The London Lounge

Any favourite songs from the Great American Song Book, anybody?
NJS

by Alec Wilder, Oxford University Press

It is definiitive.

All of them? Seriously, I cannot begin to answer that . Instead, I will offer you this tid-bit:
Start here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1jQZ2KeKfc
or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f1fyuN5 ... re=related for two of my favorites.

Then look at this page: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 81DFEED07A for more of the same singer.

I have no idea who this is, and found her by accident. I think she is an amateur who has recorded 100+ videos of herself singing and posted them on youtube. She is pretty good and I like her selection. The delivery is different from song to song and it is interesting how easy it is to see which songs suit her and which do not. The whole project is sort of endearing.

Agree that there are too many tunes... One might want to pick up Mark Steyn's American Songbook, a handy confidante or chum for those who enjoy "the rest of the story"... JAS

There are many tunes, that's for sure - but we have our own personal favourites, don't we? - Let me kick off with the Kern/Harbach song "Smoke Gets inYour Eyes" (well, for as long as the stalinists will allow it.... anyway) - best recording, for me, Irene Dunne (n the film of the play for which it was written - 'Roberta') - but The Platters and Vic Damone not far behind.
NJS

storeynicholas wrote:. . . The Platters and Vic Damone not far behind.
NJS

Not what I think of when I think of the Great American Song Book.

Here is another example. I prefer the audio to the overripe visual. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7RRrIcR03M


I don't know what this is, but it has the right feel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVc8qRm2 ... re=related

A classic performed by a legend (though his age is showing here): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF-VAOtf ... re=related

yes, well, maybe they are further behind than I originally thought - but I see that you don't discount Irene Dunne.
NJS

storeynicholas wrote:yes, well, maybe they are further behind than I originally thought - but I see that you don't discount Irene Dunne.
NJS

If I remember correctly, she did a great rendition of "Smoke Gets in My Eyes" in Roberta, which also had a turn by Lucille Ball as a dress model. The "soft focus" on Dunne looked like it was shot through vaseline and very well may have been.

Dopey, Yes, Roberta, originally a play, filmed with Fred, Ginger and Irene Dunne in 1935 - I recall what you mean about the soft focus - did they really use vaseline on the lens to achieve this sort of effect - sounds as though you know a lot about this sort of thing. Please tell me more!! Of course, Irene Dunne was also a great actress and comedienne - My Favourite Wife (opposite Cary Grant) being a superb performance. I shall watch out for Lucille Ball next time I watch Roberta.
NJS

SJN:
I am not an expert on this, but we have most of the Fred Astaire movies as my daughters love to watch them. I will check the notes that came with the boxed set in which Roberta was included - I seem to remember a comment there or somewhere else about the visuals on that shot, or maybe it was about the poor sound staging of Dunne's performance. In general, I do know that special filters were used to give the soft glowing look to starlets of that era and smearing vaseline was one of the techniques used (see here).

I checked the notes. Nothing. I must have gotten the information from some other source whose identity now escapes me.

Dopey,
I agree that, even though ID's performance is great, the sound quality is not that good - and I am grateful for the information about the soft focus.
NJS

Depends on how academic you want to be, but Alec Wilder's book is superb from a composer's standpoint, as well as a lyricists. He covers the range of 'Great Craftsmen" with the exception of Irving Berlin. Berlin was increasingly reclusive (read: paranoid) as he got older, and the Estate famously difficult to deal with.

I would not overlook the jazz musicians in any discussion of the topic. Don't focus exclusively on the vocalists or visuals. Simply listen to Django's rendition of "Body and Soul" for example. If you prefer Vocalists, Lee Wiley, Billie Holiday, and so on.

For more titillation, see the recent biography of Jimmy Van Heusen (a tangential haberdashery reference, in hommage to LL).

[quote="tteplitzmd"]I would not overlook the jazz musicians in any discussion of the topic. Don't focus exclusively on the vocalists or visuals. Simply listen to Django's rendition of "Body and Soul" for example. If you prefer Vocalists, Lee Wiley, Billie Holiday, and so on.quote]

I would definitely agree with this....I greatly prefer the versions of these "standards" as interpreted by Ella FItzgerald, Holliday, Eckstine, et al. I find that I generally dislike the heavily string-laden Hollywood versions. I greatly prefer the small-band versions Astaire did of the songs he helped popularize in the 1930s and '40s; it features the JATP players instead of the full orchestras with which the film versions were recorded.

I'll listen to anything sung by Rosemary Clooney.