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.