"More addictive than a goddam video game" - Balloon Juice
"One of my very favorite music blogs ever..." - Singer/Songwriter Emma Wallace
"Fascinating... really GREAT!!! You'll learn things about those tunes we all LOVE to play and blow on... SOD is required reading for my advanced students. It's fun, too!" - Nick Mondello of AllAboutJazz.com
"I never let a day go by without checking it." - Bob Madison of Dinoship.com
"I had dinner the other night with some former WNEW staff members who spoke very highly of your work." - Joe Fay
We all know it today from the classic 1955 Chuck Jones cartoon, "One Froggy Evening", but this song came into being nearly a half-century earlier. It was what was then known as a "coon song", meant to be sung in a stereotypically "black" style by white singers. The first to record it was pioneering recording artist Arthur Collins, and you can hear that right here. The lyric concerns a man whose only contact with his girlfriend is through the then-novel invention known as the telephone...
Lyrics:
Hello! ma baby
Hello! ma honey
Hello! ma ragtime gal
Send me a kiss by wire
Baby, ma heart's on fire!
If you refuse me
Honey, you'll lose me
Then you'll be left alone
Oh, baby, telephone
And tell me I'm your own!
Recorded By:
Arthur Collins
Joan Morris & William Bolcom
Beatrice Kay
Michigan J. Frog
Chet Atkins
Sorry for the short notice on this, music lovers, but tonight is going to be a big night in the history of Standard of the Day... That's because we're taking it to the airwaves for the first time ever! This is something I've been working on for a little while now, and I've just got word that it's going to be happening this evening, during the wee small hours of the morning (Frank would be proud).
If you're in the vicinity of Bridgeport, Connecticut, I'll be on 89.5 WPKN-FM tonight at 3:00am Eastern time. For anyone outside the vicinity, you can easily stream the station at http://wpkn.org. I'll be playing some of my favorite recordings of classic selections from the Great American Songbook--the kind of music I've been celebrating here at SOTD since 2008! I'm very psyched at this opportunity, and hopefully it will turn into a somewhat regular thing.
And have no fear--SOTD will continue to exist right here on the web, doing what it's always done, which is help to keep this music alive and well in my own small way. I'm just extending the reach in the most intuitive way possible, sharing the music I love with listeners live on the radio! So if you happen to be up tonight at 3, head over to 89.5 WPKN-FM or http://wpkn.org and give it a listen! The show will also be archived on the website for listening at a later time, for all those who keep normal sleeping hours...
UPDATE: Had a great time last night! It was a dream come true sharing these great standards live on the air, and the perfect extension of this website that has been my labor of love for four years now. My grandfather would most definitely have been proud beyond words. I hope some of you had a chance to listen, and I'm hoping for more installments of Standard of the Day on WPKN in the near future!
Jonathan Schwartz, eat your heart out.
If you're interested in listening, the show has been archived here:
However, be advised that it's embedded an about an hour deep into a four-hour block of radio, and you can't skip ahead. But you'll get to hear some other great music from WPKN's Bobby D along the way, so hang in there and enjoy the first edition of Standard of the Day on the radio!
The window is rapidly closing. We are losing the links to a golden era in American popular music. And last month, one of the final breaths of fresh air coming through that window ceased forever. On the evening of July 27, the legendary Tony Martin died of natural causes at the age of 98. He was the last of the major pre-World War II vocalists, having been a contemporary of Crosby and Sinatra (his career even predated Frank's by a couple of years). Though not among the most well-remembered in contemporary days due to a career stifled by the advent of rock n' roll, he was nevertheless an important figure, and his death is a turning point in the history of pop.
He was born Alvin Morris on Christmas Day 1913, the son of Hattie & Edward Clarence Morris. His family was of Eastern European Jewish stock, but like so many in those days, he changed his name upon arriving in Hollywood. But before that, he showed an aptitude for singing at an early age, participating in school glee clubs and forming his first band in high school. In college, he joined the orchestra of Tom Gerun, where he played in the reed section along with future bandleader Woody Herman.
But it would be in singing that Morris would find his calling, and his fame. Banking on his sizable vocal gift as well as his good looks, he took a shot at becoming a musical film star. Officially changing his name, he made one of his first appearances, a bit part in the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers classic Follow the Fleet, in 1936. He was promptly signed to 20th Century Fox and later M-G-M, and went on to appear in a string of movie musical mainly during the 1930s but also the '40s and '50s as well. Notable on his screen resume are the Marx Brothers' The Big Store (1941) and the fantastic musical revue Till the Clouds Roll By (1946),
With Jack Haley (aka The Tin Man) in 1936's Pigskin Parade.
His first record label was Decca, which signed the 24-year-old singer in 1938 and paired him up with the Ray Noble orchestra. His earliest hits there included "The Moon of Manakoora" and "I Hadn't Anyone Till You". Martin stayed with Decca through 1942, also racking up major hits with "It's a Blue World" and perhaps his most signature tune, "To Each His Own". His recording career was interrupted with a stint serving in World War II, where entertained the troops for years, even joining Glenn Miller's band for a time.
Following the war, he signed on with then-independent Mercury Records, where he remained for two years--a time that included a re-recording of "To Each His Own" that proved even more successful than his original. The singer was on a high, and RCA Victor stepped in to offer him an even more lucrative contract, which he accepted. He remained there for the remainder of his recording career.
It was also in the late '40s that Martin met Cyd Charisse, the gorgeous musical ingenue who would become his second wife (Martin had been married previously to Alice Faye for four years). Martin and Charisse became one of Hollywood's most glamorous--and longest running--couples, remaining together for 60 years, until Charisse's passing in 2008. They had a son together, Tony Martin Jr., who passed away last year.
Martin's career peaked in the 1950s, with a two-year run on NBC with his own TV show. However, by the late 1950s, with rock n' roll changing the landscape of pop music, Martin was one of those left on the outside. He was unable to keep his career going at the level that some of his contemporaries would do in the succeeding decades, and experienced a major drop-off. His string of charted hits ended in 1957 with "Do I Love You", and so did his musical film career, with Let's Be Happy. He would be heard from only rarely in the years that followed.
Still, Martin did continue to tour and perform all through those later years, and most fans marveled at how his voice continued to hold up well into his senior years. Despite leaving the mainstream spotlight in his early 40s, Martin performed live well into his 90s. His last live performance occurred in 2008, and perhaps it was a combination of old age and the loss of his beloved wife that led him to finally call it quits after an astonishing 72-year career that included 45 charted hits and 32 motion pictures.
There are literally no more like him. From an era of popular music that pre-dated World War II and started just as the big bands were gripping the American consciousness, Tony Martin was the last of a vanishing breed. He would benefit in later years as the vocalist became pop music's central focus, and then saw his star fade as music once again moved on to much newer and different sounds. For fans of the Great American Songbook, he remained a legend among legends who was always fondly remembered. And he will be remembered still by all those who admired his sweet, smooth voice and the earlier time it represented.
He will be missed. Let's never forget the music.
I leave you with my own favorite Martin recording, which I once used as background to a video I made of my infant son...
Just this past Saturday, I'm proud to say that Standard of the Day celebrated its fourth birthday. In honor of this event, tonight I'm presenting what is truly one of the most recognizable and beloved (not to mention gorgeous) standards of all time. Rodgers & Hart composed the tune for their stage musical Babes in Arms, in which it was introduced by Mitzi Green. Hart's lyrics in particular are quite clever and have led to much speculation--they're basically a cheeky lampoon of New York society, about a woman rejected because she refuses to adhere to their mores.
The song is absolutely timeless, and has become one of the most recorded ever. Specifically, Frank Sinatra made it one of his signature tunes thanks to his performance of it in the 1950s film version of Pal Joey. Many others have made it their own as well, as recently as the high-profile duet of Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga.
Lyrics:
She gets too hungry for dinner at eight, She loves the theater but she never comes late. She never bothers with people she'd hate, That's why the lady is a tramp. She doesn't like crap games with barons and earls, Won't go to Harlem in ermine and pearls, She won't dish the dirt with the rest of those girls. That's why the lady is a tramp! She loves the free, fresh wind in her hair, Life without care She's broke, but it's oke! She hates California, it's crowded and damp, That's why the lady is a tramp! She goes to Coney,the beach is divine. She loves the Yankees,and the bleachers are fine, She follows Winchell, and reads every line, That's why the lady is a tramp!
She loves a prize fightthat isn't a fake, She loves to go rowing on Central Park Lake, She goes to the opera and stays wide awake, That's why the lady is a tramp! She likes the green grass under her shoes, What can she lose? No dough! Oh, no! She's all alone when she lowers her lamp, That's why the lady is a tramp!
Recorded By:
Buddy Greco
Lena Horne
Tommy Dorsey
Ella Fitzgerald
Shirley Bassey
Though tempted to include the Sinatra Pal Joey footage, in honor of SOTD's fourth birthday, I give you my own daughter Layla's impromptu rendition of the song from March 2011 (she was 9 at the time)...
A red-hot little jazz number of the 1940s that continues to live on with hepcats everywhere to this day. Tolbert introduced it with his relatively obscure jazz ensemble, but it was with the Nat Cole Trio the following year that it got sent into the stratosphere. In recent years, it has become a very popular number with throwback hot jazz acts.
Happy 8th Birthday to my son--Hit that jive, Jack!
Lyrics:
Hit that jive Jack Put it in your pocket till I get back Going downtown to see a man And I ain't got time to shake your hand Hit that jive Jack Put it in your pocket till I get back Time and time waits for no man And I ain't got time to shake your hand Standing on a corner All full of jive But you know that you're my boy So I'm forced to give you five Hit that jive Jack Put it in your pocket till I get back Going downtown to see a man And I ain't got time to shake your hand
Recorded By:
Nat King Cole Diana Krall John Pizzarelli Joe Carroll Boyd Bennett
Written for the Broadway musical The Music Man, this catchy and melodic tune was sung on stage by Barbara Cook. However, it would actually be introduced on record one month prior to the show's December 1957 opening, when Nelson Riddle's orchestra recorded it with singer Sue Raney. Peggy Lee made the song a hit in the UK in 1961, leading to a bunch of kids known as The Beatles adding it to their early repertoire. It would appear on the Fab Four's 1962 album With the Beatles, and remains the only standard the group ever recorded.
Lyrics:
There were bells on the hill
But I never heard them ringing,
No, I never heard them at all
Till there was you.
There were birds in the sky
But I never saw them winging
No, I never saw them at all
Till there was you.
And there was music,
And there were wonderful roses,
They tell me,
In sweet fragrant meadows of dawn, and dew.
There was love all around
But I never heard it singing
No, I never heard it at all
Till there was you!
Recorded By:
Shirley Jones
Anita Bryant
Sonny Rollins
Sergio Franchi
Fran Warren
Cohan--by far the most dominant figure in American songwriting just prior to the dawn of the golden era of the Great American Songbook--composed this sweet, lyrical song for his famous musical Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway, in which it was introduced by the preeminent starlet of the stage, Faye Templeton. Some have speculated that he wrote it for his second wife, whose middle name was Mary. However, it's worth noting that at the time he wrote it, he was still one year away from divorcing his first wife... Cohan had a daughter in 1909, and named her Mary.
Lyrics:
For it is Mary; Mary
Plain as any name can be
But with propriety, society
Will say, "Marie"
But it was Mary; Mary
Long before the fashions came
And there is something there
That sounds so square
It's a grand old name.
Recorded By:
George M. Cohan Bing Crosby
James Cagney
Glen Daly
Allen Dale
An extremely popular song of American patriotism--so much so that it has often been suggested as a replacement for the more cumbersome "Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem of the U.S.A. It began life as a poem called "Pike's Peak", written by Bates and published on July 4, 1895 in the periodical The Congregationalist (it was published under the title "America"). The poem became quite popular, and in 1910 was combined with a melody written by church organist Ward--written in 1882 and published in 1892 as "Materna", part of the hymn "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem". It was introduced on record in 1910 by Louise Homer, and by far the most popular and inspirational version of modern times would have to be the amazing rendition of Ray Charles.
With words specifically written to commemorate the Fourth of July, this is the perfect tune for enjoying this blessed holiday. Happy Independence Day from Standard of the Day!
Lyrics:
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country lov'd,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
Recorded By:
Ray Charles
Elvis Presley
Whitney Houston
Barbra Streisand
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
A breakout hit of the postwar years, written by jazz clarinest Marsala and introduced by popular 1940s and '50s crooner Johnny Desmond (pictured). Some believed at the time that the song's lyrics indicated trouble with Marsala's marriage--but actually the songwriter claimed it was meant for GIs returning after serving in World War II to discover their sweethearts had taken up with other men.
Lyrics:
Don't cry, Joe, let her go, let her go, let her go,
Don't cry, Joe, let her go, let her go, let her go.
You got to realize this is the wind-up,
You're gonna feel much better once you made your mind up.
Don't cry, Joe, let her go, let her go, let her go.
So you lost your gal, it's happened many times before,
So you sit and mope like a dope, what's that good for,
Get a hold of yourself, forget her, you lived long before you met her.
There're lots of other girls, so I say,
Don't cry, Joe, let her go, let her go, let her go.
Don't cry, Joe, let her go, let her go, let her go.
You got to realize this is the wind-up,
You'll feel much better once you made your mind up.
Don't cry, Joe, let her go, let her go, let her go.
Take a look around and see just what you're missing,
You'll soon forget your troubles, Joe, if you'd only listen.
So don't cry, Joe, let her go, let her go, Joe, let her go.
Recorded By:
Johnny Desmond Frank Sinatra
Godron Jenkins
Joni James
A dusty old chestnut from the pre-World War I era, this is a melancholy, sentimental tear-jerker of the variety that was popular at the time. It was introduced by superstar opera singer Will Oakland, and later became a standard cliche of the woeful love song. This can be seen in its hilarious inclusion in the 1930 Laurel & Hardy short Blotto. It was also resurrected as a swingin' tune by Frank Sinatra for his 1961 album, Sinatra Swings.
Lyrics:
You made me think you cared for me
And I believed in you
You told me things you never meant
And made me think them true
I gambled in the game of life
I played my heart and lost
I'm now a wreck upon life's sea
Alone I pay the cost
You made me what I am today
I hope you're satisfied
You dragged and dragged me down until
The soul within me died
You shattered each and ev'ry dream
Fooled me right from the start
And though you're not true, may God bless you
That's the curse of an aching heart.
Recorded By:
Frank Sinatra
Fats Waller
Monty Sunshine
Manuel Romain
Jimmie Davis
A song that has truly spanned generations. Introduced as a sweet love ballad by the Ray Noble orchestra in 1932, it became best known to later audiences due to the blockbuster 1966 single from Otis Redding that literally reinvented the tune as an R&B number. This version would famously be used in the 1980s film Pretty in Pink, and was recently sampled by Kanye West and Jay-Z for their 2011 record, "Otis". Talk about a song transcending the ages!
Lyrics:
She may be weary,
Women do get weary,
Wearing that same shabby dress.
But when she's weary,
Try a little tenderness.
You know she's waiting,
Just anticipating,
Things that she'll never possess.
But while she's waiting,
Try just a little tenderness.
It might be sentimental,
But she has her greaves and cares,
And soft words spoken gently
Makes it easier to bear.
She won't regret it,
Women don't forget it.
Love is their whole happiness.
But it's all so easy,
Try a little tenderness.
Recorded By:
Bing Crosby
Ruth Etting
Michael Buble
Three Dog Night
Ella Fitzgerald
By Michel Legrand, Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman 1969
Legrand was one of the most prominent pop composers of the late 1960s and 1970s, and this was one of his finest. Written for the 1969 film, The Happy Ending, it was introduced by Michael Dees. It was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Song that year, but lost out to Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head". This was one of the last of the great Best Song nominees in the classic songbook tradition. It also happened to be my parents' wedding song...
Lyrics:
What are you doing the rest of your life? North and south and east and west of your life I have only one request of your life That you spend it all with me
All the seasons and the times of your days All the nickels and the dimes of your days Let the reasons and rhymes of your days All begin and end with me
I want to see your face In every kind of light In fields of dawn And forests of the night And when you stand before the candles on a cake Oh, let me be the one to hear the silent wish you make
Those tomorrow's waiting deep in your eyes And the world of love you keep in your eyes I'll awaken what's asleep in your eyes It may take a kiss or two
Through all of my life Summer, winter, spring and fall of my life All I ever will recall of my life Is all of my life with you.
Recorded By:
Frank Sinatra Barbra Streisand Sarah Vaughan Chris Botti & Sting Dusty Springfield
If you think it was Tiny Tim who introduced this song, then think again. This was a tried-and-true standard introduced by "The Crooning Troubadour" Nick Lucas in the movie Gold Diggers of Broadway. Lucas' version also hit number one on the pop charts and stayed for the 10 weeks. It became one of the most popular tunes of the early '30s, recorded many times. Novelty act Tiny Tim (as well as The Human Society) reintroduced it as an odd relic in the late 1960s. Tim's recording was also recently included to spooky effect in the 2011 horror film Insidious.
Lyrics:
Tiptoe through the window By the window, that is where I'll be Come tiptoe through the tulips with me
Oh, tiptoe from the garden By the garden of the willow tree And tiptoe through the tulips with me
Knee deep in flowers we'll stray We'll keep the showers away And if I kiss you in the garden, in the moonlight Will you pardon me? And tiptoe through the tulips with me
Recorded By:
Tiny Tim The Human Society Jean Goldkette Johnny Marvin Roy Fox
A song draped in controversy! Lawrence (pictured) wrote the lyric based on a title suggested by his partner Tinturin. What Tinturin didn't mention was that he had gotten the title originally from Gordon. So when the song became a huge hit, Gordon sued through ASCAP and got part credit for the song. Due to Lawrence's connections at Decca Records, the song was introduced by Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy before they even had a publisher signed up.
Lyrics:
I'll try to explain to friends, dear, The reason we two are apart; I know what to tell our friends, dear But what will I Tell My Heart
It's easy to say to strangers, That we played a game from the start, It's easy to lie, to strangers, But what will I tell my heart
When I smile to hide all the tears inside, what an ache it will bring; Then I'll wander home to a telephone that forgot how to ring
I could say you'll soon be back dear To fool the whole town may be smart I'll tell them you'll soon be back dear But what will I tell my heart?
Recorded By:
Ella Fitzgerald Fats Domino Vanessa Williams Joe Williams Bing Crosby
A tribute to the finest genre of popular music in history, pop's direct link to the classical tradition, and one of our nation's most important contributions to world culture, the Great American Songbook. Each day (more or less), I spotlight a different popular standard. And yes, I'm straight. So is your grandfather. He loves this music, too--just ask him!
By Joseph E. Howard & Ida Emerson
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