Song of the Day: Lover

The song of the day for Wednesday, August 13, 2014 is “Lover.”

About This Song

Today’s song, “Lover,” was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1932 for the 1932 film Love Me Tonight, where it was introduced by Jeanette MacDonald. I was listening to this song today, when this snippet of the verse stuck in my head and wouldn’t let go:

Since you took control of my life
You have become the whole of my life
When you are away it’s awful
And when you are with me its worse

How can anyone resist that?

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Lover” for his 1973 album Tony Bennett Sings 10 Rodgers & Hart Songs, accompanied by the very fine Ruby Braff / George Barnes Quartet. Tony Bennett produced this album. It was recorded at the famed CBS 30th Street Studio, with recording engineer Frank Laico. Bennett’s two Rodgers and Hart albums were his last to record at the CBS 30th Street Studio, which was dismantled in 1981.

According to David Simon, author of Studio Stories: How the Great New York Records Were Made, the CBS 30th Street Studio was considered by some in the music industry to be the best sounding room in its time and others consider it to have been the greatest recording studio in history. There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, that Mitch Miller, upon visiting the space for the first time, announced it perfect exactly as is and demanded that none of the old curtains or drapes be brought down and to refrain from vacuuming up the dust on the floor.

Other artists who recorded there include Glenn Gould, Vladimir Horowitz, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Dave Brubeck. The last recording made was in 1981: Glenn Gould’s reconsidered Goldberg Variations (Reappraised), recorded a year before the pianist’s death.

“Lover,” as well as The Complete Improv Recordings, is available on iTunes.