Mark Blackburn

JESSICA MOLASKEY - JOHN PIZZARELLI – I Want to be Happy

With its syncopated rhythm and catchy tune I WANT TO BE HAPPY is a song that stays with you (be warned) for hours, even days after you first hear it.

Composed almost a century ago by Vincent (Without a Song) Youmans to words by Irving Caesar – who made it in good health to age 101 – in part we may surmise, by composing a batch of happy songs circa 1925. Most notably, “Sometimes I'm Happy” (Sometimes I'm blue; my disposition depends on you). That's some people's favorite track on Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' – Grammy-winning album of jazz standards which celebrated its 23^rd anniversary this month (see previous page).

If there'd been a poetry contest in 1925 requiring – “In 50 words or less” – the secret to happiness, these three stanzas would take the prize, no?

Life's really worth living, when we are mirth-giving
Why can't I give some to you?

When skies are gray, and you say, you are blue

I'll send the sun smiling through.

I want to be happy, but I won't be happy,

till I make you happy too!

I haven't checked to see which recording is most famous but can't imagine a more entertaining version than this – a live stream performance from my “other favorite musical couple.” I defy you to watch this and NOT be happy!

----

P.S. In answer to my question yesterday – when he scat sings in perfect unison with his guitar playing, which is coming first in his mind – vocal or guitar? John said “The guitar leads the voice.” His performance here is a 'best possible example' of this art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz3nNYD_4I0&list=RDMz3nNYD_4I0

PAUL MCCARTNEY – The Glory of Love

We were discussing 'great love songs' – my musical father and me, a few years before his death. I remember asking his opinion about 'As Time Goes By' – from a 1943 film that Dad always said, “captured, better than any other movie” the mood of that period; people desperate to escape 'occupied' Europe and North Africa – "the collective anxiety."
 

ME: Is it perhaps the greatest love song? 

DAD: Maybe the greatest song ever written ABOUT love.”

I'm thinking of the “other greatest song ABOUT love” – THE GLORY OF LOVE – playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio Paul McCartney and some stellar jazz musicians.

Coincidentally I'd just been re-reading my favorite part of Paul's liner notes for that 'Kisses On The Bottom' album of standards and should- have- been- standards that Paul's father Jim enjoyed. Recalling the origins of the project, Paul wrote:

"Eventually I just said, 'I really ought to do this, or I'll go off the idea and kick myself.' So I talked to a lady in our New York Office called Nancy Jeffries who knows all about the publishing side of the business and I said, 'If I was going to do it, who might I work with? Who might produce?' And she said, you should meet (producer) Tommy LiPuma. So I met with Tommy and he suggested Diana Krall.

QUESTION: Were songs like these among the first you ever learned to play?

PAUL: No I never learned how to play them. All I ever did was sing them at family sing-songs. There is this one song, HOME that I remember from my Dad's era. It's funny, when I suggested that one, Diana said, “Oh my gosh! I thought I was the only person on earth who knew that song!” And before The Beatles I actually used to do an instrumental version of it. I used to play a little guitar instrumental when me and John were just getting it together. So I had nice memories of that one.”

[Poised to leave a comment on this Grammy-winning video, I find my namesake has already reviewed it – twice!]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wksNI8b_jx0

JANIS IAN - I learned the truth at 76

On his weekly 1-hour live stream "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere" show, my favorite jazz singer / guitarist JOHN PIZZARELLI (at around the 15:40 mark) played my new favorite version of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Then read my mind.  Permit a little background, please.

I spent the decade of the 70s in Bermuda, working in radio and television, and in 1975 I can remember a 'jazz vocal' hitting my ears like a breath of fresh air – Janis Ian's poignant ballad AT SEVENTEEN which climbed to the top of our pop chart.

I'm a guitarist and I can remember wondering if – at the end of the musical bridge – whether it was Janis herself playing a nylon-string guitar, for a quick sequence of nine notes, each one a chord. The orange label on the 45 rpm record said Janis had “arranged the horns.” But as to that lovely accompanying guitar? It only took half a century, until tonight, to 'learn the truth' (at 76).

At the end of a single chorus of I'VE GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO HER FACE, something makes John Pizzarelli add a comment: After noting “that one is from My Fair Lady” and that “a single chorus” (lasting just one minute) “doesn't seem enough,” John says to my utter delight,

“That reminds me … if any of you have Janis Ian's At Seventeen – and you hear the record – there's a little section, as it comes out of the instrumental [demonstrates that very sequence of nine notes played quickly as chords] “THAT lick,” John says, “played like that, twice – that's Bucky Pizzarelli.”

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Search YouTube and there's this version, with the 45 rpm label, noting Janis Ian arranged the horns: Pick it up at the 3:00 mark – so those notes by Bucky tickle your ears at the 3:12 mark.
 

John Pizzarelli link -- tonight's show on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/165626369573318

“That was lovely. That's a beautiful song,” says Jessica Molaskey after her hubby plays ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE.   Each time John plays it, it's better. This time at around the 34:14 mark. The composer Jerome Kern mistakenly believed that it was “too complex” ever to become popular: Easy to hum or whistle, yes – but a riot of modulations, key changes, that somehow, miraculously winds up back where it started out – in E-flat. John chose A-flat to match his high notes at the close.

I am in awe that John Pizzarelli can play this differently each time, with gorgeous chord sequences. This time he slowed it down at the end, closing out-of-tempo, rubato – just when your ear is craving such a more reverential ending. (My own family's favorite song.) Last time John played All The Things You Are, Jessica wondered whether it wasn't dated – the words by Oscar Hammerstein – reasoning that “People don't talk that way any more.” “WHAT??!!” said John at the time, feigning great shock and quoting the most poetic part of the lyric: “You are the promised kiss of Springtime that makes the lonely winter seem long!” Only the greatest song ever written.” This time Jessica said simply “That's a beautiful song.”

WILLIE NELSON – Ain't Misbehavin'

After midnight, just checked to see what's playing on Siriusly Sinatra: I'm hearing the late, great blues piano giant Joe Sample accompanying Willie Nelson on Fats Waller's best tune, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' – from my favorite of Willie's albums of jazz standards,  'American Classic' -- recorded 14 years ago when Willie was only 76 (my age now!).

Just re-reading at Wikipedia the “Personnel List” of jazz all-stars in the supporting cast:

Willie Nelson - guitar, vocals

• Joe Sample - piano, arrangements

• Norah Jones - piano, vocals

• Mickey Raphael - harmonica

• Diana Krall - piano, vocals

• Anthony Wilson - guitar

• Lewis Nash - drums

• Jeff Hamilton - drums

• Christian McBride - bass guitar

• Robert Hurst - bass guitar

• Jim Cox - Hammond B3 organ

• Jeff Clayton - alto saxophone

   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq6d4maW2Xg

Wikipedia - notes on the singer & the song:

American Classic is the 57th studio album by American country music artist Willie Nelson, released on August 25, 2009. It focuses on the American popular songbook and standard jazz classics, and includes guest appearances by Norah Jones and Diana Krall.

"Ain't Misbehavin'" is a 1929 stride jazz/early swing song. Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics to a score by Thomas "Fats" Waller and Harry Brooks[2] for the Broadway musical comedy play Connie's Hot Chocolates.

At the intermission of Hot Chocolates at the Hudson Theatre, Louis Armstrong made his Broadway debut playing a trumpet solo on the song.[144] Fats Waller's original instrumental recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984.[77]

DIANA KRALL – Autumn in New York

And speaking of “Cinematography – of very high quality, alas uncredited” (see above) the intuitive genius that is YouTube just sent me another Diana Krall video – one seen by nearly 3 million fans, but not by me, until this minute.

Coincidentally (or not) I'd just been reflecting on how seemingly old-fashioned black & white photography – far from being outdated technology – can still mysteriously affect us emotionally in ways that color can't. Case in point.

Need I say, my new favorite version of 'Autumn in New York' – my favorite song composed (words and tune) by Vernon Duke “the summer of 1934.”

[An informed note with this video]

2,958,745 views Sep 25, 2020 #NewYorkCity #Jazz #MusicVideo

“Autumn in New York” – with breathtaking scenes of New York City filmed by Davis McCutcheon and directed by Mark Seliger – from Diana Krall’s new album ‘This Dream of You’, out now!

Musicians: Christian McBride - Bass, Russell Malone - Guitar. Strings arranged by Alan Broadbent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5FVmJKPSrY

DIANA KRALL – Let's Face The Music And Dance

A propos what's playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra – my favorite rendition by Diana Krall of the most philosophical lyric ever composed for the Great American Songbook – Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz's LET'S FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE.

Google to be reminded it's from my favorite early 'orchestral' album of hers (see previous page). First offering at YouTube this day, is this one – an old (2005) music video I've never seen! Cinematography of very high quality, alas uncredited.  This official version has 1,007,022 “views”. 

A warm weather jazz samba, on a day when, here in the coldest major city in the world (minus 35 windchill and the start of another blizzard)  I really needed this!

Thanks to channel 70's mind-reader programmer-extraordinaire 'Jersey Lou' Simon for brightening my day, warming my outlook -- again!  And thanks to Diana Krall for sharing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLZfhHW98Os

JONI MITCHELL – Sometimes I'm Happy

It's quarter to three, there's no one in the place except you and me, and Siriusly Sinatra is playing my favorite version of SOMETIMES I'M HAPPY – the oldest song on her Both Sides Now album which just celebrated its 23^rd anniversary.

[I needed a Wiki reminder that this song was introduced nearly a century ago in a 1927 Broadway show by Stanley Holloway – the same “English actor” who would star, thirty years later, in My Fair Lady (1956) with two 'show-stoppers' – Wiv a Little Bit o' Luck, and Get Me to the Church on Time. Which won him a Tony theater award – and an Oscar-nomination for his celebrated movie performance.]

As for the song the Wiki list of singers and musicians, who've recorded Sometimes I'm Happy includes every single important recording artist you could name. But this one, by Joni Mitchell – backed by a 90-piece London-based symphony orchestra – is the most memorable.

Google for it and first up this day is this video – with terrific graphics – created by “Joni Journey” (10 years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWkzGaK5fDA

A documentary history -- 'Pianos and Greatest Blues Players' according to Clint Eastwood

The only person in Hollywood who could have produced, from start to finish (including clearances of copyrights) such an historic documentary – deeply informative, and a joy to watch. Five minutes in, his good friend Ray Charles shares insights we've never seen or heard elsewhere. Beginning around the 5:30 mark:

CLINT:   Do you remember his name? The boogie piano player who showed you how to play your first notes?

RAY:   Wiley Pitman. I could never forget his name! This guy was practicing …. and you know Clint, this shows you about people: He could have said, 'Get away from me kid – can't you see I'm practicing?' And I would have had to GO, 'cause I was taught to 'mind' grown people, regardless. But he didn't say that. I guess he thought that any kid that was willing to give up his play time, to come and listen to him, must really love music!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q763H0MBOrA

TONY BENNETT: The Music Never Ends

It doesn't seem like 16 years since I purchased what continues to be my all-time favorite musical biography --  a 2-disc DVD "Special Edition" of CLINT EASTWOOD PRESENTS TONY BENNETT: THE MUSIC NEVER ENDS. My favorite, not least for its highest quality production values. No surprise when you consider who filmed it, as a labor of love, sparing no expense in celebration of his good friend, Tony Bennett.

Disc 1 is a “Color & B/W Documentary – 125 minutes” with my favorite living actor Anthony Hopkins narrating.  Disc 2 is a superb – best of its kind – “Concert Performance” by Tony at the 2005 Monterey Jazz Festival. Clint was there that night and recalled to Tony how the outdoor audience "gasped when a full moon suddenly emerged from clouds at the exact moment when Tony sang, 'Fly me to the Moon!'

No single clip from this documentary could do it justice.  And yet, in barely 5 minutes, this one provides a good taste of what Tony had accomplished – just up to that point (2007) in his career.

Uploaded to YouTube (535,242 “views” since 2010) with the unassuming title, “Tony Bennett and Bill Evans with Johnny Carson 1975.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MselAkjXbM

TONY BENNETT – A Time for Love

There are moments when I think that Tony Bennett is the greatest popular singer of them all – and that, as Sinatra said famously, “For my money Tony has the best voice in the business.”

Moments like this one, when Siriusly Sinatra channel 70 is playing Tony's definitive recording of A TIME FOR LOVE. With so many great Tony Bennett albums,  I didn't remember immediately which black vinyl LP of almost 60 years ago included this gem.

I spotted the Johnny Mandel arrangement (no other orchestrator sounds like him) but we needed a Wiki reminder that the 'dean' of arrangers, who left us three years ago, had composed the beautiful tune – to a lyric by a three-time, 'Best Original Song' Oscar-winner, Paul Francis Webster.

Yes, title track to an album which, since the last time I checked, has finally got a one-line entry at Wikipedia:

A Time for Love is a 1966 compilation album by Tony Bennett made of unreleased material recorded between 1960 and 1966 Recorded 1960-66 in Los Angeles, London and New York City.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko_QMd0ZBjQ

https://www.facebook.com/tonybennett

https://www.facebook.com/mark.blackburn.3910?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDo3Nzg5NDM3NTM1OTIyMTVfNjYyMzQ1MzQ1Njk1MTI2

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

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

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]

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

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)

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

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

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]

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]

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:] 

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.

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

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?

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).

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