The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: This Can’t Be Love

The song of the day for Thursday, April 24, 2014 is “This Can’t Be Love.”

About This Song

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote “This Can’t Be Love” in 1938 for the Broadway musical The Boys From Syracuse, based on William Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors. It is one of their most joyous and least ironic love songs. Both Benny Goodman and Eddy Duchin recorded the song in the late 1930s. In addition to Tony Bennett’s fine recording here, “This Can’t Be Love” has also been recorded by Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Diana Krall.

About This Version

Today’s song is from Tony Bennett’s wonderful album Tony Bennett Sings 10 Rodgers & Hart Songs, released on his own Improv label. This album, as well as the follow-on Tony Bennett Sings … More Great Rodgers & Hart, features the Ruby Braff-George Barnes Quartet, with Braff on cornet, Barnes on guitar, Wayne Wright on guitar and John Guiffrida on bass. It’s a remarkable sound for the selection of Rodgers and Hart songs as well as Bennett’s voice.

This Can"t Be Love

Listen to This Can"t Be Love on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett · 2004

“This Can’t Be Love,” as well as The Complete Improv Recordings, 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.