The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Nobody’s Heart Belongs To Me

The song of the day for Thursday, June 20, 2013 is “Nobody’s Heart Belongs to Me.”

About This Song

This touching song is from the from the 1942 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical By Jupiter, where it was introduced by Constance Moore.

For more information about “Nobody’s Heart Belongs To Me,”  including the lyrics, please view this song topic at our sister site, The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography.

About This Version

Today’s song is from one of my favorite Tony Bennett albums: Tony Sings For Two. In what was a very unusual album in 1961, Bennett recorded this album of standards with just the accompaniment of his pianist, Ralph Sharon.  The result was an album of staggering beauty and vocal mastery that showcased Bennett’s voice perfectly.

For more information about Tony Songs For Two, please view this album topic at our sister site, The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography.

http://open.spotify.com/track/0pNwau3h5Xq9LxwLO58Y9c
“Nobody’s Heart Belongs To Me,”  as well as the Tony Sings For Two album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Thou Swell

The song of the day for Saturday, June 1, 2013 is “Thou Swell.”

About This Song

“Thou Swell” is one of Rodgers and Hart’s earlier songs, written in 1927 for A Connecticut Yankee. Based on the Mark Twain novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, the musical concerns a young man about to be married who dreams that he is part of the court of King Arthur in the year 528.  The lyrics cleverly play with both the old and new language: thou and swell; thine eyes are cute too; I’d choose a sweet lollapaloosa in thee.

About This Version

Your song of the day chooser obviously has her favorites and returns to them often: Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, “The Rules of the Road,” and Rodgers and Hart. Between repeated playings of the new Bennett/Brubeck: The White House Sessions, Live 1962 all week, she has been listening to a lot of Rodgers and Hart and was reminded that not only is “Thou Swell” a charming song, but that Tony Bennett’s recording of it is rather swell too.

The two Rodgers and Hart albums were the first albums that Bennett created on his own Improv label after leaving Columbia.  Not only are they wonderful songs, but the George Barnes / Ruby Braff Quartet with Bennett’s voice is perfect. The unusual quartet featured two guitars (Barnes and Wayne Wright), cornet (Ruby Braff) and bass (John Guiffrida). No piano, no drums, no strings, no reeds. For this author, Bennett is at his very best when he sings with small, intimate groups (as on these albums and the 1964 When Lights Are Low with the Ralph Sharon Trio and the 1961 Tony Sings For Two, with just Sharon on piano). There is a purity in these albums and Bennett’s ever-present exploration and commitment to the emotional content of the songs he sings is enhanced. Tony: thou swell, thou witty, thou grand.

Thou Swell

Tony Bennett · Sings The Rodgers & Hart Songbook · Song · 1973

“Thou Swell,” as well as Tony Bennett Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook, is available from iTunes. This contains both Tony Bennett Sings 10 Rodgers & Hart Songs and Tony Bennett Sings … More Great Rodgers & Hart.

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Song of the Day: Wait Till You See Her

The song of the day for Friday, May 17, 2013 is Wait Till You See Her.

About This Song

Wait Till You See Her is a lovely waltz by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1942 for the musical By Jupiter, which was their next-to-last collaboration. Over Hart’s objections, the song was cut from the show before the official opening. However, Mabel Mercer had fallen in love with the song and began to feature it in her cabaret shows. Alec Wilder, in American Popular Song, called it “…one of the loveliest songs Rodgers or any other theater writer has ever written.” Wilder first heard it sung by Mabel Mercer and credits her for the ongoing popularity of the song as standard.

About This Version

Today’s version is from Tony Bennett’s 1973 Improv album Tony Bennett Sings 10 Rodgers & Hart Songs. I have always been a big fan of the songs of Rodgers and Hart, but Bennett’s treatment of these songs is truly wonderful. In addition to his light and sensitive treatment of this waltz, the songs in this series are remarkable as well for the composition of the quartet that he used. The quartet was composed of Ruby Braff on cornet, George Barnes and Wayne Wright on guitar and John Guiffrida on bass. The arrangement for Wait Till You See Me is light and subtle. Listen for the very soft and very beautiful cornet work. And even though this song is very short at not quite a minute and a half, it says everything that needs to be said about this song.

http://open.spotify.com/track/4oEagl4qc4RY25lYvv5P1f
Wait Till You See Her, as well as the full Tony Bennett Sings The Rodgers & Hart Songbook, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Falling In Love With Love

The song of the day for Thursday, April 18, 2013 is Falling In Love With Love.

About This Song

Today’s song, Falling In Love With Love, was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart for the 1938 musical The Boys From Syracuse.

About This Version

It’s been … what … more than a week since I chose a Rodgers and Hart song? I can’t help myself; I can’t help but gravitate to Tony Bennett singing Rodgers and Hart.

I have come to believe that Tony Bennett may very well be the perfect interpreter of the songs  by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Their songs have always interested me, with Rodgers’ beautiful melodies and Hart’s sometimes cynical,  always witty and technically perfect lyrics. Tony Bennett understands what Rodgers is doing with the music without ever becoming sentimental and what Hart is doing with the lyrics without pretension. Perfect, in other words.

Of course, his masterful Rodgers and Hart albums from 1973 are well-known and well-loved, but Bennett had sung from their works long before those albums. This recording is from the 1997 CD release of If I Ruled The World; it wasn’t used on the original LP release from 1965. It’s a beautiful song and I hope you enjoy it.

http://open.spotify.com/track/75EBzZgStWsEcRuFiegfgF
Falling In Love With Love, as well as the full If I Ruled The World: Songs For The Jet Set, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

The song of the day for Saturday, April 6, 2013 is Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

About This Song

Today’s song is just one of the many fine songs from the score of the Broadway musical, Pal Joey, written in 1940 by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. In addition to I Could Write a Book, Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered has become a  much-beloved standard and has been widely recorded by Benny Goodman, Doris Day, Mel Tormé, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. Even Rod Steward and Cher recorded the song as a duet. And though the esteemed Alec Wilder finds the song “notey,” I think it’s one of Rodgers’ best with the usual exquisite lyrics by Hart.

About This Version

I have loved this song since I was a small child; I have memories of my parents listening to this song after they thought we kids had gone to sleep. It’s a great song. But this recording, with just Tony and Ralph Sharon, is extraordinary. Tony Sings  For Two is one of my favorite of Bennett’s albums.  At that point in musical tastes of the public. as well as Bennett’s stature in popular music, I’m sure many thought it risky or perhaps even uninteresting to just have the singer and the pianist, and no other musicians. And it did sit on the shelf for a couple of years before it was released in 1961. Sharon played wonderfully for Bennett and they both demonstrated their deep connection with and understanding of the songs they chose.

http://open.spotify.com/track/4Re3BBnTFrSppLM2M4iATX
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, as well as the remastered album Tony Sings For Two, is available from iTunes.