LAURA- IS THE FACE IN THE MISTY LIGHT

Laura- Is The Face in the Misty Light., Footsteps That You Hear Down The Hall.  Those are the first lines of " Laura" that memorable song from Otto Preminger's 1944 fim noire classic. The music was by David Raksin with lyrics added by Johnny Mercer after the film had been released.
The film deals with the killing of Laura Hunt ( played by Gene Tierney) being investigated by a hard boiled detective played by Dana Andrews. Alone in her apartment, Andrews looks for clues to her life reading some letters and diaries as well as looking at her stunning portrait on the wall. He gradually becomes under her spell as does Clifton Webb playing an ascerbic columnist who helped launch Laura's successful career in the advertising business. However , when we learn that Laura is still alive, the romance between Tierney and Andrews becomes real- for she is no longer a dream.
In the 1970's, I had a chance to ask Raksin how the song came about when he was composing music for the CBC's History of the Modern Olympics. He was given a deadline of the weekend to come up with a suitable theme for Laura or they would use Duke Ellington's " Sophisticated Lady" . He tried quite a number of themes but none were deemed useful or appropriate..
Raksin had received a letter from his wife in New York and he put it on the piano and started to read it. She was telling him that their marriage was over, something that shook him to the core. As he tells it, despite the emotional upheaval caused the significance of the letter, he stumbled onto the theme, the 32  bars of music that we now know as the song " Laura."
It is a fairly complex piece of music that has received hundreds of recordings both instrumental and vocal but Mercer's evocative lyrics did account for much of its subsequent and continued popularity.
The vocal version is by Carly Simon, done in a live concert version filmed in the style of a black and white film noire version of the 1944 film.

There is also a symphonic instrumental version that demonstrates how the theme was modified for different scenes in the movie.

LINK SIMON VERSION. http://youtu.be/Baj5Q7H5q6s

LINK SYMPHONIC VERSION http://youtu.be/LmRwt9AE9AA

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS- A TRUE TORCH SONG

You Don't Know What Love Is-A True Torch Song.  In 1943, Gene  Depaul, a fim composer wrote a searing love ballad with lyrics by Don Raye.( The same year they had also written " I'll Remember April ." ) Although , it is not written in the accepted format of the classic blues song, it is about the blues and the despair of failed romance .The lyric even suggests that " You Don't Know What Love Is, Until you've Learned the Meaning of the Blues"   According to the song, you have to endure the suffering that everyone must undergo if one is to know and experience the meaning of the blues.
The song is unrelenting in its insistence that despair is almost inherent in any love relationship with few ever escaping without some emotional scars before achieving some degree of harmony.
It is sung by Anne Phillips, a relatively unknown New York based singer who recorded a fine album in 1959 called " Born to Be Blue". The recording is still available having become somewhat of a cult classic for lovers of mature ballads from The Great American Songbook, artfully arranged for strings and a jazz ensemble. A mature woman singing a mature song is a welcome respite from the the over-the-top shreiking heard so often on American Idol and  pop music stations.

LINK:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZOdcc7HUr0

INDIAN SUMMER-VICTOR HERBERT GOES AMERICAN

Indian Summer-Victor Herbert Goes American:  Victor Herbert was essentially a European-influnced composer of popular operattas like " Babes in Toyland". Although he was highly trained, especially in Germany, he never wrote songs in a style that we associate with our preoccupation with classic American popular song. A surprising exception is the marvellous melody to " Indian Summer." Written in 1930, with lyrics by Al Dubin, a noted lyricist for films. especially with Harry Warren. Dubin heard the piano melody and crafted the wistful lyrics that end with " Farewell , To You Old Indian Summer".
Alec Wilder admitted that he never had been Herbert fan " finding his music too Viennese and alien to my ( American directed) environment." He adds that " The melody sings marvelously throughout without a single cliche or let down".
The performance is by the Singers Unlimited, 3 men and Bonnie Herman as lead vocalist.. The group specialized in A Capella arrangements . With the use of  multi tracking technology, they would add additional melody and harmonic lines to end up sounding like a choir. This song is sung without accompaniment-just the ingenious harmony and arrangement for extremely talented singers doing justice to a wondeful song . It provides a feeling of gentle nostagia for the passing of a season as well as evoking possible personal memories.

LINK:  http://youtu.be/Jz37dIh8y2E

RICHARD ROGERS -THE MASTER OF THE MODERN WALTZ

Richard Rodgers-The Master of the Modern Waltz. Rodgers is often acknowledged to have written some of the most elegant and moving melodies of the Twentieth Century. An even more praiseworthy aspect of his talent is his ability to write in the waltz mode. The energy and unique musical lilt of the waltz is amply demonstrated in a number of his famous compositions. The Carousel Waltz from the musical " Carousel" has an irresistable rhythm and movement even though there are no lyrics , just the wonderful uplifting movement through time and space.
As the son of Austrian parents, I was imbued at an early age with the spirit of Vienna where the Strauss waltz regime was so central to a lively social and cultural scene before WW1.
July Andrews performed in a number of Rodgers and Hammerstein productions and , with conductor Andre Previn, has created a stunning medley of Rodgers most famous waltzes.
PART 1 includes "  Do I Hear AWaltz " ( from the show of the same name, lyrics by Stepan Sondheim) " It's A Grand Night For Singing" ( State Fair) and " I'm In Love With a Wonderful Guy" ( South Pacific)

PART 2 includes " Out of My Dream" and OH What A Beautiful Morning" ( both from Oklahoma) and " This Nearly Was Mine ( from The King and I". Throughout the entire medley, Previn has interspersed segments of the Carousel Waltz as a unifying leitmotif for the entire performance.

LINK SEGMENT 1: http://youtu.be/urhJzgrOLAg

LINK SEGMENT 2: http://youtu.be/ix4VLxoRdGI

IT HAD TO BE YOU-ISHAM JONES & GUS KAHN

It Had To Be You-Isham Jones & Gus Kahn:  When the great songwriter Johnny Mercer was asked to select his favourite pop song , he said " It Had To Be You". High praise from the most purely American songwriter. Mercer's collaborations with Harold Arlen and Hoagy Carmichael united 3 of the most jazz influenced songwriters whose songs that only could have sprung from American soil without a trace of the European style of early Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert and Sigmund Romberg.
The song was written in 1924, music by bandleader and composer Isham Jones with words by Gus Kahn. It also happens to be the favourite song of Tom, a Michigan acqaintance who is also a devotee of the Great American Songbook.
Listening to the song, it has such a natural step-by-step progression that is so inevitable that it keeps on building until it end with a gentle and satisfying resolution.
In the delightful version by Tony Bennett, a rarely heard verse sets the mood for the main theme which is very well known.
Isham Jones also wrote Swinging Down The Lane ( Sinatra version is very dynamic) See You In My Dreams, There Is No Greater Love and and The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else.

In Bennett's live performance, he even refers to Mercer's selection of this song as his own favourite.

LINK http://youtu.be/vSgsMFpb0kc

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

ALEC WILDER-A MUSICOLOGIST WHO ALSO WROTE GREAT SONGS

Alec Wilder- a Musicologist who also wrote great songs:  Readers of this blog will know how much of the analysis and choice of songs from The Great American Songbook have been the result of Wilder's magnum opus " American Popular Song: The Great Innovators: 1900-1950". When you analyze and play though over 17,000 songs, you know a great deal about the entire era in question. But Wilder was also a fine composer and lyricist. His best known songs are " While We're Young"  "It's So Peaceful in the Country" and the lovely waltz" " While We're Young". That waltz is sung by Rosemary Clooney witha full orchestra and the use of strings is so essential to convey the lift ,energy and swing that waltz compositions demand. The lyrics urge us to exult in the feelings and pleasure of youth  ending in the line that says our youthful memories should "  Shine Before Our Eyes, While We're Young."

Alec Wilder later wrote another song that exhorts even jaded adults to experience childlike pleasures in a song called " Be A Child"  and don't let so-called maturity rob us of the spontaneity that make children so delightful.
This song is performed by the wonderful American diva Eileen Farrell. She was a down-to-earth classicly trained singer and Opera star who also had a love of and command of what is required to sing popular songs. Married to a Staten Island policeman, she possessed none of the grande dame hauteur of many female opera performers. Her voice is powerful yet sensitive to the melodies and lyrics of what she chooses to sing. In an earlier post on this blog, she sings " My Funny Valentine"
in a much more jazzy style than this song is usually performed.
The pictures that accompany her version of  " Be A Child"  demonstrate the very unadorned nature of her everyday lifestyle despite the world wide acclaim she had in the world of so called " serious music."
Thank you Alec Wilder for reminding us not to grow old and jaded. Dreamers can be of all ages !

LINK CLOONEY:  http://youtu.be/ZiXU8Nv8iGg

LINK FARRELL;   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnOn9UIvqns&feature=share&list=PL2E55E71627513744