AS TIME GOES BY -cASABLANCA MOVIE SUNG BY SINATRA

As Time Goes By- Casablanca Movie Song Sung By Sinatra

Originally written in 1931 by Herman Hupfeld for a Broadway musical , the song became an all-time favorite when it was sung By Dooley Wilson in Casablanca, the the memorable 1942 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The melody was used as part of the underscore during critical scenes between the two former lovers.
 Although the song itself is not especially notable on its own, it has achieved legendary status because it so intimately connected with a movie many millions claim as  their favorite movie of all time. Because of its connection with the movie, it was voted # 2 song of the 20th century. Oddly enough,  Over The Rainbow, from The Wizard of Oz was voted the best song of the 2th century. It is a more substantial song than the Casablanca favorite and it also is so inextricably intertwined with people's memory of that iconic film that hearing it inevitably triggers memories of that favorite movie.
This version is sung by Frank Sinatra against a backdrop of scenes from the movie.
Sinatra sings with a tender restraint that perfectly matches the scenes with the two lovers recalling happier moments in their lives. 

https://youtu.be/gfwz90Rq2Ds

RODGERS & HART'S " IT NEVER ENTERED MY MIND" OSCAR PETERSON AND THE SINGERS UNLIMITED

Rodgers & Hart's " It Never Entered My Mind"  Oscar Peterson and The Singers Unlimited.

Rodgers & Hart wrote a number of reflective and heart-felt ballads. It Never Entered My Mind is just one of their many superb creations.  The Singers Unlimted was a newly formed vocal group comprised of the members of the Hi Lo's and 2 members from another vocal group  The J's With Jamey. When they combined forces, they made a demo record and over dubbed more vocal lines until it sounded like a full choir. Enter Oscar Peterson, legendary Canadian jazz pianist. He was so impressed with this new sound that he talked his own German proucer.engineering genius to sign the new group. He did and 15 albums were recorded with different arrangements and backup personnel. Their first release featured the solo imagination and harmonic wizardry of Oscar Peterson and the stunning feature voice of Bonn Herman. It Never Entered my Mind is a vocal showcase of what can happen when a great song is put into the hands of a great vocal arranger like Gene Puerling, the piano accompaniment of a wonderful pianist and multiple over-dubbed vocal lines of 4 brilliant singers.

NOTE: 2015 is the 90th birthday anniversary of Oscar Peterson who was as great an accompanist as he was a jazz soloist and leader of so many great small groups.

https://youtu.be/PMhxIN3VSeU

TONY BENNETT & LENA HORNE TRIBUTE TO HAROLD ARLEN

Tony Bennet & Lena Horne Tribute to Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen is the composer of classic blues songs like  Blues In The Night, I \Gotta Right To Sing The Blues as well as soaring ballads like Over The Rainbow and torch songs like One For My Baby, Come Rain or Come Shine and Ill Wind, a Cotton Club song written with lyricist Ted Koehler.
Tony Bennett, after working with Arlen on a television tribute to the Buffalo born composer stated that
"  Besides him being the greatest professional man I ever met, he was the most beautiful human being I ever met," Strong praise indeed.

Legendary singer Lena Horne also met Arlen while they worked together in Harlem's Cotton Club where Arlen was particularly suited to write material for black performers like Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers as well as Lena Horne.
This is a 12 minute medley of well known Arlen songs with Tony Bennett and Lena on a live Judy Garland TV Show. ( Arlen also wrote Over The Rainbow and The Man That Got Away for Garland films.)

https://youtu.be/lYPpW8Puj8I

Bonus track     Frank Sinatra & Lene Horne with a different Harold Arlen medley.

https://youtu.be/FeiprgKDR3A

Classic American Popular Song: ST. LOUIS WOMAN & ST.LOUIS GAL-GREAT BLUES SONGS

Classic American Popular Song: ST. LOUIS WOMAN & ST.LOUIS GAL-GREAT BLUES SONGS: ST. Louis Woman & St. Louis Gal-Great Blues Songs:   In 1914, W.C. Handy was the first to publish ablues song which once were played and...

ST. LOUIS WOMAN & ST.LOUIS GAL-GREAT BLUES SONGS

ST. Louis Woman & St. Louis Gal-Great Blues Songs:   In 1914, W.C. Handy was the first to publish ablues song which once were played and sung but not documented in conventional song publishing format. It was, and still remains, as an anthem to the heartbreak and sadness of the black experience with the blues and jazz becoming the most distinctive and purely American musical expression and a gift to the world at large.Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues, recorded the song as have hundreds of others over the years. The song laments the fact that the St. Louis Woman in the song "Pulls that man around by her apron strings."

In 1923, J. Russell Robinson wrote a similar song called St. Louis Gal. In this blues song, a woman sadly recounts the story of a St. Louis gal who " Stole the heart of my big boy" who goes on to swear that " Down in Missouri, there'll come a time when your life won't be worth a dime." Pretty dramatic and earthy sentiments. Bessie Smith also recorded this song but please listen to Cecile McLorin Salvant, a young and talented American singer who has absorbed the essence of the blues tradition a hundred years after Handy wrote St. Louis Woman.
Listen to both Bessie Smith and Cecile McLorin Salvant to experience the power of a unique American musical contribution that has influencd so many different musical genres.
                                   The Blues-The Musical Gift That Keeps on Giving.

Bessie Smith-St. Louis Woman
https://youtu.be/jNWs0LsimFs

Cecile McLorin Salvant
https://youtu.be/H3dFTyJK0NQ