The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: It’s So Peaceful In The Country

The song of the day for Thursday, May 15, 2014 is “It’s So Peaceful In The Country.”

About This Song

Alec Wilder wrote “It’s So Peaceful in the Country” for the singer Mildred Bailey, who recorded it in 1941. Wilder was a great friend to singers Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. He was an admirer of jazz musicians for their ability to improvise.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “It’s So Peaceful In The Country” in 1957; it was released as a 45 RPM single in 1959 and also on the 1997 CD re-release of The Beat of My Heart. This album was Bennett’s second jazz album; for this album he brought in some of the world’s greatest percussionists to feature. This song features Chico Hamilton and was arranged by Ralph Sharon. Sharon’s piano introduction and Bennett’s entrance into the song is really delightful.

We’re having one of our first heat waves of the year in Portland right now. As the heat was coming up off of the road on the way home, I kept thinking how nice it would be to sit by a lake and dangle my feet in the water. By the time I got home, I knew what the song would be. It happens like that sometime.

http://open.spotify.com/track/5AgJDo5WDRs9F4axve1UHD
“It’s So Peaceful In The Country,” as well as the album The Beat of My Heart, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Caravan

The song of the day for Sunday, November 24, 2013 is “Caravan.”

About This Song

“Caravan” was written in 1936 by Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol, with lyrics by Irving Mills. The song is often performed as an instrumental, which was the original intent (as is with many Ellington songs). “Caravan” was a standard for the Ellington orchestras over the years. It has strong place in the jazz repertoire (ranking #17 at jazzstandards.com). In addition to many fine recordings of this song by Duke Ellington, “Caravan” was recorded by several bands in the 1930s, including Bunny Berigan and Benny Goodman.

About This Version

Today’s version of “Caravan” is from Tony Bennett’s unreleased album On the Glory Road. It was recorded in March, 1962 and was arranged and conducted by Ralph Sharon. This album featured Chico Hamilton on drums. Bennett recorded this song again in 1999 for Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2sfK1ILOd5gMjk9jHqFLOx
“Caravan,” as well as the previously unreleased album On The Glory Road, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: De Glory Road

The song of the day for Friday, November 15, 2013 is “De Glory Road.”

About This Song

The song “De Glory Road” is based on the poem by a white, socialist, native Alabama lawyer and writer named Clement Wood, who published the poem in 1928. The music was composed by Jacques Wolfe, a native of Romania. Wolfe, who served in the U.S. Army in a military band and was stationed in North Carolina, became interested in African-American music and studied it academically and musically. The piece was published in 1928. You can read more about De Glory Road at The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography, including a transcription of the lyrics. The song was first recorded by opera singer Lawrence Tibbets in 1931.

About This Version

There have been several different users searching for information on “De Glory Road” on both this site and our sister site, The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography. For that reason, we are happy to present it as today’s song of the day.

Tony Bennett recorded this song for the album On The Glory Road to be released in 1962. The album was ready to release when Columbia made a last-minute decision to not release the album. Frankie Laine had also recorded this song in 1962 for his album Wanderlust, which was not a commercial success, which may have been a factor for Columbia. It’s a shame, as the album is quite good and I, for one, am very happy that it is now available at last to be heard. Other highlights on the album include “That Old Black Magic,” “Speak Low” and another real favorite of mine, “Revolvin’ Jones.” You can read more about Revolvin’ Jones on the discography, which has a Spotify link; it’s worth a listen and is thigh-slapping funny.

“De Glory Road,” as well as all of the songs on the album, were arranged and conducted by Ralph Sharon and featured Chico Hamilton on drums. Ernie Altschuler produced the album.

http://open.spotify.com/track/6N6g6QnXlGODYjnlm2COpx
“De Glory Road,” as well as the previously unreleased album On The Glory Road, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Crazy Rhythm

The song of the day for Friday, August 9, 2013 is “Crazy Rhythm.”

About This Song

“Crazy Rhythm” was written in 1928 for the musical Here’s Howe by Irving Caesar, Joseph Meyer and Roger Wolfe Kahn. True to its title, the song is quite rhythmic and soon became a jazz classic, with well over a hundred different versions including those by Stan Getz, Harry James, Miles Davis, Les Paul and Chet Atkins. While mostly recorded as an instrumental, the song’s lyrics are quite clever and enjoyable, at least in Tony Bennett’s fine recording.

About This Version

Today’s song is from Tony Bennett’s third album, The Beat of My Heart. Tony Bennett, who had just brought in Ralph Sharon as his pianist, had a strong vision for this album: a jazz album featuring great percussionists. “Crazy Rhythm” features Chico Hamilton. This album also featured Jo Jones, Candido, Sabu, Art Blakely, and Billy Exiner (who would play with Bennett and the Ralph Sharon Trio for many years).

http://open.spotify.com/track/4QtftZeekTIyen4G12d529
“Crazy Rhythm,” as well as the album The Beat of My Heart, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Soon It’s Gonna Rain

The song of the day for Monday, January 14, 2013 is Soon It’s Gonna Rain.

About Soon It’s Gonna Rain

This song is from the 1960 Off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. The production opened on May 3, 1960 at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, where it played for 17,162 performances before closing on January 13, 2002.

The Fantasticks was important to this author, who developed her love of the theater in a large part from listening to the cast album for this show over and over again in her suburban home during her teens. In 1972, when I was studying drama at Birmingham-Southern College, a major touring company of The Fantasticks came to Birmingham and dedicated a performance to Dr. Arnold Powell. It was only then that I learned that Dr. Arnold Powell, the chairman of the Drama Department, was instrumental in the success of The Fantasticks. In June 1960, he was traveling to Europe for a sabbatical; he stopped in New York and caught a performance of The Fantasticks and immediately fell in love with it. At that time, the ticket sales weren’t that good and the producer, Lore Noto, was concerned they might have to close the production. Dr. Powell came backstage, raving about the piece and said that he wanted to produce it at Birmingham-Southern College immediately after his return from his sabbatical. His enthusiasm revived the spirits of the team and they vowed to keep it running. And thus a small liberal arts college in Birmingham, Alabama opened the first production of The Fantasticks after than the original production.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded Soon It’s Gonna Rain in March 1962 for the planned On The Glory Road album. The music was arranged and conducted by Ralph Sharon. Chico Hamilton, who had appeared on Bennett’s 1957 The Beat Of My Heart, returned to play for this album as well. On The Glory Road was not released until its inclusion the 2011 Complete Collection.  However, it was used on Mr. Bennett’s 1964 album The Many Moods Of Tony, along with another song from On The Glory Road, Caravan.

Soon It"s Gonna Rain

Listen to Soon It"s Gonna Rain on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 1964.

Soon It’s Gonna Rain, as well as the full The Many Moods of Tony and On The Glory Road albums are available at iTunes.

And for a trip down my memory lane, here’s Soon It’s Gonna Rain from the original 1960 cast album of The Fantasticks.

Soon It"s Gonna Rain

Listen to Soon It"s Gonna Rain on Spotify. Kenneth Nelson · Song · 2010.

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