How Do You Keep the Music Playing?

By Michel Legrand, Alan Bergman and Marylin Bergman
1982

In honor of the recent passing of both composer Michel Legrand and vocalist (and songwriter) James Ingram, I'm spotlighting the most "recent" song ever featured on Standard of the Day so far. The song, composed by Legrand with lyrics by the Bergmans, was introduced by Ingram and Patti Austin for the soundtrack of the Burt Reynolds/Goldie Hawn romantic comedy Best Friends. The original recording became a hit on the Adult Contemporary and R&B charts in 1983, and soon became a modern-day standard when it was snatched up by many an old-school performer thanks to its gorgeous melody and wistful lyric. Among them was Sinatra, who recorded it for his 1984 album L.A. Is My Lady, and Tony Bennett, who continues to use it as a show-stopping number to this day.

Lyrics:

How do you keep the music playing?
How do you make it last?
How do you keep the song from fading
Too fast?

How do you lose yourself to someone
And never lose your way?
How do you not run out of new things
To say?

And since you know we're always changing
How can it be the same?

And tell me how year after year
You're sure your heart won't fall apart
Each time you hear his name?

I know the way I feel for you is now or never
The more I love, the more that I'm afraid
That in your eyes I may not see forever, forever

If we can be the best of lovers
Yet be the best of friends
If we can try with every day to make it better as it grows
With any luck than I suppose
The music never ends

Recorded By:

Andy Williams
George Benson and Count Basie
Shirley Bassey
Johnny Mathis
Barbra Streisand

The Windmills of Your Mind

By Michel Legrand, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman
1968

In honor of the great composer Michel Legrand, who passed away last Saturday at the age of 86, I'm spotlighting the song that was perhaps rivaled only by "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" as his greatest hit. Written for the soundtrack of the Steve McQueen heist film The Thomas Crown Affair at the request of director Norman Jewison, it began life as a French song with lyrics by Eddy Marnay. Husband-wife lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman were brought in, and handpicked the haunting, circular melody from among Legrand's numerous compositions, adding lyrics meant to reflect the mental turmoil of the film's main character. Introduced in the movie by Noel Harrison, it won the Oscar for Best Original Song, and was performed by Sting for the 1999 Thomas Crown Affair remake.

Lyrics:

Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that's turning running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said?
Lovers walking along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?
Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragment of a song
Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair!

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
As the images unwind, like the circles that you find 
In the windmills of your mind!

Recorded By:

Jose Feliciano
Dusty Springfield
Vic Damone
Jack Jones
Petula Clark

What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?

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