The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: September Song

The song of the day for Tuesday, September 9, 2014 is “September Song.”

About This Song

“September Song,” by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, was written for the Broadway musical Knickerbocker Holiday, which opened in 1938 and starred Walter Huston. Huston had requested to have a solo song in the production and so Weill and Anderson wrote “September Song” with careful attention to Huston’s limited singing skills. In spite of a limited range, the poignant quality of the lyrics and the charming tune make for a quite pleasant song that has found great popularity among singers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and even Lou Reed.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “September Song” in 1959 for the album To My Wonderful One, released in 1960.  The album was arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol and produced by Mitch Miller and Al Ham. In addition to today’s song, this album has several other great songs by Bennett including “Speak Low,” “Last Night When We Were Young,” “Laura” and “April in Paris.” The entire album is well worth a listen.

September Song

Listen to September Song on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett · 1960


“September Song,” as well as the album To My Wonderful One, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Lost in the Stars

The song of the day for February 28, 2014 is “Lost in the Stars.”

About This Song

“Lost in the Stars” was written by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson for the 1949 musical of the same name, based on the 1948 novel by Alan Paton: Cry, the Beloved Country. Set in South Africa in an era when apartheid seemed as if it would never end, the plot concerns a black priest whose son, in a robbery attempt, kills a white man who is a friend of his father. The priest sings this song at the end of the first act, in a complete crisis of faith.

About This Version

Today’s version of “Lost in the Stars” was recorded with Count Basie and His Orchestra for the 1959 album In Person! His first version of this song was made for the 1956 album Tony. However, it’s our version today that he selected for his Forty Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett box set.

http://open.spotify.com/track/32cxJYmijy4f8hzFl1OnsS
“Lost in the Stars,” as well as the album In Person! with Count Basie and His Orchestra, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Lost in the Stars

    The song of the day for Monday, October 7, 2013 is “Lost in the Stars.”

    About This Song

    “Lost in the Stars” was written by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson for the 1949 musical of the same name, based on the 1948 novel Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. The novel, and the musical, is set in apartheid South Africa. It tells the story of a black priest whose son has killed a close friend of his father, a white man. This song is sung at the end of Act One, as the priest experiences a crisis of faith.

    Lost in the Stars was Kurt Weill’s last show; he died the following year.

    About This Version

    Today’s version is from Tony Bennett’s 1959 album with Count Basie: In Person! with Count Basie and His Orchestra. It is worth noting that of all the versions of “Lost in the Stars” that Bennett has recorded, this version is the one he chose for his box sets Forty/Fifty Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett.

    http://open.spotify.com/track/32cxJYmijy4f8hzFl1OnsS
    “Lost in the Stars,” as well as the entire In Person! album, is available from iTunes and Amazon.

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Song of the Day: September Song

The song of the day for Sunday, September 1, 2013 is “September Song.”

About This Song

“September Song” was written by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson for the 1938 Broadway musical Knickerbocker Holiday. The song was introduced in the musical by Walter Huston. The song has been widely sung since it was written, with significant recordings by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, in addition to Tony Bennett’s fine recording.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “September Song” for his 1960 album To My Wonderful One. He also included this recording on the Forty (and Fifty) Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett box sets. In the liner notes for the box set, Bennett writes:

I was very influenced by the way Walter Huston, who created it in Knickerbocker Holiday, interpreted this song: you can hear some of the same sweet bitterness in my own performance. This song also makes me appreciate the genius of Kurt Weill.

“September Song” was arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol; the album was produced by Mitch Miller and Al Ham.

http://open.spotify.com/track/1hw9QFhjuEsBxvXGuBWslK
“September Song,” as well as the album To My Wonderful One, is available from iTunes and Amazon.com.

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Song of the Day: Lost in the Stars

The song of the day for Thursday, May 10, 2013 is Lost in the Stars.

About This Song

This is the title song from the 1949 musical Lost in the Stars written by Kurt Weill with lyrics and book by Maxwell Anderson. The musical was based on Alan Paton’s 1948 novel Cry, The Beloved Country, based in apartheid South Africa. It was Weill’s last work; he died in 1950.

About This Version

This song has been a part of Tony Bennett’s repertoire since this recording from 1956 and was released as a single as well as included on the 1957 album Tony, his second full album (following Cloud 7).

In writing this blog, I listen to a lot of singing by Tony Bennett. I knew earlier today that I wanted to use Lost in the Stars. The question then remains: the 1962 Carnegie Hall concert version? Or the 1972 version from Life Is Beautiful? Or this once from 1956? All of them are lovely, but this one I find very special.

In listening to some of Tony’s recordings from the 1950s, especially with less profound songs, you can hear him working with material that doesn’t always feel right for him and his voice sometimes sounds forced. But there are also songs, like Lost in the Stars, that he owns and sings them in a such a way that they could have been recorded in any of the decades that he has recorded — the real Tony Bennett sound that we all love. Or, as I have said to my co-blogger, when the producer “let Tony be Tony” in those early days, the results are phenomenal, as they are with Lost in the Stars. It’s a combination of a superb song, the voice, an arrangement that doesn’t try to hide the voice, his impeccable phrasing and the intense emotional context that Bennett brings to his best work.

The very effective arrangement is by Percy Faith and features the guitar of Chuck Wayne, who worked closely with Bennett closely in the 1950s, including Cloud 7.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2lbCeIj5PmWRhZEqax4NT2
Lost in the Stars, as well as the remastered album Tony, is available from iTunes.

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