Frank Sinatra & Tom Jobim - Baubles, bangles and beads

THAT''S ALL-fROM SINATRA TO BUBLE

That's All-From Sinatra to Buble   Nat Cole introduced this wonderful ballad written by Allan Brandt, Lyrics by Bob Haymes, brother of crooner Dick Haymes. Song scholar Alec Wilder said it was " one of the last, free-flowing and natural melodies in the grand pop tradition being  one of the warmest, most natural and least  studied  songs" that Wilder knew.
Frank Sinatra established a style based in clear,unforced articulation, proper phrasing and interpreting the intent behind the words. He has influenced generations of ballad singers, including Michael Buble. in his version, Buble demonstrates the same dramatic ability to interpret  what the songwriters created. Sixty-Seven years after it was written there are always new and vital interpretations, That makes a song a Standard.
 https://youtu.be/SINfqtCq0lY

https://youtu.be/ppSTGS7CDpk

THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU- Englishman masters Classic American Popular Song

Ray Noble was an English composer, arranger and Bandleader who worked in American on radio  as a musician and actor on the Edgar Bergen and Burns and Allan shows usually playing a silly-ass British twit. He also wrote a number of songs that were very much in the Great American Songbook tradition. Most famous is the tender The Very Thought of You.
I discovered a lovely version sing by Zoe Francis, an American now based in England. She does include the seldom heard verse or introductory segment that sets the
stage for the main chorus that follows.  Noble's words express  a deeply felt love  such as " I see your face before me" I'm living in a kind of daydream"    and "Crazy though I may be, to me, you're everything ! "                                      https://youtu.be/TMfHsrPvITo

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES TIMELESS jEROME kERN mELODY

Jerome Kern is often considered a master of the seamless melody. Stephan Sondheim referred to him as America's Schubert.  The song was written in 1933    but in the 1950's , The Platters, a pop vocal group had a hit with the song although Kern would not have appreciated that version. He did not like any changes from the way it has written. Lyricist Otto Harbach used some arcane expressions such as " chaffed" "forsooth" " sequestered days ." These are not terms that are part of normal discourse but they were accepted at the time.

This version is sung by Connee Boswell  who sang with her sisters in the 1930's. Ella Fitzgerald said that her singing was influenced by listening to Connee Boswell and her natural, un forced vocal style.

https://youtu.be/7_m1b8BYmhA

nOBODY eLSE BUT ME jEROME kERN GETS GROOVY

Nobody Else But Me       Some  Twenty years after his original Showboat, Jerome Kern wrote a new song for a revival of  his famous Showboat creation.  Nobody Else But me is so American in style with the confident swagger of Broadway and the Jazz world.    He discarded his earlier European influenced operetta style and fully adopted the modernity in popular music that evolved in the 1930's and forties.

Tony Bennett demonstrates his own affinity for the Jazz tradition with a relaxed yet compelling rhythmic  pulse provided by a small combo.    https://youtu.be/LAEI8iRUepw  

"AMERICA AGAIN" -LARA DOWNES EXPLORES AMERICA'S RICH MUSICAL HERITAGE.

" America Again" -Lara Downes  explores America's rich  musical heritage.

My blog, Classical American Popular Song, has attempted to explore the period between 1900 and 1950 when the flowering of American popular song reached an audience around the world. Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter and Harold  Arlen produced a body of work that has survived to this very day.

But, with America Again, Steinway Artist Lara Downes has  created a captivating portrait of the many strains that make up America's musical heritage. Lara has adroitly combined the popular compositions of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Scott Joplin  with more classical pieces by Aaron Copland, Amy Beach, Roy Harris and Samuel Coleridge Taylor. Collectively these performances draw upon every possible strand of musical influences, from the blues, jazz  and folk themes, to more formal compositions  that still manage to reflect the restless spirit and dynamism so characteristic of  the American experience. Shenandoah, the traditional folk song,is given a particularly evocative and spiritual performance by Lara Downes . She has made it her personal mission to bring the many and diverse strands of American music to the widest possible audience. Her earlier tribute to Billie Holiday is a case in point.
Anyone who wants to experience the extraordinary  breadth of the American musical heritage should acquire  Lara Downes tribute to her beloved country.
Already available on  Spotify.

SINATRA DOES SIMILAR BEATLES & JEROME KERN SONGS ABOUT MEMORIES

Sinatra does  similar Beatles and Jerome Kern songs about memories..

In 1933, Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach  wrote "Yesterdays"   with such lines as "Days we knew as sweet sequestered days"  . More than 60 years later, Paul McCartney wrote "Yesterday"  with lines like " Yesterday -All my troubles seemed so far away,There's a shadow hanging over me- I still believe in Yesterday."
Both songs are personal reflections and memories from the past, something  which we  can all can recall from our own experiences.

Frank Sinatra does justice to both songs, first with the Kern/Harbach "Yesterdays" and followed by McCartney's  " Yesterday"  Dfferent styles and language but a common theme of memories  with  Frank with his most tender and sensitive interpretations.
Despite the many years between the creation of both songs, these performances show that mature songwriting will sustain The Great American Songbook tradition.


https://youtu.be/yu39_FjvusQ    Yesterdays

https://youtu.be/rytmTeaUtAY   Yesterday