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The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

October 12, 2013 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: If I Ruled The World

The song of the day for Saturday, October 12, 2013 is “If I Ruled The World.”

Which begs the question: What do you mean if?

About This Song

“If I Ruled The World” was written for the 1963 West End musical Pickwick, based on Dicken’s The Pickwick Papers, and was written by Cyril Ornadel and Leslie Bricusse. Harry Secombe, the British actor, originated the role of Pickwick and his version of this song charted at #18 in the UK. The production opened in New York in 1965 on Broadway. Tony Bennett’s was one of the earliest American recordings and the song reached #34 on the US pop singles charts and was included on his 1965 album If I Ruled The World: Songs For The Jet Set.

About This Version

By all reports, Tony Bennett’s performance on Friday night at Radio City Music Hall was a tremendous success (you can see a few tweets from audience members here); the first song that came to mind for the song of the day was today’s song “If I Ruled The World.”

Today’s version is from Tony Bennett’s 1971 concert with the London Philharmonic Concert, captured on the album Get Happy. The arrangement was by Don Costa and the orchestra conducted by Robert Farnon.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2kH96xaQhD7MAuNyM9SrTo
“If I Ruled The World,” as we as the concert album Get Happy, is available from iTunes and Amazon.

And, as it’s Saturday, here’s a video of Tony Bennett from the Queen’s Jubilee at Buckingham Palace, held in 2002.

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