The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Last Night When We Were Young

The song of the day for Friday, September 27, 2013 is “Last Night When We Were Young.”

About This Song

Written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg in 1936, “Last Night When We Were Young” may be one of the most perfect love songs ever written. Both Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg considered this their favorite of all their songs. The song had been originally written for a film called Metropolitan, but was cut before the film was released. Judy Garland recorded it for In The Good Old Summertime and Frank Sinatra recorded it for Take Me Out To The Ballgame, but it was cut from both films, mostly because it was considered “too sad.” No matter: it was a hit for both artists as well as many others, including Lawrence Tibbett, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, and even Carly Simon.

Alec Wilder, author of American Popular Song, said that:

Arlen told me that he wrote “Last Night While We Were Young” for Lawrence Tibbett. I can’t frankly imagine a less likely singer for this song. But, after all, once you have heard the Sinatra version, you can’t imagine anyone else singing it.

This is the most remarkable and beautiful song. It is one which goes far beyond the boundaries of popular music. For me, it is a concert song without a trace of trying to be it. It hasn’t any artiness about it or pretense. It’s obviously deeply felt, both by the composer and the lyricist E.Y. Harburg.

It is unlike any other Arlen song that I have heard. However, it is unmistakably his.

About This Version

I’m certainly in no position to argue with the late and great Alec Wilder, but I can definitely imagine Tony Bennett singing this song, which he does quite well on his tribute album to Frank Sinatra: Perfectly Frank. It was arranged and conducted by Robert Farnon and featured the Ralph Sharon Trio, with Paul Langosch on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums. The extraordinary engineer Frank Laico came out of retirement to engineer this album for Tony Bennett.

http://open.spotify.com/track/1qgQmCZ3fUkG2dNSYI6OvN
“Last Night When We Were Young,” as well as the album Perfectly Frank, is available from iTunes and Amazon.com.

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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: Old Devil Moon

The song of the day for Saturday, August 17, 2013 is “Old Devil Moon.”

About This Song

“Old Devil Moon” was composed by Burton Lane with lyrics by Yip Harburg in 1947 for the musical Finian’s Rainbow. This musical about an Irishman named Finian who moves to the state of Missitucky and plans to bury a pot of gold (stolen from a leprechaun) near Fort Knox, thinking that the treasure will grow. The plot includes the leprechaun named Og and a corrupt American senator. It proved quite popular, running for over 700 performances with a film released in 1968, starring Fred Astaire as Finian.

About This Version

Today’s song is from the 1967 album Tony Makes It Happen! I have been listening to this album a lot lately: first of all, it’s a very fine album with some of Bennett’s best songs on it. Secondly, the entire album was arranged by the great Marion Evans, who wrote the arrangements for the jazz album that Bennett and Lady Gaga are recording. The arrangements on Tony Makes It Happen! are outstanding and the entire album is certainly worth a careful listen. After studying this album quite a bit for the last week or so, I am more excited than ever about Bennett and Lady Gaga’s new album.

http://open.spotify.com/track/4t3I5khZ6TCaoSYYW1cKms
“Old Devil Moon,” as well as the album Tony Makes It Happen!, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Last Night When We Were Young

E.Y. “Yip” Harburg was born on April 8, 1896 in New York. He was one of the great American lyricist, working with composers including Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Jerome Kern, Jule Styne and Burton Lane.

Yip Harburg

In honor of his birthday, our song of the day is one of our favorites that he wrote with Harold Arlen, Last Night When We Were Young.

About This Song

Arlen and Harburg wrote Last Night When We Were Young in 1935. It was to be featured by Lawrence Tibbett as a solo number in the film Metropolitan, but that vocal version was cut from the film, though the melody was used as background music. Frank Sinatra’s recording of Last Night When We Were Young in his 1954 album In The Wee Small Hours is widely considered to be one of Sinatra’s masterpieces. The song was much-loved by Judy Garland as well.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded Last Night When We Were Young for his 1992 tribute album to Sinatra, Perfectly Frank. His is a great version of a great song.

http://open.spotify.com/track/1qgQmCZ3fUkG2dNSYI6OvN
Last Night When We Were Young, as well as the full Perfectly Frank album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Somewhere Over The Rainbow

As we close out Harold Arlen Week at the Year of Tony Bennett, we choose one of Arlen’s most iconic songs for the song of the day for Saturday, February 16, 2013: Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

About Somewhere Over The Rainbow

If there is one of Harold Arlen’s songs that is known world-wide by nearly everyone, it would be Somewhere Over The Rainbow from the 1939 The Wizard of Oz. Over The Rainbow, as the song is officially known, was written by Arlen and E.Y ‘Yip’ Harburg for Judy Garland to sing. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

In 2001, The Recording Industry Association of America and The National Endowment for the Arts set out to choose the top 365 songs of the 20th century for their historical significance. Somewhere Over The Rainbow was ranked number 1. The American Film Institute named it the greatest movie song of all time.

Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz
Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz

It’s interesting to note that the song was cut after a preview of the film because Louis B. Mayer and producer Mervyn LeRoy thought it slowed down the picture. It was restored in the film, thankfully, due to associate producer Arthur Freed’s insistence.

It is truly one of America’s greatest and most beloved songs.

The Year of Tony Bennett is happy to have honored the work of Harold Arlen, one of America’s greatest composers. His body of work is rich and Tony Bennett’s recordings of Arlen’s work are masterful. We have enjoyed programming the songs this week and hope you have enjoyed it as well. We would like to acknowledge the support of Arlen’s son, Sam Arlen, for our project and again would like to remind our readers that the Official Harold Arlen Website at www.haroldarlen.com is an enormously valuable resource for anyone interested in the music of the great Harold Arlen. And yes, we’ll be doing this all over again next year.

About This Version

Today’s version is from Tony Bennett’s 1995 Here’s To The Ladies, comprised of songs made famous by the great women singers of the 20th century.

http://open.spotify.com/track/5jGWwfmve3p9h26ujnEmwq
Somewhere Over The Rainbow, as well as the full Here’s To The Ladies album, is available from iTunes.

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