The song of the day for Friday, August 16, 2013 is “The Two Lonely People.”

We choose this song to honor the birth of the great Bill Evans, who was born on this day in 1929 and died on September 15, 1980.

About This Song

Bills Evans wrote “The Two Lonely People” in 1971; Carol Hall wrote the lyrics. The song first appeared on Evans’ 1971 album The Bill Evans Album. The song was also recorded in 1974 on the album But Beautiful, recorded live with Stan Getz at Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp, Belgium; this album was released in 1974.

About This Version

Today’s song is from Bennett’s and Evans’ second album, Together Again, released in 1977 on Bennett’s Improv label. Both of their albums, The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album and Together Again, are both masterful jazz albums. Tony Bennett proved once again to a new generation of jazz fans that he is indeed one of the best jazz singers ever. He and Evans explore these songs without any artifice; they do what all great jazz musicians do: they found the essence of of each song and had an intimate musical conversation that reveals the truth (and beauty) of each song. It’s as good as it gets.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2xXvFPClwH2aiOi4x89pfj
“The Two Lonely People,” as well as the remastered Together Again album, is available from iTunes.

The Year of Tony Bennett blog gets many searches from people looking for the lyrics to The “Two Lonely People.” Here they are.

The two lonely people sat silently staring
Their eyes looking coldly ahead
The two lonely people once loved and were caring
But now it’s all over and dead
They don’t know what happened
They can’t think what happened
They had something fine on their own
But the two lonely people have turned into statues
Yes turned into statues of stone
The world was their moon once
The yellow ones
It held all their hopes and their dreams
But time came and broke them
Reality woke them
The world’s not so pretty as it seems
For all that once mattered
Is old now and battered
But must it be shattered in two
The two lonely people
Would give all their life
Yes give all their life
If they knew… The two lonely people sat silently staring
Their eyes looking coldly ahead
The two lonely people sat silently staring
Their eyes looking coldly ahead