I feel like posting some pop songs from the 40s and 50s this week.
This lovely song is from Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s play Flower Drum Song, which opened on Broadway in 1958. That original version was done by Arabella Hong, but in the 1961 movie, Reiko Sato’s jazzy “dream-sequence” version was voice-dubbed by opera singer Marilyn Horne.
This version, my favorite, is by Tony Bennett. I tried to post this once before but it was removed from YouTube (but go hear his second best song: “The Good Life”).
what a beautiful song and Tony Bennet’s voice just makes me melt… I’ve been on a retro kick lately as well- Have you heard Peggy Lee’s “Is that all there is?” it is from the 60s… so not quite the same decade- however- superb songwriting!
Beautiful.
Yes, I loved Bennet, Dean Martin and many others. Some of the best songs of all time go back to that era, including Frankie Lane’s ‘Hell Bent for Leather’, which believe it or not, I had on 7″ reel to reel.
And this one, not in the same vein, but still a taste of the old country.
The closing chorus is in Italian, but one of the many dialects it seems, since it failed Google Translate.
To hear it on youtube, input ‘gaylords’ and ‘shoemaker’
OMFG, that’s awful. 😀
I lasted ten seconds, and my Incongruous ‘Chopsticks’ Meter was in the red zone.
FINE!
Also give this a listen. Bennett with Bill Evans – Song for Emily.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsb8mYrYycE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
If there were a god it would be Tony Bennett.
Ha! If there were a god it would be Bill Evans. And this is waltz for debby, one of Evan’s first tunes (I’m working on a Ralph Towner arrangement at the moment).