please arrange it, 'cause I love you, and the way . . .

I always go in search of a 'Michelob' video version – best beer commercial(s) ever, right?  But for now, there is the studio version, recorded for Frank's 'Academy Award Winners' album. First offering at YouTube this night, most seen with 13,456,423 views -- alas with “comments turned off” -- so people wouldn't "learn more" would they?

Edited July 11, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY - The Folks Who Live On The Hill

"And when the kids grow up and leave us
We'll still be sharing that same old view
just we two – Darby & Joan, who used to be
Jack and Jill – and we'll be pleased to be called …. "

Hit the back one hour button on Siriusly Sinatra streaming on computer and it's Ann Hampton Callaway and my 'new favorite' version of Kern & Hammerstein's The Folks Who Live on the Hill. An exquisite vocal by Ann with a piano trio and a guest tenor sax virtuoso – I imagine them smiling with delight at the new 'gem' they are creating together: jazz singing at its finest, you may agree!

Is it at YouTube, the studio recording? Even better: “Live, at Birdland New York.”

[Mark Blackburn]

Every 12 or 20 years, Jennifer Warnes releases a new album. Which means she's due for one any minute now (we hope!)  A Facebook friend just shared a quote (I'd not read before) from Bob Dylan -- about Leonard Cohen (below) and thought of the song Cohen co-wrote with Jennifer Warnes 40 years ago.  The two were on a tour bus together, near Lourdes, France when Jennifer explained to Leonard the significance of that 'Marian Shrine'  – visited by upwards of 10 million Catholic faithful each year (pre-Covid days, remember?) 

Jennifer said Leonard said it would make a good song – and he even suggested the opening line: 

“There was a child named 'Bernadette' – I heard the story long ago.”  

Leonard Cohen is listed as co-writer of this, my favorite song by Jennifer Warnes.  At YouTube there is one upload of the studio recording which just topped 109K 'views' with comments left on.  Thank you, Al Zebra.

 [youtube]f96WymmAJAs[/youtube]  

“Leonard Cohen is the ‘number one’ songwriter of our time – and I’m ‘number zero’. When people talk about Leonard, they fail to mention his melodies, which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius. Even the counterpoint lines – they give a celestial character and melodic lift to his songs. No one else comes close to this in modern music. I like all of Leonard’s songs, early or late. They make you think & feel. I like some of his later songs even better than his early ones. Yet there’s a simplicity to his early ones that I like, too. He's very much a descendant of Irving Berlin. Both of them just hear melodies that most of us can only strive for. Both Leonard and [Irving] Berlin are incredibly crafty. Leonard particularly uses chord progressions that are classical in shape. He is a much more savvy musician than you’d think.”

— Bob Dylan

 

[Mark Blackburn]

Frank SINATRA - I Left My Heart In San Francisco

Listening to Sinatra's seldom-heard recording of Tony Bennett's signature tune, I Left My Heart in San Francisco -- playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio -- and wondering "Who arranged?"

To these ears, it sounds like a blend of Robert ('Great Songs from Great Britain) Farnon (on the musical bridge) together with pure Nelson ('The Concert Sinatra') Riddle, for the closing orchestral flourish. And throughout, there are overlying string orchestrations that sound like . . . some other great arranger (neither of the above). If it's Riddle he is (almost) incognito – in camouflage, for some reason: it mostly doesn't sound like him.  But beautiful!

First version offered at YouTube today – this one, with a pretty slideshow; posted 13 years ago, with 575K “views” and lyrics provided – in Spanish – “Dejé mi corazón en San Francisco.”

 

[Tony's version, mislabeled "Frank Sinatra"]

Edited July 15, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

Canadian-born composer Dolores Claman died this week, just after celebrating her 94th birthday (July 6). Anyone who is Canadian (and of an age) knows 'by heart' two of Dolores' best tunes from the 1960s: The first was the theme song for an Academy Award -winning short film, introduced at the Ontario Pavilion of Canada's “Expo '67” world's fair in Montreal. The other was the “Hockey Night in Canada” instrumental theme (more about that one below).

The best report I ever read on Dolores Claman was by Toronto Star feature writer Leslie Scrivener who recalled in 2007 that

“The big hits that sunny summer of '67 were Happy Together by The Turtles, I'm a Believer by The Monkees, and All You Need is Love by The Beatles – as optimistic as the year itself.

There was one particularly Canadian song that year – one of dozens commissioned to celebrate the country's regions – that was popular and upbeat, as was expected at the time. “A Place to Stand” may not leap to mind as one of the hits of `67 – until you put the lyrics together: "A place to stand, a place to grow, Ontar-i-ar-i-ar-i-o."

 

 

Remember that? Most do, because many people growing up in Ontario in 1967 have its rousing melody hardwired in the brain. The mere mention of it sends the tune looping round and round, maddeningly.

The song was commissioned by the Ontario government to accompany the short documentary film of the same name that was screened at the Ontario Pavilion at Expo. That film was a marvel for its multiple, moving, split-screen images, a technique that had not been used before and astounded all who saw it.

 

The song sold 50,000 copies. The film, which later toured movie theatres in the United States and Europe, would be seen by 100 million people, be nominated for two Academy Awards, and win an Oscar for 'Best Live Action Short Subject' for filmaker Chris Chapman.

 

Vancouver-born composer Dolores Claman and her then-husband, Richard Morris, were hired to write the music and lyrics for the film.

 

The couple met in London, England, where Claman, a graduate of the Juilliard School, was writing songs for musical revues – things like Air on a Shoestring – in West End London theaters.

 

Morris wanted a taste of the new world. They moved to Toronto, where he worked for an ad agency and they started a jingle-writing business, Quartet Productions, whose clients included Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, and the major airlines.

 

The only instruction they received from the province was that the music had to be suitable for children to sing.

"The words drove the music," Claman says. "But it was complicated because we didn't see the whole film at all, just bits" of it.

 

The fleeting images of the people of Ontario at work and play, and scenes of shimmering autumn leaves, geese in flight, and baskets of peaches, created what Claman interpreted as a "warm feeling."

 

Reviewers at the time said it was difficult to remember a single sequence, but the effect was subtle and subliminal. "You'd have the sneaking belief that Ontario really is Eden," one observed.

 

"I always had to get a picture in my mind and then let emotion take over," Claman says. "I have to get myself right in to it and not stand back too much."

 

But when the lyrics were presented to the Department of Economics and Development, as the ministry was then known, "they didn't go down very well," she says. "Especially the `Ontari-ari-ari-o' bit."

 

"I was busy listening to a mix in the recording room, so I didn't see what happened," Claman says. "Richard was sitting in the client's room, which was very small, when suddenly a lot of men in suits arrived, including the Minister of Industry, looking very nervous, and other dignitaries looking non-committal and finally Ontario premier John Robarts, himself. He listened to it once through, wiped a tear from his eye, and left. And that was that."

 

Later they received a letter from Robarts. "He said every time he heard the song, he teared up a bit. It touched him emotionally."

 

The song was enormously successful, and the couple, who held the copyright, decided they couldn't be bothered policing it – at one point, people were using the song to sell real estate – and instead sold the rights to the province.

 

It's likely the success of "A Place to Stand" that led to the song that really made Claman famous, the Hockey Night in Canada theme, the brassy, triumphalist air that still heralds the Saturday night game on CBC television.

 

"A Place to Stand" also led them to Spain, where they were hired to work out Spanish lyrics for the international distribution of the film.

 

Worn out from the pace of jingle writing in Toronto, and as the parents of two small children, they ended up living in Spain (where Dolores died this week).

 

If it was unsettling for the composer to see only part of the film, it was torturous for the filmmaker, Chris Chapman who had embarked on a dazzling new technique: Over a year, Chapman shot 70 kilometres of film, which he distilled into 18 minutes, though the images moving across the screen were the equivalent of an hour and three-quarters of film. It was a difficult task, because such a film had not been made before [and]

 

Even at the first screening, at Todd-AO studios in Hollywood, he was still unsure.

 

"There were a couple of stenographers, who were eating their lunch watching the screening, and they were agog. But I wanted to run. I was exhausted and thought it was a failure, but a chap grabbed me as I was going out the door. He'd been standing at the back of the screening room and said he was blown away by it. It was Steve McQueen."

 

The next year, McQueen starred in The Thomas Crown Affair, directed by Norman Jewison, a film that used the split-screen technique that Chapman developed.

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

And as for Dolores Claman's “Hockey Night in Canada” theme music, the song's Wikipedia entry has an updated note about its “origins.”

In 1968, the CBC commissioned McLaren Advertising in Toronto to create a new promotional tune for Hockey Night in Canada.[2] McLaren contracted Dolores Claman, a classically trained composer who had produced a number of successful jingles, promotional songs and television theme music,[3] to write the tune. Claman had never seen a hockey game in person and wrote the tune imagining Roman gladiators wearing skates. "It just arrived in my head," she recalled several decades later. Claman said she wrote her song to reflect the narrative arc of a hockey game from the arrival on the rink, to the battle of the game, to the trip home, "plus a cold beer."[4] Since the song was originally classified as an advertising jingle Claman did not originally get residuals but only a one-time creative fee of $800. The piece was originally performed by a 20-member orchestra.[4]

In the 1970s, CBC began using the tune as the standard introduction for the show and Claman was entitled to music-use licence payments of between $2,000 and $10,000 each year. After she was advised by her agent in 1993 to license the song, she earned approximately $500 per broadcast.

I grew up in Ottawa, where “The Parkdale (United Church) Community Orchestra” has for decades been an important musical presence in Canada's capitol: here they perform the best version I ever heard of this great “Hockey Night” melody by Dolores Claman (this arrangement by the late Howard Cable of Toronto).

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

ROD STEWART  – Blue Moon

Listening just now to Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio playing Rod Stewart's version of Rodgers & Hart's best selling pop song – Blue Moon. Larry Hart was kept busy re-writing the words (five times) for Hollywood movies from which it would be cut: Each time, Larry Hart re-worked the lyric into something new – only once including an opening verse. Frank Sinatra himself didn't include the verse on my all-time favorite rendition (for his "Sinatra Swingin' Session!!!" album). Next to Frank's, this is my favorite latter-day rendition – not least for those opening words:

"Once upon a time, before I took up smiling, I hated the moonlight.
[and] with no one to stay-up-for, I went to sleep at ten. [but now]
Blue moon – you saw me standing alone …"

Complete with a lovely steel-string acoustic guitar solo by Eric Clapton. What's not to love?

At YouTube, the first offering this day is a 'live' performance with 24 piece orchestra and chorus: Eric Clapton's solo is replicated 'verbatim' by an unnamed guitarist whose name I'd really to know!

Edited July 20, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

Enjoying the replay for "Show #9 July 22, 2007"

Nancy Sinatra's weekly 3-hour show "Nancy For Frank" is in replays now (over 500 programs) and her Sinatra Family Forum will be closing after a 24 year run in a few days (August 1, 2021). I tuned in Sirius XM channel 71 just in time to hear (in sync with our sadness) Nancy's Dad singing (in duet with opera singer Eileen Farrell) Kris Kristofferson's For The Good Times.

"Don't look so sad, I know it's over,
but life goes on, and this old world will keep on a-turnin'

Let's just be glad we had some time to spend together
There's no need to watch the bridges that we're burning .... "

[Mark Blackburn]

BOB DYLAN - It's Funny to Everyone But Me

Siriusly Sinatra is playing Bob Dylan's version of a song Sinatra recorded with the Harry James Orchestra in August 1939. Exactly three months earlier The Ink Spots introduced the song. A forgotten and overlooked gem -- until Bob Dylan's cover version for a Grammy-winning album three years ago. Simple but beautiful arrangement for three guitars. Is it at YouTube? Nope. But it's posted elsewhere: Thanks, Spotify
 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"It's Funny to Everyone but Me" is a song with words and music written by Jack Lawrence in 1939. It was recorded by The Ink Spots on May 17, 1939.
It was also recorded by Frank Sinatra with Harry James & his Orchestra on August 17, 1939. It was one of the songs of Sinatra's developing repertoire.[1]
In 1960, Dinah Shore included it on her album Dinah Sings Some Blues with Red.[2]
In 2017, Bob Dylan released a version of the song on his album Triplicate.

[Mark Blackburn]

FRANK SINATRA - Flowers Mean Forgiveness

What I personally call 'a Hawaiian melody' (a song that could have been playing on the radio in an apartment scene in Sinatra's Oscar-performance-winning movie, From Here to Eternity -- is playing right now on Sirius radio: titled “Flowers Mean Forgiveness.”

The channel 71 computer scroll says this is found on 'The Complete Capitol Singles Collection.' A Nelson Riddle arrangement, obviously, but did the beautiful vocal chorus (remember those?) have a name? One of those 'choirs' included the mother of a favorite Grammy-winning arranger Nan Schwartz; her Dad played sax I think on quite a few early Sinatra sessions. It is at YouTube, but with “Comments turned off” (so we can't “learn more” can we?).

 

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

BARBRA STREISAND – Why Did I Choose You?

For a few seconds I didn't spot the singer (on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio). That happens sometimes when Barbra sings softly at a song's opening phrases, like these poetic words:

Why did I choose you? I saw the heart in you – the one you hide so well
I saw a quiet man who had a gentle way – a way that caught me in its glow ….

I used to know who wrote this one, and what it's 'from' but I'm old and forgetful. Thank God there's Google and Wikipedia for the requisite note: Now who arranged? Our “Rich K” would know!

The song itself doesn't have a note of its own. But Wiki says it's from her 1965 album, MY NAME IS BARBRA:

"Why Did I Choose You?" - The CD contains the long version (3:46) of this song, and the vinyl LP contains the short version (2:46).
Track 5. "Why Did I Choose You?" (Michael Leonard, Herbert Martin) – CD: 3:46 / Vinyl: 2:49

One version at YouTube posted a decade ago to 123K "views" -- and open for comments!

Most recent comment below video is a couple years old but timely too, you may agree!

Brian Lewis
(2 years ago)
When my parents were old and nearing the end, I played this to them for the first time
and watched as the tears began to fall.......mine too.......but we will meet again.