HANK WILLIAMS SR.- A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON 20TH CENTURY POPULAR SONG

Hank Williams Sr.-A Major Influence On 20th Century Popular Song:  Although he died at the early age of 29, Hank Williams Sr. created memorable music across a broad musical spectrum. Country, folk, blues and gospel songs are all part of his song writing talents. " You're Cheatin' Heart" and " Hey,Good Looking"' were major hits and covered by a wide array of other performers.
 He paved he way for the wave of other singer/songwriters who would come to dominate popular music for the past 40 years.
One of his gospel songs " House of Gold"  is a serious attempt to warn people of the futility of pursuing money and material possessions. In a memorable recording, Kenny Rankin, a versatile singer, guitarist and composer almost pleads for us to heed Williams dire warning unless we " We Get Down On Our Knees and Pray" and abandon the quest for material gain.
 I am by no means a religious person but Rankin's genuine poetic singing and playing forces one to sit up and listen. The string arrangement by Don Costa partway through the song only intensifies the musical and lyric message's impact on the complete performance.

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

TONY BENNETT AND BILL EVANS---" WE'LL BE TOGETHER AGAIN"

Tony Bennett & Bill Evans--" We'll Be Together Again"---In the 1970's, two jazz influenced artists collaborated on a memorable 2 CD recording project highlighting the best of The Great American Songbook. Bennett had already performed with a number of notable jazz musicians and jazz influenced composers and arrangers like Johnny Mandel with whom Bennett has had a long and fruitful collaboration. Bennett has said that there was a minimum of planning and preparation with Evans improvising off a long list of possible standards and Bennett responding with heightened improvisational performances. Bennett has stated that " Evans played like an ocean in a storm." and the intensity engendered by Evans imaginative creations can be clearly heard in his own playing as well as Bennett's receptive and emotionally charged performances.
The song is a classic 1945 tune " We'll Be Together Again " written by Carl Fischer and Frankie Laine ( Fischer was Laine's long time accompanist.) It has been described as " A great illustration of pop ballad sophistication and its difference in character from a theatre ballad." Interestingly, the release or bridge, which usually takes on a different form and style from the main chorus, actually uses material of the refrain in the release. This is an unusual but welcome deviation from accepted song writing practice.
The song has been recorded by well over 100 artists with Sinatra's  version in the iconic "
" Songs for Swinging Lovers"  recording especially notable. That version had Sinatra backed by Nelson Riddle and a large orchestra. However, Bennett and Evans do equally well in their highly  empathic  two person, one- voice version..

LINK:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW5eE_KRVIQ

" A QUIET THING" A LITTLE KNOWN CLASSIC

A Quiet Thing:--A Little known Classic: In 1965, John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote an entertaining musical called  Flora The Red Menace. This was one year before their smash hit Cabaret which Director Robert Fosse also turned into a successful motion picture starring Liza Minelli. A very young Liza starred in Flora the Red Menace portraying a politically naïve person flirting with ultra progressive ideologies. She was a great hit in her first major Broadway appearance and Kander and Ebb also wrote other material over the years for Liza Minelli. Kander and Ebb songs are often described as " jazzy ":featuring a strong rhythmic pulse as in the case of " New York,New York" a famous Sinatra anthem.

" A Quiet Thing" is much more reflective, fairly long and more melodic than much of the songwriter's other songs.
The marvellous American soprano Eileen Farrell teams with the great Canadian born arranger Robert Farnon in a beautifully orchestrated version of the song. Farnon is often acknowledged as the greatest writer for strings and this performance is clear evidence of that wonderful gift. He also introduces little instrumental  passages introducing  brass, woodwinds and a solo violin which do not intrude but complement the overall lush yet restrained arrangement. In the over-heated world of pop music and triumph of amateurism, this performance is an effective antidote to so much contemporary musical drivel.

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

" WITH SO LITTLE TO BE SURE OF" SONDHEIM PROVES HE IS QUITE ACCESSIBLE AND TUNEFUL

" With So Little to be Sure Of"- Sondheim proves he is quite accessible and tuneful
Stephan Sondheim who has demonstrated his musical theatre versatility to be  even more varied and adventuresome than Rodger & Hammerstein . Some critics believe that Sondheim's songs are too complex and his lyrics cold and clinical. What these critics forget is that Sondheim's songs are designed to further the plot and characters in his musical productions. His keen insights into character and personality will expose the inevitable flaws in human nature as opposed to the " moon and june" lyrics of conventioall musical theatre pieces. For example in the show " Anyone Can Whistle"  the male and female leads realize that those " marvellous moments" they once had were now over. But instead of bitter recriminations, both characters acknowledge what they had gained from their love for each other . When they sing " We had a moment, a marvellous moment" Sondheim demonstrates an astute insight into personality and character. . The song has been accurately described as " A wonderfully made,touching, nonmaudlin ballad that should be considered by anyone who finds Sondheim obscure."
In the original cast ,Harry Guardino and Lee Remick play the departing lovers. Although both are essentially actors, they bring their dramatic talents to bear in a very affecting manner with their own marvellous singing moments.

I also provide a concert version by Bernadette Peters who has always been a singer associated with Sondheim ( Sunday In The Park"  Into the W oods.")
There is a wonderful piano accompaniment that highlights Sondheim's composition and  the string section  finally enters to create an emotionally charged conclusion.

LINK":  Guardino/Remick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe3vldX7iJc

LINK"  PETERS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF3QCI4C2wk







































































































"With So Little To Be Sure Of"   Sondheim proves he is quite accessible and tuneful.
Stephan Sondheim has often been accused of being to complex and clinical a writer, especially as related to his lyrics. What critics forget is that ll Sondheim music and lyrics are crafted with the intention to further the story and characters of the musical theatre productions for which he has written both music and words. He works very closely with his librettists lto ensure that any songs are tailored very closely to what the book writer has created in conjunction with Sondheim, the director, choreographer and arranger.
For example, in the musical " Anyone Can Whistle"  the well-known actress sings a touching ballad to express her longing for

























9

" FOOLS RUSH IN-WHERE ANGELS MEN FEAR TO TREAD"

" Fools Rush In --Where Angels Men Fear To Tread"  In 1940, Rube Bloom again teamed with Johnny Mercer to write Fools Rush In. This is quite a interesting phrase to start a song that warns about the perils of pleading to another to " Open up your heart and let this fool rush in." It was an instant hit for Glenn Miller and Ray Eberle as well as Frank Sintart singing with the  Tommy Dorsey orchestra and was always  a song Sinatra kept in his repertoire. Ironically, it might have had a poignant relevance during Sinatra's tempestuous romance with Ava Gardner  since his pleading to Ava was not successful.
There is a sadness in Sinatra's big band version that is quite touching.

Doris Day also teamed with Andre Previn in a fine performance that showcased Day's superior pop vocal capabilities and Previn's sensitive skills as an wonderfully supportive accompanist. He also provided solo accompanist duties for such female singers as Leontyne Price, Julie Andrews, Sylvia McNair and Eileen Farrell. Please listen to the lovely verse as sung by Doris. As always, Johnny Mercer can create such wonderful images with the imaginative use of ordinary, every day language. 

Sinatra Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKYKStouuBI

Day/Previn Link   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAfIu-2XGEA

" DON'T WORRY 'BOUT ME" A RE START FOR THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK BLOG:

Don't Worry 'Bout Me" A Re Start for the Great American Songbook Blog: I previously had announced a hiatus period for this blog since I wanted to start a new blog dealing specifically with the life and career of Harold Arlen and his numerous lyricist partners. That blog now has 30 posts in just over one month with another 50 or so in the plan.
That blog is : haroldarlentheamericannative.blogspot.com.

In reviewing the many songs Arlen created, I also kept discovering more great songs that  originally were not included in the initial blog project. I will try to rectify that situation by adding new songs drawn from the same deep well of compositions written in the classic popular music style.

" Don't Worry About Me"   Rube Bloom was a great piano player who wrote only a few songs but of a very high standard. An earlier post on this blog drew attention to 1939's  "Day In-Day Out" with an excellent lyric by Johnny Mercer. It was a song with an insistent melody, passion  and rhythmic drive.

 In the same year, Bloom , now with lyricist Ted Koehler, wrote " Don't Worry 'Bout Me " whose verse starts with a mournful almost depressngl soliloquy . However,  the chorus now adopts a completely different attitude than the title had suggested.. The line "Don't Worry 'Bout Me, I'll get Along "" suggest that things will work out regardless of the obstacles in life and in relationships. The first section is replete with repeated notes which do generate musical tension but in the second section, the melody adopts a more graceful arc that singers caress very gracefully.

The performance is by Joni Mitchell, a wonderful singer songwriter who has demonstrated  an ability to sing jazz standards in a very authoritative and soulful manner, especially since her voice has deepened and added sonic coloration as evidenced in this song.

LINK:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80F982r5dh4

The Last Post

The Last Post: No-the title is not about a last ditch frontier battle with John Wayne riding to the rescue of some settlers in the Arizona desert. It marks the end of one song related blog and the creation of a new, more highly focused venture which I will be describing. For the past ten months, it has been my constant joy to write about the composers and lyricists who created the substantial body of songs that are often referred to as The Great American Songbook tradition.  It is America's cultural gift to the world along with jazz, the blues and Hollywood films. Since 1950, I have been collecting sheet music of the songs created by a considerable number of song writers whose innovations fashioned a uniquely American  musical style that conquered the world. It involved  innovations in both  musical composition and lyric writing, a combination that shed itself of earlier song writing that was highly influenced by European traditions. A century earlier, Stephan Foster wrote in a new fashion that has been described as the false spring of American song but he died in the 1860's.
It was only in the 1920's that Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin began to create a more natural American style of song writing and soon were joined by Cole Porter, George Gershwin,Richard Rodgers and Harold Arlen whose collective body of works represented the major innovations in what has also been called Classic American Popular Song. Of course, there were also other fine composers and lyricists who contributed to the body of work which I have presented in the 80 plus posts ..I thought it was important to not only talk about the composers and lyricists ,  describe their most representative songs and listen to the finest performers and musicians adding their own unique talents to these songs . A song is just a bunch of notes on a page until someone actually performs it.

As I said, this is the " Last Post".  I hope the blog it has been both informative and rewarding for those who have chosen to participate. I am heartened by the fact that many of the viewers come from all around the globe and , at one time, there were more Latvian viewers than US, Canadian and British viewers combined.
I have now started a blog called  Harold Arlen-The American " Natural.'  I will be making the case for recognition of Arlen as the most purely American of all the great song writers. The blog will be a chronological sequence of Arlen's life and creative output featuring his significant output in variety shows, musical theatre and film.

The blog address:        haroldarlentheamericannatural@blogspot.com

I hope you will have a look at this highly partisan depiction of a great American song writer.

Max Weissengruber