Tommy Wolf-Spring Can Realy Hang You Up The Most. In the `1950's, Tommy Wolf and lyricist Fran Landesman made St. Louis an important club locale. Their songs are often favoured by more sophisticated singers wanting to avoid the tried and true song selections from the Great American Songbook." Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most" ( 1955) , like so many classic songs dealing with lost loves, does so in a very hip fashion combining the usual poetic invocation of flowers and trees and and the use of colloquial terms like " Hang you up" and deciding " That Spring is a bore."
The verse sets the mood in the lyrics before the chorus which contines with both music and words of a decidely downbeat character.
The song is a great example of what Harold Arlen once proclaimed in describing the synergy created when both elements of a song are artfully combined. He said that " " Words make you think a thought, and music makes you feel a feeling, but a song makes you feel a thought." Words engage the thinking component of the brain while music activates the feeling or emotional dimension. Together they can create magical moments for the listener.
Near the end of the song, there is a long downward chromatic melodic passage accompanied by the words " Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most." If the song is really about romantic despair, ending on a downard path musically and verbally makes for compelling musical drama.
Barbra Streisand gives a sensitive and remorseful performance of a very unique song that deserves a wider audience.
LINK: http://youtu.be/6l0EQ3Uzzb0
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