Mark Blackburn

DON McLEAN -- The Mountains of Mourne When I was little, my musical Mom would sing me to sleep with lullabies. At least half a dozen of them, including a request from me that she “sing the one about the mountains.” She knew only the first stanza. So that's the only one I can recite, to this day, hearing her lovely voice in my mind's ear, even now, 20 years after her passing, singing these words. Oh Mary, this London's a wonderful sight! With the people all workin' by day and by night They don't plant potatoes, nor barley, nor wheat But there's gangs of them 'diggin' for gold' in the street At least, when I asked them, that's what I was told So I took a hand in this digging for gold But for all that I found there, I might as well be Where the Mountains of Mourne roll down to the sea. ---- Don McLean, of 'American Pie' fame, may have had a musical Mom like mine, who sang him to sleep with this same song. To this day he's the only singer with a No. 1 hit to his credit, who ever recorded “Mountains of Mourne” -- so I could get to hear the extra stanzas my father always said "included one about “a policeman on London's Strand who held up the traffic with a wave of his hand.” Sure enough. The concluding stanza. I type fast so let me share it: You remember young Denny McLaren, of course? Well, he's over here now, with the rest of the force I saw him one day, as he stood on The Strand He stopped all the traffic, with a wave of his hand. And as we were talking of days that are gone The whole town of London stood there, to look on But for all his great powers, he's wishful like me to be back where the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea ---- Google to be reminded that “the Mourne is a small mountain range in Northern Ireland.” Thank you, Don McLean! And thank you LeCommedieDelArte for sharing. A comment below the video attributes the song to one “Percy French, who wrote many memorable tunes.”

HARRY NILSSON – This Is All I Ask Gordon Jenkins – one of Sinatra's top arrangers (Nat Cole's too) wrote some of his best late-in-life arrangements for Harry Nilsson. There's a bit of video I'd love you to see, around the 27:20 mark of their recording session with London Symphony musicians. Some playful give-and-take, between master and student. Just before launching the best version of the most beloved song Gordon Jenkins ever wrote: THIS IS ALL I ASK. “Beautiful girls, walk a little slower when you walk by me . . . “ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H2922CVjV8

Shared at BERMUDA DAYDREAMIN' this day (3/26/2024) I remember like it was yesterday! An April morning in 1975, I awoke to our 'morning man' at ZBM radio David Lopes playing a favorite jazz tune, MISTY – but countrified, with a single fiddler scrubbing away at those words “a thousand violins.” I was crazy about the Ray Stevens rendition. And I could tell you were too. You played it every day! Remember? I imagine you playing it for the cows at 3 a.m. when you milked them 'before work' at ZBM. Call me crazy but this still gives me goosebumps. It's just the memory, right? Till the cows come home!

REMEMBER - Harry Nilsson Was poised to type "Wasn't this just the best song he ever composed?" But I see my namesake did that already, "4 years ago." [Since then it's turned 1M views.] As if to say, “Wasn't this the best song he ever wrote?” the shuffle play miracle that is YouTube 2020 just sent this my way -- my all-time favorite song composed, words & music, by Harry Nilsson. Tears of joy. Set to this evocative slide show of memories common to the Human Race. Check these thoughts from kindred spirits in the “comments” below the video: Naptown Tex 3 years ago i have spent the last 12 hours falling in love with harry nilsson's music and voice. i had never heard him, only of him. what an amazing gift this man had. truly one of the greats. Madbillysuggs 2 years ago Always told my friends I couldn't understand people crying over a song..... then I heard this and guess what. RocketKirchner 1 year ago this could very well be one of the greatest songs ever written in any genre. Thanks for sharing, TheWinningStar.

It's a quarter to two, and there's no one in the place except me and you … and just for us Siriusly Sinatra is playing a Nat King Cole recording of MISS OTIS REGRETS. I never heard it before right this minute! Dare I say it? My “new favorite” version. An ingenious arrangement with a small sized orchestra and the great jazz pianist accompanying himself from beginning to end. Applause! It's a live performance! So, an outstanding 'remote' recording by … wonder who the engineer was? Is it at YouTube? But of course. “Live at the Sands” 1960. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMSAzRvLdDE

"You can't submit empty content" . . . Okay this was once a duplicate of the Carly Simon posting. Old and stupid, I am.

Carly Simon introduced my generation to that song. Until her album TORCH was released in the summer of '81, no popular singer of Carly's musical stature was having anything to do with the 'Great American Songbook.' As if to say, “You haven't forgotten Carly's version, have you?” the intuitive genius of YouTube sent this my way, reminding me that it is, after all, a 'girl song' – composed by a woman who'd lost her husband; on the basis of her poem Hoagy Carmichael wrote the poignant lyric. Her name was on the original sheet music. ---- I see my namesake reviewed this one “3 years ago” and included a personal anecdote from 40 years ago: I remember playing Carly's version for my musical father on the cassette player in my car, circa 1984. He wasn't fond of the arrangement – with the same monotonous 'pedal point' note played on piano throughout, from beginning to end. He was a traditionalist and I see his point. Still, for sentimental reasons, Carly's rendition remains my “other favorite.” Yours too? Wikipedia note: Torch is the 10th studio album by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released by Warner Bros. Records, in August 1981. It was Simon's first album devoted to standards, namely torch songs, relating unrequited love or rejection. The album also features one Simon original, "From the Heart".[1] The album was recorded during her marriage breakup to James Taylor, which was announced shortly after the release of the album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0_8wrSJWxM

Once a year, just for me, Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio plays a 'live' concert performance of I GET ALONG WITHOUT YOU VERY WELL the most poignant ballad written words & tune by Hoagy Carmichael. I see my namesake has reviewed this one at YouTube. This is the best concert rendition. Listen to the breath control, beginning around the 1:30 mark. Unless you are a singer – any kind of singer – you may not appreciate those 13-and-one-half seconds of phrasing – the sort that all the other singers say Frank did best. Wikipedia: "I Get Along Without You Very Well" is a popular song composed by Hoagy Carmichael in 1939, with lyrics based on a poem written by Jane Brown Thompson, and the main melodic theme on the Fantaisie-Impromptu in C sharp minor, Op 66, by Frédéric Chopin.[1] Thompson's identity as the author of the poem was for many years unknown; she died the night before the song was introduced on radio by Dick Powell.[1] The biggest-selling version was a 1939 recording by Red Norvo and his orchestra (vocal by Terry Allen). Carmichael and Jane Russell performed the song in the 1952 film noir The Las Vegas Story.[1]

I've got the flu. I'm in need of something to cheer me up. Right this minute Siriusly Sinatra, as if to say “This should help!” is playing my "other favorite" singer – the title track from her Nelson Riddle arranged album with “orchestra conducted by Frank Sinatra.” Remind me please to enumerate the reasons why Peggy is my favorite singer/songwriter. She didn't compose this one, of course. My favorite Ira Gershwin lyric. https://www.facebook.com/mark.blackburn.3910/

Who but Bette Midler would think to perform, on Johnny Carson's second-to-last “Tonight Show” (1992) an obscure Cole Porter song -- MISS OTIS REGRETS (She's Unable to Lunch Today) -- and do it, like no one else before or since at a fast jazz band tempo? Rhetorical question. In her studio recording, Bette sang the three-part harmony herself, and specified she wanted a clarinet solo on the musical bridge. It just sounds funnier! For the Tonight Show, she performed with two back up singers, choreographing everything herself; at one point dancing over to the band stand for Doc Severinsen's tasty trumpet solo. The tight jazz band arrangement was the same, but the pace slightly slower. So the dance steps aren't too exhausting! The song was conceived as a tongue-in-cheek parody of a country and western (she done me wrong) lament – performed rubato, out-of-tempo, and with slightly out-of-kilter lyrics. (Wiki note below). Johnny Carson adored Bette Midler -- as an actress as well as singer. He wanted her on his final show to perform his favorite ballad (mine too) “Here's That Rainy Day.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrkzH9fO-5k "Miss Otis Regrets" is a song about the lynching of a society woman after she murders her unfaithful lover.[1] It was composed by Cole Porter in 1934, and first performed by Douglas Byng in Hi Diddle Diddle,[2] a revue that opened on October 3, 1934, at London's Savoy Theatre. The song began during a party at the New York apartment of Porter's classmate from Yale, Leonard Hanna. Hearing a cowboy's lament on the radio, Porter sat down at the piano and improvised a parody of the song. He retained the referential song’s minor-keyed blues melody and added his wry take on lyrical subject matter common in country music: the regret of abandonment after being deceitfully coerced into sexual submission.[3] Instead of a country girl, however, Miss Otis is a polite society lady. Friend and Yale classmate Monty Woolley jumped in to help Porter "sell it", pretending to be a butler who explains why Madam can't keep a lunch appointment. In the previous 24 hours, Miss Otis was jilted and abandoned, located and killed her seducer, was arrested, jailed, and, about to be hanged by a mob, made a final, polite apology for being unable to keep her lunch appointment. This performance was so well received that the song evolved, "workshopped" with each subsequent cocktail party, many of which were at the Waldorf-Astoria suite of Elsa Maxwell, to whom Porter dedicated the song.

And the award for "Most Soulful Instrumental Duet" goes to Tommy and Pat for AMAZING GRACE. Someone said (below) "Best harmonica I've ever heard." [Compelled to add:] Toots Thielemans and Stevie Wonder -- a tie for first place as greatest ever to pick up a harmonica; according to all the other great ones, including Pat Bergeson. And like Mr. Thielemans, Pat Bergeson is also a superb guitarist. But you knew that.

Kirk Sand “passed away last Sunday, a week ago today,” said Doyle Dykes, moments after playing his friend's 'Kirk Sand' nylon-string acoustic-electric, identical to his own. “It's amazing – even without a sound hole and, given how thin it is” said Doyle, yet the masterfully 'chambered' body projects a balanced range of tone -- as Mr. Sand intended. Just as an aside, every single finger-style virtuoso – from Chet Atkins and Lenny Breau, to Doyle Dykes and Tommy Emmanuel -- has owned a Kirk Sand, crafted just for them. Enough said. Doyle is in Nebraska and his “good friend Neal” owns a copy of every Doyle Dykes signature instrument. “Guitar rich – or guitar poor!" says Doyle. Pick it up at the 3:33 mark. What does that guitar -- that same 'Kirk Sand' instrument -- sound like when plugged in and played 'live' in a studio in Nashville? It never sounded finer than this, you may agree!

”Moonlight Mountain Ride” -- “LAZY S RANCH – Tonight at 8:30.” Just a singin' cowboy and his best gal . . . and their endearingly cooperative horses, relaxing in 'moonlight through the pines' and doin' what comes naturally: Breaking into song. But what a song. I see my namesake reviewed this '1 year ago' and quoted informed kindred spirits: DAVINDAIR (3 years ago) “This tune is one of the glories of the American songbook with its ravishing, dreamy melody line. No wonder every jazz artist of note recorded it.And then there's Dick Foran's lilting, lullaby voice: a sound like no other. Thanks for this priceless upload. ANTHONY WILLIAMS (2 years ago) I have been playing this beautiful song on guitar in various jazz groups for more than sixty years, without knowing where the song came from, and having just stumbled upon this upload, I feel humbled by the beauty and unashamed sentimentality of the romance from which it was first sung. This version is without doubt the best of the best renditions, and I think that I have heard them all. Thank You. A musical 'screen gem' set in the middle of a low-budget Abbot & Costello comedy – something Turner Classic Movies may never get around to celebrating! The actor's name is Dick Foran. He died 45 years ago at age 69 at his home in Los Angeles. His IMDb entry says, “ Dick Foran was the matinée idol of the B movies. He started as a band singer and then sang on the radio. Wiki adds: “Known for his performances in Western musicals and for playing supporting roles in dramatic pictures. He appeared in dozens of movies of every type during his lengthy career, often with top stars leading the cast.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pZAIaN86-E

We'll turn Manhattan into an Isle of Joy! Just for me, Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing my favorite 'NYC celebration' duet: Bette Midler guesting beautifully with Rod Stewart – on one of Rod's 'Great American Songbook' albums that sold 40 million copies, less than half his career total (so far!). Along with Vernon Duke's “Autumn in New York,” I'LL TAKE MANHATTAN is my favorite 'vacation destination' song from my all-time favorite composer Dick Rodgers. Did I ever tell you what makes him “the best”? Has it really been 20 years, since “Volume III”? Dare I say, “my favorite.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4GW7GFQVhA

Google to learn “How many Americans owned a TV in 1952?” “In 1946, there were approximately 20,000 television sets in the U.S.; by 1948, there were 350,000; and by 1952, there were 15.3 million. Less than 1 percent of American homes had TVs in 1948; 32 percent did by 1952.” Just in time to watch this gem in small screen black & white: “After Ricky and Fred get upset at their spending habits, Lucy and Ethel switch jobs – and go to work in a candy factory, while the boys do the housework.” You have to remember: average screen size was 14 inches. Color TV? An unthinkable, futuristic fantasy. How we would have loved this -- “Colorization” at its best. Like adding butter, everything's better in color! Including the “most watched clip” from the 180 'I Love Lucy' shows. Thank you Fathom Events and CBS for sharing. We now return to regular programming.

SINATRA – Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry At this moment Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing my favorite Sinatra ballad. From “my favorite year” (1958) -- a 'tale of two guitarists.' The solo guitar opening was originally played by George Van Epps, whose 7-string instrument (a jazz archtop) required a larger bass string - tuned to A. Which made the opening notes awkward (long story, not very interesting). Anyway, the recording was postponed because of this. And at a later date, another guitar virtuoso AL VIOLA made himself available at the last minute. Just before going to the session, he dropped into a pawn shop to purchase a 'gut stringed' classical instrument. The result? A Work of Art, you may agree. P.S. After typing the above I Googled and … sure enough: Is there anything you cannot search and find, in half a second? “For the [opening] verse of "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out", it was just Sinatra and Al Viola on gut string guitar. To get around the tricky F-sharps in Riddle's chart, Viola raised the low E with his thumb . . . “ I see my namesake reviewed this one '4 years ago' – the “remastered” version and the first offering at YouTube this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By8KDLWtAAw https://www.facebook.com/mark.blackburn.3910/

Sharing memories this day (3/21/2024) at BERMUDA DAYDREAMIN' [At some future date] HE: Do you remember back in June of '24 … that place Bev took us. The one with the beautiful white recliners …. SHE: With the turquoise pillows! Same color as the sea ... HE: And that evening we walked down the beach to the very end. No one there but us. And so we . . . SHE: That was another beach. But nearby! And yes ... I remember it well. HE: And you wore white? SHE: No, I wore blue. Am I getting old? HE: Oh no … not you! ---- You know me. I live my life in song lyrics. Thinking of “the most perfect song in all the world” as someone at YouTube described this. Hermione & Maurice and their show-stopper from GIGI. A kindred spirit wrote (4 years ago – with the largest number of 'thumbs-up'): "I have known my spouse for 45 years now. And I find myself not clearly remembering all the dates and details of our courtship. But as this song so eloquently demonstrates, it's the feeling of love that really counts in a relationship. And that is what I remember very well.” Hermione Gingold. Some of you, of an age, may remember her splendid voice for Disney's THE ARISTOCATS. And married for a time, to the fellow who wrote, "A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces . . . an airline ticket to romantic places. Oh, how the ghost of you clings ... THESE FOOLISH THINGS remind me of you." [See p. 1 Rod Stewart's version. But this is where I came in.] P.P.S. The lighting! To match the 'setting sun' the whites begin slowly turning orange, imperceptably as he sings the bridge, "How often I've thought of that Friday . . . " Someone may have won a 'technical' Oscar for that. Or should have! I can't stop coming back to this share by Tisiana Fato which just turned 400K views since its posting "12 years ago."

SINATRA – Old Man River “What have we got now?” Sinatra asks his orchestra conductor, mid-way through a concert at Philadelphia's “Spectrum” arena. Before launching into Old Man River. In the studio recording of 11 years earlier (1963) Sinatra's sustained note is the longest in his career: 18 seconds. For those in the audience who expected him to do likewise in 'live' performance, a decade later, the singer didn't disappoint! The large orchestra replicates Nelson Riddle's stirring arrangement thanks to near perfect recording quality. The 'live at the Spectrum' recording is playing as I type this on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio. Just noted the concert date: October 7, 1974 – six days after Irene and I were married in Bermuda. 50 years come October 1.

A bunch of us from around the world at BERMUDA DAYDREAMIN' are just admiring other people's flower-filled backyards. I shared that, "Coincidentally, or not, I'd just been humming a song by my all-time favorite female singer: That "you'll find that happiness lies, right under your eyes, back in your own backyard." Thanks for sharing Peggy Lee. Celebrated this day (3/20/2024)at " Great Melody, Great Lyric, Great Rendition, Songwriting Workshop, Harmony Central.

SINATRA – This Nearly Was Mine It was Frank's favorite among his own albums. Frank Jr., said so. The arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle said the orchestrations were in effect, the 'high water mark' of his own career; that he “never saw Sinatra more 'focused'” than on that enchanted evening in 1963. THE CONCERT SINATRA was recorded on 35mm tape with 82 musicians on the Goldwyn sound stage in Hollywood. We have a private members site at Facebook for “Sinatra Family Forum Alumni,” about a hundred of us. And I would wager that most would select as their favorite track, the one playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra: From Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC – “This Nearly Was Mine.” Listening to it, I realized for the first time tonight, that the final orchestral flourish is borrowed, 'verbatim, from Richard Rodgers' Carousel Waltz. The closing bars of crescendo are identical. How can I not have noticed before this? THE CAROUSEL WALTZ (in place of an overture) is my single favorite melody by my favorite composer! Best recorded version was posted to YouTube “2 weeks” ago, to 28 (correct) views as of this date (3/19/2024). The others, with thousands more views, don't sound as good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUPDI2u7Rog

Canadian singer and actress DEBORAH COX is singing, right now on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio, my 'all-time favorite version' of a Dinah Washington signature tune: "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes." A lush and lovely stringed orchestra arrangement, in support of Deborah's artless delivery of a classic love song. [I see my namesake 'reviewed' this one, “1 year ago” with the alternate title, “What a Difference a Day MADE.” Both are correct.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOCl-NUusss

FRANKIE VALLI -- I'll Remember April Time for bed. But first .... better just check to see what I'll be missing, right this minute on my principal source of inspiration, “Siriusly Sinatra” satellite radio. Sure enough: Frankie Valli -- from his recent “Touch of Jazz” album, with brilliant jazz organ accompaniment that could only be Joey DeFrancesco: the best since Jimmy Smith. But who's the guitarist? He's channeling Wes Montgomery whose organist-of-choice was …. Jimmy Smith! Thanks to this video and its informed note we know it is “Paul Bollenback” – whose Wiki entry states that, Paul Norris Bollenback (born June 6, 1959) is a jazz guitarist who has appeared on Entertainment Tonight, The Tonight Show, The Today Show .... Born: 1959 (age 65 years), Hinsdale, Illinois, To my ears, jazz samba arrangements can't get better than this, may you agree! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkTnylUJWEw

PAUL MCCARTNEY - (I'd Like to Get You) On a Slow Boat to China A bunch of us from around the world were reminiscing, a moment ago at BERMUDA DAYDREAMIN,' about the days of “smaller cruise ships.” I shared Jimmy Buffett's over-the-top rendition of “(I'd Like to Get You) On a Slow Boat to China.” Immediately, the intuitive genius that is YouTube gave us THIS gem, I've never seen before, have you? Sir Paul, remembering his family's “New Year's eve sing-alongs, with my Dad playin' the piano – my aunties and uncles singing them. Right now I'd like to do one of those songs for you,” Frank (Guys & Dolls) Loesser's SLOW BOAT TO CHINA. Don't miss Paul's word's of introduction; but if you must, for now, pick it up at around the 1:55 mark.

SINATRA - Stormy Weather At this moment (1:20 Frozen Prairie Time) on a sunny winter's day in Winnipeg, I'm hearing George Benson accompanying Frank Sinatra with the best-ever Quincy Jones big band back in the 80s -- on a song Sinatra put off recording until that moment in time, saying that when he was younger, "You can't sing what you don't understand.' So `Stormy Weather' really didn't hit for me until later . . . " [ From his liner notes for my favorite of his compilation CD's.] "Everything Happens to Me" [ ] the perfect choice for album title, as his 1981 version of the Tom Adair/Matt Dennis classic-of-the-same-name, (with Gordon Jenkins conducting) could never have been done with such feeling during his younger days. The pure vocal skills may be less at age 66, but then the older interpretive genius really brings `gravitas' (as the Latins say) to updated lyrics like these: "But pal, you don't find rainbows in the bottom of a glass." And only an older and wiser man could deliver that believable blend of irony and humor dripping from the penultimate words: "(I) telegraphed and phoned, I sent an air mail special too, your answer was goodbye, and there was even (pause) postage due." "My singing career" (to quote from his own notes) "really began with two-dollar vocal lessons from John Quinlan, a crusty, Irish drunk who agreed to work with this skinny dago. His operatic training and knowledge of the human throat have guided me for sixty years. I owe him more than I can ever say. To this day, before EVERY performance, I use his vocal exercises to warm up, like a runner stretches, and I think of his lectures on respecting this delicate instrument: "Abuse it and you'll lose it!" Whenever I have neglected his advice, I've always paid a big price. If I was in pain, I would call Quinlan and John would mutter, "Shut up" -- he knew his business. "Just as simple and direct was his advice about material: `You can't sing what you don't understand.' All of us start out trying to sing like Crosby or Jolson, older and more experienced in life's struggles. So, `Stormy Weather' really didn't hit for me until later. You get the picture. But I learned fast and emotionally graduated to the songs of love, loss joy and despair, expertly conveyed by the best lyricists and songwriters in the world. These are the songs of the soul. These are my songs."

SUNDAY STRING-ALONG, 3.10.24 ("Confidence") “It's a lot of fun to come into KELLY'S music store,” says Doyle Dykes, in the upstairs room of his personal favorite guitar store -- in Texas where his good friend "Kelly Barber" (sp?) houses classic (costly) vintage instruments … like this one: “A Bedell,” says Doyle, “with a 'salvaged' Sitka (spruce) top, and Brazilian Rosewood back and sides ... Wow, what a great guitar!” Wow indeed: “With old strings” from which Mr. Dykes manages to elicit all sounds 'bright and beautiful.' [At the 4:45 mark] starting with Duke Ellington's IT DON'T MEAN A THING (If It Ain't Got That Swing!) – a ten-minute medley of (mostly) Chet Atkins' own personal favorite tunes; some of which I haven't heard in decades, but can whistle and hum every note! WINTER WALKIN', Three Little Words, (Do I love you?) 'DEED I DO, Bells of St. Mary … and a hymn I hadn't heard before, with the refrain, "Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord." “I'm just havin' fun – doing my thing! That's what you DO in a music store! Pick up a guitar and start playing. Now …. I don't think I brought my capo.” It turns out that didn't matter! Yes, when you're able to find ten minutes to enjoy -- pick it up at around 4:45 and watch in "full screen theater mode" please.