The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Last Night When We Were Young

The song of the day for Tuesday, April 8, 2014 is “Last Night When We Were Young.”

About This Song

Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg wrote “Last Night When We Were Young” in 1936. Unlike most of their songs, especially at that time, it was not written for either a film or a theatrical production. In American Popular Song, Alec Wilder was a big fan of the song:

This is a most remarkable and beautiful song. It is one that goes far beyond the boundaries of popular music. For me, it is a concert song without trace of trying to be. It hasn’t any artiness or pretense. It’s obviously deeply felt, by both the composer and the lyricist, E.Y. Harburg.

It was indeed a deeply felt lyric by E.Y. Harburg, whose date of birth we remember today. Upon reflecting on this song, he said that he did not know where he acquired the title but that “the juxtaposition of those two phrases is almost a whole world of philosophy.”

It is one of the great songs in the American Songbook.

About This Version

Tony Bennett has recorded this song twice: first in 1960 on To My Wonderful One and again in 1992 for Perfectly Frank. While both versions are excellent, I prefer the later version, as I believe the song has more depth coming from the somewhat older perspective. Mr. Bennett is accompanied by the Ralph Sharon Trio, with Paul Langosch on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums.

http://open.spotify.com/track/1qgQmCZ3fUkG2dNSYI6OvN
“Last Night When We Were Young,” as well as the album Perfectly Frank, is available from iTunes.

By 3 Comments

Song of the Day: Fun To Be Fooled

The song of the day for Sunday, April 6, 2014 is “Fun To Be Fooled.”

About This Song

“Fun To Be Fooled” was composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics from Ira Gershwin and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg. The song was written for the 1934 Broadway musical revue Life Begins at 8:40, which featured Bert Lahr and Ray Bolger. This revue, which was very well-received, marked one of Arlen’s first opportunities on the larger Broadway scene after his time writing for The Cotton Club.

About This Version

Today I was checking the usage statistics for our sister site, The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography and noticed that some one had done a Google search for “Fun To Be Fooled,” which led me to revisit Tony Bennett’s 1960 album Tony Bennett Sings A String of Harold Arlen. I think it’s worth noting that the first album that Bennett made with just the music from a single composer was his album of Arlen music. Harold Arlen’s music has threaded through popular music from his earliest songs. Some years ago, the Library of Congress did a special birthday concert for Stephen Sondheim, the first part of which consisted of songs that he didn’t write, but wished he had. Almost all of them were Harold Arlen songs.

In typical Tony Bennett style, he not only sings the very popular and widely known songs, such as “Over the Rainbow” and “I’ve Got The World on a String.” but also brings us some wonderful Arlen songs that aren’t as well known. Today’s song, “Fun To Be Fooled,” is one of those songs. The song is a quite sweet love song. Note that in the middle of the song, there’s a reference to “old devil moon.” Yip Harburg would borrow that phrase as the title of a song written with Burton Lane for Finians’ Rainbow in 1947.

http://open.spotify.com/track/10e1opq0lzrR3K5SNOVJ09
“Fun To Be Fooled,” as well as Tony Bennett Sings A String of Harold Arlen, is available from iTunes.

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Last Night When We Were Young

The song of the day for Sunday, February 23, 2014 is “Last Night When We Were Young.”

About This Song

“Last Night When We Were Young” was composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg in 1935. Arlen considered “Last Night When We Were Young” to be one of his favorite songs. In American Popular Song, Alec Wilder calls it a “most remarkable and beautiful song … (that) goes far beyond the boundaries of popular music.” Yip Harburg has said that he doesn’t know exactly where the title came from but that “the juxtaposition of those two phrases is almost a whole world of philosophy.” All in all, it’s a very beautiful and introspective song that is much beloved by singers. Frank Sinatra included on his album In The Wee Small Hours. It has also been recorded by Judy Garland, Mel Tormé, Carmen McRae and Tony Bennett.

About This Version

Today’s version of “Last Night When We Were Young” is from Bennett 1992 album Perfectly Frank. Mr. Bennett previously recorded this song for his 1960 album To My Wonderful One.

This 1992 version was arranged and conducted by Robert Farnon and was produced by Andre Fischer. Frank Laico, who had engineered many of Bennett’s recordings for his first contract with Columbia at the famed 30th Street Studio, came out of retirement to engineer this album. All the songs on the album feature the Ralph Sharon Trio, with Paul Langosch on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums.

http://open.spotify.com/track/1qgQmCZ3fUkG2dNSYI6OvN
“Last Night When We Were Young,” as well as the album Perfectly Frank, is available from iTunes.

By Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe

The song of the day for Sunday, April 21, 2013 is Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe.

About This Song

This song, written by Harold Arlen with lyrics by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, was included in the film version of Cabin In The Sky, starring Ethel Waters, Eddie Anderson and a very young and very lovely Lena Horne. The Broadway production of Cabin In The Sky opened in 1940 starring Miss Waters and Dooley Wilson, and had a spectacular score by Vernon Duke and John LaTouche, which included a Tony Bennett favorite Taking A Chance on Love.

The film version was released in 1943. In addition to the Duke-LaTouche score, additional songs were added, including the Arlen-Harburg masterpiece, Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe, which was nominated for an Academy award for the Best Original Song, losing to the Harry Warren-Mack Gordon song You’ll Never Know from Hello Frisco, Hello.  Arlen was nominated for two songs that year; the other was That Old Black Magic written with Johnny Mercer. Also nominated were songs by Cole Porter, Jule Styne, Jimmy McHugh and Arthur Schwartz. Pretty tough company. The film, directed by Vincent Minnelli (his first solo film directing credit), included a brief scene with Louis Armstrong as The Trumpeter (complete with little devil horns) and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

About This Version

I had never seen this film until this weekend; I recorded it just to check it out (thanks Turner Classic Movies) and found it delightful. Great performances, Ethel Waters, and a production number by Busby Berkeley. What more do you want in a movie? It was pure joy and the music was wonderful. The full score is available from iTunes.

Tony Bennett recorded this song only once, to the best of my knowledge, for his 1962 album with Ralph Sharon, Tony Sings For Two.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2wkWjp5DhCqTkGuw2Fi9a0
Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe, as well as the remastered Tony Sings For Two album, is available from iTunes.

And here’s Ethel Waters singing our song of the day from the film Cabin in the Sky:

 

By 4 Comments

Song of the Day: Last Night When We Were Young

The Song of the Day for October 18, 2012 is Last Night When We Were Young.

About Last Night When We Were Young

Today’s song is a true American masterpiece, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E. Y. (Yip) Harburg in 1935. Arlen considered it one of his personal favorites of his own compositions (the other being One For My Baby). In his book Harold Arlen: Rhythm, Rainbows, and Blues, Edward Jablonski writes that Arlen played the melody for both George Gershwin and Jerome Kern; Gershwin felt it was too complicated and Kern felt it was too esoteric. It was a year later that Yip Harburg wrote the lyrics. While this song may not have been a major hit in the Arlen catalogue, it is to many (including this author) a masterpiece.

Frank Sinatra included the song for his 1954 In The Wee Small Hours. The song was also a favorite of Judy Garland

About This Version

Tony Bennett has recorded Last Night When We Were Young twice: in 1959 for To My Wonderful One and in 1992 for Perfectly Frank. Today we present the 1992 version.

If you detect a certain bias for Harold Arlen in the selection of songs of the day, all I can say is guilty as charged.

Here’s Harold Arlen singing his own song, from The 1955 Walden Sessions:

As extra treat, here’s Judy Garland singing Last Night We Were Young in 1956 on GE Theatre.

And you haven’t had enough, here is Peggy Lee from Dream Street:

I guess I really like this song a lot.