THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU -MIGHT AS WELL BE AMERICAN

" The Very Thought of You"-might as well be American:  This blog is about the Great American Songbook. But the music and lyrics to " The Very Thought of You" were written by English bandleader Ray Noble in 1932. However, Noble's professional career took off when he moved to the United  States where he continued to write songs, lead bands and record and even provided the music on radio's Charlie McCarthy show .Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen supplied the voices of that impudent rascal Charlie McCarthy and the not-too-bright Mortimer Snerd but also had the good fortune to father the glamorous Candice Bergen.
Many American singers and instrumentalist championed the song including Bing Crosby,Ella Fitzgerald and even Frank Sinatra. Sinatra recorded his version in Great Britain in a recording devoted to songs written in Great Britain. The lush arrangements were by Robert Farnon, a transplanted Canadian generally recognized as a brilliant arranger, especially when it came to writing for strings. The lyrics are hearfelt and gently poetic withb such lines as " I'm Living in a Daydream, I'm Happy as a King, And Foolish Though I May Be, To Me Your Everything ".
The first version   features a Duet between Tony Bennett and Sir Paul McCartney, an Englishman now mainly living in the United States. Here we have two giants of the musical world coming from different generations and musical backgrounds but uniting to do justice to a song loved not only in England and the United States but around the world just like the best of the Great American Songbook. Bennett's and McCarthey's respect  for the song and for each other is clearly evident and the lush orchestration lends even more emotional depth.
The next  version by Sinatra is more restrained than the first. It was reported that Frank Sinatra was suffering from vocal problems while recording the songs from Great Britain. That is why the record was withheld from the market for quite a number of years. Farnon's arrangement does support Sintra's somewhat reduced vocal strength although he did provide a very sensitive rendition despite his vocal difficulties.

LINK: http://youtu.be/WBmgtMS2-sA

LINK SINATRA: http://youtu.be/wv3-lvxK260