The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Snowfall

On the second day of a Tony Bennett Christmas, Sunday, December 15, 2013, the song of the day is “Snowfall.”

About This Song

“Snowfall” was written in 1941 by the jazz musician, bandleader and composer Claude Thornhill; his wife Ruth Thornhill wrote the lyrics. It is an unusual song in that it’s a cool jazz song, though written in 1941, long before there was such as thing as cool jazz. It’s an evocative and moody song, though quite beautiful.

Painting by Tony Bennett for the American Cancer Society Christmas Card for 2013
Painting by Tony Bennett for the American Cancer Society Christmas Card for 2013

About This Version

Today’s song is the title song for Tony Bennett’s first Christmas album, Snowfall, released in 1968. The album was arranged and conducted by Robert Farnon, with whom Bennett would continue to collaborate with. What many critics, as well as your opinionated author, believe is that Snowfall is not only a great Christmas album, it’s a great album. Unlike Christmas albums from other famous singers, Bennett shows the same careful and nuanced approaches to these Christmas tunes, just as he does to all of his music.

http://open.spotify.com/track/32axcV9zBkJKmh1cq7Yka7
“Snowfall,” as well as the full album Snowfall, is available from iTunes and Amazon.

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Song of the Day: My Favorite Things

The song of the day for Thursday, November 28, 2013, US Thanksgiving Day, is “My Favorite Things.”

About This Song

“My Favorite Things” was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein for the 1959 musical The Sound of Music. Sadly, it was the last musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein; Oscar Hammerstein died from cancer nine months after the opening of the musical on Broadway.

US readers might be interested to know that a live production of The Sound of Music, starring Carrie Underwood as Maria, will air on NBC next Thursday, December 5. I watched a “making of” one hour special about this production on TV Wednesday evening, and it looks quite interesting. I was kind of charmed to see that Carrie Underwood has been listening to her mentor, Tony Bennett. Early in the broadcast, she was asked if she was nervous and she replied that of course she had the butterflies, but if you don’t have butterflies, the audience will likely sense that you don’t really care.

About This Version

Today’s version is from Tony Bennett’s wonderful 1968 album, Snowfall, which was arranged and conducted by Robert Farnon. Musical supervision was by Tony Tamburello and the album was produced by Jack Gold.

As we near our Christmas celebration with The Twelve Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas, beginning on December 14, we’ll be featuring most of the songs from this wonderful album. An editor at iTunes sums up exactly how I feel about this extraordinary album:

The 1968 set Snowfall is far more than an obligatory holiday release from a legendary singer. Teaming with British arranger/composer Robert Farnon, Tony Bennett brings a warmth and emotional commitment to the familiar tunes, lending them a unique luster. With his customary ability to personalize a song lyric, he makes “The Christmas Song,” “White Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland” and other Yuletide standards feel immediate and vital.

I think it’s far and away the best Christmas album ever recorded.

http://open.spotify.com/track/0MoZADdiiC9yzcWpBbNYAC
“My Favorite Things,” as well as the album Snowfall, is available from iTunes and Amazon.

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Song of the Day: Old Devil Moon

The song of the day for Thursday, September 5, 2013 is “Old Devil Moon.”

About This Song

“Old Devil Moon” was written for the 1947 musical Finian’s Rainbow by Burton Lane, with lyrics by Yip Harburg. Finian’s Rainbow also gave us “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” While Alec Wilder was no fan of “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?”, in America Popular Song, he praises “Old Devil Moon” as “a well-written, wholly convincing song. It drives, and its initial intensity is sustained throughout.”

About This Version

Today’s version is from Tony Bennett’s legendary 1971 concert with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Robert Farnon.

From the review in The Stage:

“This evening has been the most exciting and greatest episode in my singing career” Tony Bennett told The Stage after the magnificent performance he at the Albert Hall in aid of The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Nation Appeal Fund.

A great ovation was given to Tony Bennett when he bounced on stage and opened with a snappy number “I Want To Be Happy.”

Nothing fancy — no gimmicks, just excellent singing of many of the songs that have made him world famous.

A wonderful performance that made his ecstatic fans go wild with applause.

http://open.spotify.com/track/5aV8dSbhVggrfNlutQE5G3
“Old Devil Moon,” as well as the Get Happy with The London Philharmonic Orchestra concert recording, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Country Girl

In honor of the birthday of Robert Farnon, the song of the day for July 24, 2013 is “Country Girl.”

About Robert Farnon

Robert Farnon was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 24, 1917. In his long and extraordinary career, Farnon was a composer, conductor and arranger in addition to playing the trumpet. He not only composed for film and television, but is known for his classical works as well.

Robert Farnon
Robert Farnon

When World War II started, Farnon was commissioned as a Captain in the Canadian Army and was named the head of the Canadian Band of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force and served his country in Europe during the war. After the war, he decided to make England his home, settling in the town of Guernsey.

Farnon had the well-deserved reputation of being one of the finest arrangers in the world. Tony Bennett recalled in The Good Life:

I met Bob Farnon in early 1952, when I was playing the Casino in Toronto. … Even back then, Bob wanted us to record together, but I had such reverence for his work that I told him I wasn’t ready. I just didn’t feel that I had developed enough as an artist to make an album with him. I thought I’d have to wait about twenty years before I sang with Bob, and I was pretty close, because we didn’t work together until 1967.

Their first album together Bennett’s 1968 album Snowfall, which is arguably the finest Christmas album ever recorded and stands tall as an album in and of itself and is anything but a standard album of Christmas songs.

Farnon and Bennett continued to work together on, including With Love, his live concert album Get Happy with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tony Bennett’s Greatest Hits, Volume 7 (for Verve), and, in 1992, Perfectly Frank, which not only was a gold record in the US, but won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Performance.

Robert Farnon died on April 23, 2005 at the age of 87, in Guernsey. At his memorial service, held at St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, Tony Bennett sang “Country Girl.”

For more information about Robert Farnon and his exceptional accomplishments, please visit the Robert Farnon Society website.

About This Song

The song “Country Girl” was written by Farnon based on the Wordsworth poem The Solitary Reaper. “Country Girl” was written in 1966 for the Eurovision Song Contest; it came in third. All I can say is that those other two songs must have been phenomenal, because “Country Girl” is one of the most beautiful and touching songs that I have ever heard.

About This Version

Today’s version comes from the 1967 album Tony Makes It Happen! and was arranged and conducted by Marion Evans.

http://open.spotify.com/track/441kwTO21pAs83sCXNZENj
“Country Girl,” as well as the album Tony Makes It Happen!, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: East of the Sun

The song of the day for Tuesday, July 9, 2013 is “East of the Sun.”

About This Song

“East of the Sun” was written in 1934 by Brooks Bowman. Bowman was a student at Princeton when he wrote this song for the university’s Triangle Club show, Stags at Bay. The song was recorded in 1935 and was a hit. This success earned Bowman a contract with the Selznik Studios in Hollywood. Tragically, Bowman died in an automobile accident before he could start his job. It’s widely thought that had he lived, Bowman may have been one of the great American songwriters.

About This Version

Today’s recording is from Tony Bennett’s 1992 album Perfectly Frank, which features songs made popular by Frank Sinatra. The album was arranged and conducted by Robert Farnon and Frank Laico came out of retirement to engineer the album.

http://open.spotify.com/track/3RyE6CY8JIaXzKrdf71pSS
“East of the Sun,” as well as the entire Perfectly Frank album, is available from iTunes.

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