The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Something’s Gotta Give

The song of the day for Tuesday, May 14, 2013 is Something’s Gotta Give.

About This Song

Both the music and lyrics for Something’s Gotta Give, was written by Johnny Mercer in 1954. It premiered in the 1955 musical Daddy Long Legs, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire. It’s a classic Mercer song, with funny and sophisticated lyrics.

About This Version

I hope you don’t mind two days in a row with Johnny Mercer songs, but I do love his work and this song chose me today. This is an early recording from Tony Bennett; it was recorded in June 1955, but for reasons beyond my comprehension it wasn’t released. Thankfully, it was included on one of the Rarities CDs in the recent Complete Collection box set.

The great arrangement is by Sid Feller; if there was ever a song that conjures the mid-1950s, with the sound of the band, Bennett’s great phrasing and Mercer’s tune, it’s gotta be this one.

http://open.spotify.com/track/6pew3Sff2WTusydMb9epXi
Something’s Gotta Give, as well as all of the songs on Rarities, Outtakes and Other Delights, Volume 1, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: I Remember You

The song of the day for Monday, May 13, 2013 is I Remember You.

About This Song

I Remember You was written by Victor Shertzinger (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) in 1941. It was used in the 1942 film The Fleet’s In, where it was sung by Dorothy Lamour, with Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell and the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. In addition to composing all the music for the film, Shertzinger also directed the movie.

The song has been popular over the years, with recordings by Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat Cole, and Doris Day.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded I Remember You for his 2004 album, The Art of Romance. The song was beautifully arranged and conducted by Johnny Mandel. The Art of Romance is a personal favorite of this author and this song is one of the reasons why. And, as our regular readers know, I can’t go too long without featuring a Johnny Mercer song.

http://open.spotify.com/track/3osJ7xPsn1UhfRVDcHN7zf
I Remember You, as well as The Art of Romance album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: My Mom

As today is Mother’s Day, the song of the day for Sunday, May 12, 2013 is My Mom.

The Year of Tony Bennett would like to honor all of our mothers and those of us who are mothers. We also recognize those of us whose mothers live on in our hearts.

About This Song

My Mom was written by Walter Donaldson in 1932. Donaldson was one of the great Tin Pan Alley songwriters. His works include How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)?, Makin’ Whoopee, My Blue Heaven, Yes Sir, That’s My Baby, and Carolina in the Morning.

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About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded My Mom for his charming 1998 children’s album, The Playground. However, this sweet song had been a part of his life since his very early childhood. In his autobiography, The Good Life, he relates:

My father inspired my love for music. He derived tremendous pleasure from singing to anyone who would listen, jut like he did when he was a child. He had a beautiful voice. He used to sit on the front stoop of our house and sing a capella to by brother and me, in the gentle, sensitive voice that I can still hear. He loved Italian folk songs and he used to sing one song written the twenties called My Mom, which has always had a very special meaning for my brother and me.

Bennett has written movingly about his mother in both The Good Life and his recent Life is a Gift. After the death of his father when Tony was only ten, his mother supported her three children sewing dresses a penny a dress.

We were desperate for money, but she couldn’t bring herself to do something that she felt was beneath her. “I only do quality dresses,” she would say. “I’m not going to work on a bad one.” Many years later, I realized that this was the attitude I held toward my job, too. She became my inspiration on singing only quality songs.

Happy Mother’s Day to us all.

http://open.spotify.com/track/14jvlTXvbS6wb38nXJun5Z
My Mom, as well as The Playground album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Steppin’ Out With My Baby

Today, we celebrate one of America’s greatest composers, Irving Berlin, who was born on May 11, 1888 in Temun, Russia as Israel Baline. His family emigrated to America in 1893 to escape the systemic persecution of Jews in Russia at that time. He started working as a singer at the age of 14 and was a singing waiter by 1906. In 1907, he wrote the lyrics for his first published song, Marie From Sunny Italy. His name was misspelled as “I. Berlin” on the sheet music, and from then on he was Irving Berlin. His first major hit came in 1911 with Alexander’s Ragtime Band. He was a self-taught pianist who never learned to read music and could only play in one key: F-sharp. Needless to say, this proved no obstacle to one of the greatest songwriting careers in American history.

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Berlin’s music has been a part of American life, from his wonderful film musicals such as Top Hat, Holiday Inn and Easter Parade to his hit Broadway shows such as Annie Get Your Gun and Call Me Madam to the songs that we have been singing for decades like There’s No Business Like Show Business, God Bless America, and perhaps the greatest Christmas song ever written, White Christmas.

In honor of Irving Berlin, the song of the day for Saturday, May 11, 2013 is Steppin’ Out With My Baby.

About This Song

Like many of Irving Berlin’s songs written for film, Steppin’ Out With My Baby was introduced by Fred Astaire. Berlin wrote the song for the 1948 Easter Parade, in which Astaire co-starred with Judy Garland.

About This Version

Today’s version is from Bennett’s 1994 MTV Unplugged concert. Bennett often sings Steppin’ Out With My Baby in concerts and features his quartet generously in those performances of this song. It seems to me that he has a great time singing this song, and we’re happy to provide this live version today.

http://open.spotify.com/track/31TTqEhhp9SK7qLNqW5EZs
Steppin’ Out With My Baby, as well as the full MTV Unplugged album, is available from iTunes.

And, since it’s Saturday, here’s Fred Astaire in another Berlin tune from Easter Parade: Drum Crazy, filmed in a toy store.

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Song of the Day: Lost in the Stars

The song of the day for Thursday, May 10, 2013 is Lost in the Stars.

About This Song

This is the title song from the 1949 musical Lost in the Stars written by Kurt Weill with lyrics and book by Maxwell Anderson. The musical was based on Alan Paton’s 1948 novel Cry, The Beloved Country, based in apartheid South Africa. It was Weill’s last work; he died in 1950.

About This Version

This song has been a part of Tony Bennett’s repertoire since this recording from 1956 and was released as a single as well as included on the 1957 album Tony, his second full album (following Cloud 7).

In writing this blog, I listen to a lot of singing by Tony Bennett. I knew earlier today that I wanted to use Lost in the Stars. The question then remains: the 1962 Carnegie Hall concert version? Or the 1972 version from Life Is Beautiful? Or this once from 1956? All of them are lovely, but this one I find very special.

In listening to some of Tony’s recordings from the 1950s, especially with less profound songs, you can hear him working with material that doesn’t always feel right for him and his voice sometimes sounds forced. But there are also songs, like Lost in the Stars, that he owns and sings them in a such a way that they could have been recorded in any of the decades that he has recorded — the real Tony Bennett sound that we all love. Or, as I have said to my co-blogger, when the producer “let Tony be Tony” in those early days, the results are phenomenal, as they are with Lost in the Stars. It’s a combination of a superb song, the voice, an arrangement that doesn’t try to hide the voice, his impeccable phrasing and the intense emotional context that Bennett brings to his best work.

The very effective arrangement is by Percy Faith and features the guitar of Chuck Wayne, who worked closely with Bennett closely in the 1950s, including Cloud 7.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2lbCeIj5PmWRhZEqax4NT2
Lost in the Stars, as well as the remastered album Tony, is available from iTunes.