The song of the day for Sunday, February 3, 2013 is The Rules Of The Road.
About The Rules Of The Road
While this song is not from a musical, it was written by great Broadway and songwriting team of Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh in 1961.
A quick search shows that this is third time I’ve chosen The Rules Of The Road as the song of the day. But I love the song dearly, so I beg your forgiveness for my self-indulgence. I do think that Cy Coleman is a brilliant composer for Tony Bennett. Most people think of Coleman’s career as a writer of hit Broadway musicals, including Sweet Charity and Little Me. But Coleman was also a jazz singer and pianist of note. With his background in both popular and jazz music, he was able to understand the jazz singer as well as the popular singer in Bennett and gave him songs that gave Bennett the opportunity to bring jazz and popular music together.
About This Version
Today’s version is from Bennett’s 1964 album When Lights Are Low. Produced by Ernie Altschuler, the Ralph Sharon Trio of Sharon (piano), Hal Gaylord (bass) and Billy Exiner (drums) played all of the songs on this album.
The Rules of the Road, as well as the full When Lights Are Low album, is available from iTunes.
For many years il maestro sang this wonderful song at his concerts. Tony brought depth and feeling to this song every time he sang it. And being the gracious man that he is Tony always paid tribute to Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh for writing this gem!