Song of the Day: You Must Believe in Spring

The song of the day for Thursday, December 12, 2013 is “You Must Believe in Spring.”

About This Song

“You Must Believe in Spring” was written by Michel Legrand, with the English lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman (the French lyrics were by director Jacques Demy). The song was written for the 1967 French film Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, which starred Catherine Deneuve. “You Must Believe In Spring” has been widely recorded by artists including Sylvia Syms, Barbra Streisand and Bill Evans, in a posthumous release of an album with the same name, featuring sessions with Eddie Gomez and Eliot Zigmund.

About This Version

Last summer, someone on Twitter was posting about the Tony Bennett / Bill Evans albums and called them “bruised and beautiful.” I’ve never forgotten that phrase, as (for me, anyway) applies to many of the songs that Bennett and Evans recorded, none more so than “You Must Believe in Spring.” In other hands, this song would express a sense of sadness, tempered with hope. In the hands of Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, it’s a pleading song of loss and love and despair, with a small bit of hope coming through. Bruised and beautiful.

In her one-woman show a few years ago, Elaine Stritch remarked on singing Stephen Sondheim’s song “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Company as a three-act play. This recording is also a three-act play of amazing depth, pain, sensitivity and love and hope.

http://open.spotify.com/track/44S9DUM1T1vNN9jn8aOGeL
“You Must Believe in Spring,” as well as the album Together Again, is available from iTunes and Amazon.