The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Come Rain Or Come Shine

The song of the day for Sunday, February 15, 2015 is “Come Rain Or Come Shine.”

About This Song

Today’s song was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer in 1946 for the musical St. Louis Woman. The song itself is rather unusual, in that the same note repeated 12 times in the first two measures. In spite of that repetition, or perhaps because of it, the song works very well for the singer. Al Gioia in Jazz Standards says that “this composition tends to resist grandstanding, and instead appeals to the more introspective improviser.”

About This Version

Today’s version of “Come Rain Or Come Shine” is from Tony Bennett’s 1960 album Tony Bennett Sings A String Of Harold Arlen. I believe that it noteworthy that Mr. Bennett’s first album devoted to the music of a single composer was for Harold Arlen. This album was arranged and conducted by Glenn Osser.

About Today

Today we honor the great Harold Arlen, who was born on February 15, 1905 — one hundred and ten years ago today.

I can’t speak for anyone other than myself, but I do believe that Harold Arlen is the greatest composer of American popular song. I suspect that most adult Americans know at least one Arlen song that speaks to them, whether it’s “The Man That Got Away” or “One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)” or “Over The Rainbow” or any of the other of the many dozens of songs he wrote in his career.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to Barbara Cook on my iPod and was struck by how many of Arlen’s songs she’s sung over the years. But, again, every popular singer I’ve ever loved has always sung Arlen, from Judy Garland to Frank Sinatra. Even Stephen Sondheim, in listing the “songs I wish I’d written (at least in part)” named several Arlen songs: “Blues In The Night,” “Buds Won’t Bud,” “The Eagle And Me,” “I Had Myself A True Love,” and “I Wonder What Became Of Me.” (Sondheim also lists an equal number of Cy Coleman songs, which we’ll discuss another day.)

So, I’ll go on the record and say that I don’t think the American Songbook would be what we love today had it not been for Harold Arlen.

With the greatest respect, The Year of Tony Bennett honors the life and music of the great Harold Arlen on the anniversary of his birth.

Come Rain Or Come Shine

Tony Bennett · Tony Bennett Sings A String Of Harold Arlen · Song · 1960


“Come Rain Or Come Shine,” as well as Tony Bennett Sings A String Of Harold Arlen, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Let’s Fall In Love

The song of the day for Friday, August 15, 2014 is “Let’s Fall In Love.”

About This Song

Harold Arlen wrote “Let’s Fall In Love” in 1933, with lyrics by Ted Koehler. It was written for a movie of the same name, which starred Edmund Lowe and Ann Sothern (I love her!) and was written by Herbert Fields, brother of the great lyricist Dorothy Fields.

Eddie Duchin made one of the first popular recordings of this song. Other significant versions include those by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall and Annette Hanshaw.

About This Version

Tony Bennett Sings a String of Harold Arlen was Tony Bennett’s first album to focus on the work of a single artist. All of the songs on the album were arranged by Glenn Osser, noted arranged and composer, who passed away on April 29, 2014 at the age of 99. The album was produced by Mitch Miller; it was the last album that Miller produced for Bennett.

About Today

“Let’s Fall In Love,” “House Of Flowers,” “Come Rain or Come Shine” and “Over The Rainbow” were all recorded on August 15, 1960, exactly 54 years ago today. You can click the date to read more about the session at our sister site, The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography. As always, we are amazed and grateful at the depth and integrity of Tony Bennett’s recording career, from 1950 up to today, as we look forward to the release of Cheek to Cheek.

Let"s Fall In Love

Tony Bennett · Tony Bennett Sings A String Of Harold Arlen · Song · 1960

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Song of the Day: Over The Rainbow

The song of the day for Saturday, June 21, 2013 is “Over the Rainbow.”

About This Song

Today’s song is, of course, from the great 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz and was written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. And, famously, introduced by Judy Garland. It also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The American Film Institute, in its list of the 100 greatest movie songs, ranked it as #1 and The National Endowment For The Arts named it “The Song” of the 20th Century. NPR has an excellent story that analyzes today’s “Over The Rainbow”; click here to listen. Not surprisingly, Judy Garland introduced five of the top 100 songs on the list, adding “The Man That Got Away” (#11), “The Trolley Song” (#26), “Get Happy” (#61) and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” (#76). Tony Bennett has recorded all of these songs introduced by Judy Garland.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Over The Rainbow” in 1960 for Tony Bennett Sings A String Of Harold Arlen. The arrangement is by Glenn Osser and is really quite nice. One of the many reasons I love this version is that Bennett sings the verse, which was cut from the movie and is seldom heard.

http://open.spotify.com/track/06ElUZ4yGFDhA5k2wwpn3p
“Over The Rainbow,” as well Tony Bennett Sings A String Of Harold Arlen, is available from iTunes.

And since it’s Saturday, here’s the lyricist Yip Harburg, talking about and singing his song:

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Song of the Day: This Time The Dream’s On Me

The song of the day for Tuesday, May 27, 2014 is “This Time The Dream’s On Me.”

About This Song

Today’s song was written in 1941 by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer for the film Blues In The Night. Arlen and Mercer also wrote the somewhat more well-known title song for the film as well. “This Time The Dream’s On Me” has been recorded by Marian McPartland, Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker, among others.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded today’s song in 1960 for his album dedicated to the work of Harold Arlen called Tony Bennett Sings a String of Harold Arlen. The songs on the album were arranged and conducted by Glenn Osser and the album was produced by Mitch Miller.

http://open.spotify.com/track/32nVwVpaNNg73U4B5KbOrB
“This Time The Dream’s On Me,” as well as the album Tony Bennett Sings a String of Harold Arlen, is available from iTunes.

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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.