Written by Billy Hill and originally recorded by clarinetist Benny Goodman, “The Glory of Love” has been covered by many artists including The Andrews Sisters, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin and Paul McCartney. Peggy Lee included the song on her 1958 album Jump For Joy, and her cover was recently featured on the Netflix series Dead To Me, which concluded its run earlier this year. There’s a quick modulation from C up to Db at 2:09
Tag: 1950s
Good Morning (from “Singin’ in the Rain”)
“’Making Singin’ in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I’ve ever done,’ Debbie Reynolds wrote in her 2013 memoir, Unsinkable,” (Slate). “’The movie was actually harder, because it hurt me everywhere, mostly my brain and my feet.’ Reynolds was only 19 when she was cast alongside Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in what would become one of the greatest Hollywood musicals … But she had no training in dance, and she was about to share the screen with two of Hollywood’s greatest hoofers. ‘I wasn’t a dancer,’ Reynolds wrote, ‘and I had three months to learn what Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor had been doing for years.’
Reynolds’ preparation was arduous, and Kelly, who co-directed Singin’ with Stanley Donen, was a stern and unforgiving taskmaster who had opposed Reynolds being cast in the part. At one point, according to Unsinkable, she wound up crying under the piano in one of MGM’s rehearsal rooms, where she was comforted by no less than Fred Astaire. ‘You’re not going to die,’ Astaire told Reynolds. ‘That’s what it’s like to learn to dance. If you’re not sweating, you’re not doing it right.’” It’s riveting to watch Reynolds, well known as a triple threat, keep up with dance legends Kelly and O’Connor — particularly given that the number was shot over a single 15-hour day.
“Singin’ in the Rain (1952) is the best musical of all time, according to the prestigious American Film Institute,” (The Guardian). “West Side Story came in at number two, followed by The Wizard of Oz and Cabaret.”
After a start in B major, we shift to G# major at 1:01. Several other key changes follow, beautifully presented by full orchestra.
Miles Davis | So What
“For many, (Miles Davis’) crowning achievement was the album Kind of Blue, the best selling album in jazz history,” (JazzWise). In 1999 it topped The Independent’s ’50 Best Recordings of the 20th Century’ list, in 2006 it topped the Jazzwise ‘100 Albums that Shook the World’ listing, while more recently The Guardian’s ‘1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die’ gave Kind of Blue a half-page box-out, an honour accorded to just 20 or so albums on the whole list. It even featured at No. 66 on the pop station VH1’s ‘100 Greatest Albums of Rock ’n’ Roll.’
“No other recording in jazz has come remotely near acquiring the kind of cachet Kind of Blue has accumulated over the decades. It’s an album that has probably been responsible for more Damascene conversions of non-believers into the jazz faith than any other, it has been the base-station from where countless fans have begun their journey into jazz and it’s an album that crops-up in the record collections of classical, rock, pop and country & western devotees who would not otherwise give jazz house room.”
After an intro, Kind of Blue‘s “So What” (1959) starts in earnest at 0:34. Even though the melody repeats throughout, the half-step upward modulation on the third pass (1:02 – 1:17) lends the track a classic AABA form. At 1:17, the tune reverts to its original key.
Joao Gilberto | Chega de Saudade
Composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes in 1958, “‘Chega de Saudade’ is widely regarded as the first recorded bossa nova song,” (Songfacts). Bossa nova translates approximately to “new tendency” from the original Brazilian Portuguese. “(It was) first recorded by Joao Gilberto on guitar with singer Elizete Cardoso in 1957. Two years later, Gilberto re-recorded the song with a simpler arrangement for his debut album, Chega de Saudade, causing a sensation when the melodic, samba-influenced groove hit Brazilian radio. The Portuguese-language love tune finds the lonely narrator desperately hoping his lover will return. Vinícius de Moraes admitted he struggled writing the lyrics because of ‘the arduousness of trying to fit the words into a melodic structure with so many comings and goings.’
Frank Sinatra, accompanied by Jobim, recorded the tune for his 1967 album Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. The bossa nova-influenced pop album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, but lost to The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” But Gilberto’s version became part of the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.
The tune is equally balanced between sections in D minor and D major, with the first transition at 0:49 before the form repeats at 1:37. The guitar accompaniment is working overtime to cover the fast chord changes while providing a bass line as well. But Gilberto’s casual vocal delivery obscures the highly syncopated nature of the melody line.
Imagine (from “Athena”)
The May 14, 2020 installment of the Chicago Tribune’s “Coronavirus Overdue Film Festival“ featured a review of the now-obscure 1954 film “Athena”:
“The phrase ‘MGM musical’ shimmers with nostalgia, but what does it evoke, exactly? Technicolor dreams of tuneful romance? Backlot depictions of Times Square, Paris or the Scottish Highlands, along with occasional bursts of realism, as when the 1949 “On the Town” managed to sneak in a few days’ location filming in New York City? Yes, all that. Also, orchestral swells and mile-wide Gene Kelly and Judy Garland smiles, and a deathless handful of triple threats who really could sing, act and dance. But the ‘MGM musical’ label misleads. So many MGM musicals, the famous ones, were treated to royal budgets and top talent, while so many others had to settle for smaller budgets, mismatched contract players and lesser material. For every ‘Singin’ in the Rain‘ or ‘The Band Wagon‘ there’s a lesser-known commodity — or outright oddity — revealing a different story, more about the musical genre’s struggles to remain vital than the onscreen romantic complications taxing our patience in between numbers.
One of the strangest is ‘Athena,’ … a contemporary riff on MGM’s big musical draw that year, ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers‘ … Crooner and sometime actor Vic Damone, a diffident MGM staple of the day, paired off in ‘Athena’ with Debbie Reynolds. They’re treated to the duet “Imagine,” a melodically unpredictable standout in the Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane score … There are compensations, as there are in other offbeat, youth-craze MGM titles of the era … Damone may have been a mite bland, but he could sing.”
According to the trailer, the film was categorized as a romantic comedy — but not quite like the rom-coms viewers became accustomed to in the 1990s! Apparently much of the action took place in the family home of Reynolds’ character; the family were health and wellness enthusiasts. The movie took that premise and ran with it, dropping a Mr. Universe bodybuilding contest into the film (see trailer, below) … as one does.
Jamie A., the former host of Cinema Songbook on Martha’s Vineyard’s WVVY FM, submitted the tune. He adds more detail: “This movie actually started out as an idea for a film with Esther Williams, about a goddess come to life on Earth. But studio bosses were trying to force her out because her films were too high budget, and they sabotaged her last film at MGM, ‘Jupiter’s Darling’ (worth a view—a musical about Hannibal’s march on Rome with elephants!). The concept changed drastically when Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds took over.”
Damone’s feature is in A major, transitioning to Reynolds’ section in Gb major at 1:12.
Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong | Dream a Little Dream of Me
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong recorded a duet cover of this 1931 Ozzie Nelson tune in the 1950s. Originally released as a single, the track has subsequently been included on many compilation albums featuring the two singers. Starting in C, the tune modulates up a half step to Db at 1:57.
Modern Jazz Quartet | Over the Rainbow
” … it seems improbable that a group which came together as the rhythm section for one of the hottest players in Bebop’s genesis era, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, could morph into a standalone group that was the epitome of grace, elegance and cool dignity,” AllAboutJazz.com concludes. “But that’s exactly what happened when Gillespie recruited pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Kenny Clarke, giving the quartet an opportunity to shine as a discrete unit when it came time, during his sextet’s exhausting sets, to give the horns a break, calling, ‘OK, band off!’
The pairing of Lewis and Jackson proved an ideal tension, demonstrating how different musical interests can, indeed, come together to create something altogether new, the pianist’s interest in classical music dovetailing perfectly with the more overtly jazz-centric and grounded vibraphonist … A duo version of ‘Over the Rainbow’ (1956) focuses on Lewis and Jackson’s adept skill at reshaping music from external sources with Modern Jazz Quartet‘s classically informed modus operandi.”
After a piano-led intro in C major, Jackson’s vibes are the focus at 0:15 as the tune shifts to Eb major. At 1:03, we seem to retroactively discover that we’ve stumbled into Db major, but at 1:32, we’ve returned to Eb major for the balance of the tune. There’s plenty of evidence here of the ensemble’s understated yet pioneering sound: “For those operating under the misconception that the African-American jazz tradition was monolithically linked to the blues …” AllAboutJazz continues, “As far back as the 1930s, clarinetist Sidney Bechet was liberally quoting from Italian operas in his solos, but it was perhaps less obvious, less visible, than when John Lewis began looking at ways to bring the intimacy of classical chamber music to a jazz context. In direct contrast to bebop’s fire and unbridled energy, MJQ was one of the earliest examples of cool jazz.”
for Travis
Bobby Darin | Dream Lover
“Dream Lover” was written and recorded by singer/songwriter/actor Bobby Darin in 1959. Along with “Mack The Knife,” “Splish Splash,” and “Beyond The Sea,” it is one of Darin’s most successful hits. Darin, who died at age 37 after a heart operation, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999. Key change at 1:45.
Hubert Giraud | Sous le Ciel de Paris (Joao Palma, accordion)
Expatica.com notes that the French composer and lyricist Hubert Giraud, whose works were recorded by vocalists from Edith Piaf to Tom Jones, “started out as a musician playing with the likes of Django Reinhardt’s jazz group the Quintette du Hot Club de France in the 1930s and on Ray Ventura’s big-band tour of South America.” He also wrote the theme for the 1951 film Sous le Ciel de Paris (Under the Sky of Paris); the song was later recorded by Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Juliette Greco, and more. Giraud died in 2016 at the age of 95.
The tune was beautifully showcased at the 66th CMA Trophée Mondial accordion competition, held in Portimao, Portugal in 2016. The competition welcomed contestants from more than 20 countries; Joao Palma achieved only ninth place in his junior division, giving some idea of the level of artistry represented at the competition. Palma, a Portuguese national, went on to win the World Accordion Cup, a competition protected by UNESCO’s International Music Council, in 2018.
Starting in E minor, the waltz progresses to E major at 1:03, reverting back to the original key at 1:49. Utilizing rubato as more of a rule than an occasional flourish, Palma throws in a last-minute whole-step modulation at 2:20 — quickly leading to an unexpected ending.
Many thanks to our frequent contributor JB for this submission!
Frank Sinatra | All The Way
Written in 1957 by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn, “All The Way” was made famous by Frank Sinatra, both as a single and in the film The Joker Is Wild, for which it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The tune was later covered by Bing Crosby, Same Cooke, Brenda Lee, Etta James, and Billie Holiday among others. Key change at 2:15.
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