Marelise and I met while we helped start off an Indian Film Festival in DC. From the start it was obvious that she and I shared so much in common, above all an overwhelming love for Life. One evening she came by train in pouring rain to deliver a set of photographs just because she promised she would.The only person to ever treat me to a concert on my birthday. They make very few like Mare.
Lew Dite
Ray Charles
YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE
The other night dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms
But when I woke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head and I cried.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
I'll always love you and make you happy,
If you will only say the same.
But if you leave me and love another,
You'll regret it all some day:
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
You told me once, dear, you really loved me
And no one else could come between.
But not you've left me and love another;
You have shattered all of my dreams:
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
In all my dreams, dear, you seem to leave me
When I awake my poor heart pains.
So when you come back and make me happy
I'll forgive you dear, I'll take all the blame.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
"You Are My Sunshine" is a popular song first recorded in 1939. It has been declared one of the state songs of Louisiana as a result of its association with former state governor and country music singer Jimmie Davis. Two versions of "You Are My Sunshine" were recorded and released prior to Jimmie Davis's. The first was recorded for Bluebird Records by The Pine Ridge Boys, who were from Atlanta. The second was recorded for Decca Records by The Rice Brothers Gang. Davis and Charles Mitchell are the credited songwriters of "You Are My Sunshine". Davis bought the song and rights from Paul Rice and put his own name on it, a practice not uncommon in the pre-World War II music business.
"You Are My Sunshine" has been recorded hundreds of times. It is today a widely recognized song and a standard for traditional country music and traditional jazz performers. Early chart versions include: Bing Crosby, Bob Atcher and Bonnie Blue Eyes, Gene Autry, and the Airport Boys. In one or more of these versions, the song was in Billboard's country charts for over one year. The song has also been recorded by the likes of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, among others. Charles' version was the most popular, commercially, reaching #1 on the soul singles chart, using a modified melody that little resembled the original.
It has been featured in numerous films, television shows, television commercials, and radio commercials. On The Muppet Show, "You are my sunshine" was part of a scene entitled "Hugga Wugga." Afterwards, Waldorf sang it as well. Statler believed it was directed at him and retorted, "I'm not your son, and my name's not Shine!"
Showing posts with label American. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Sway with me , Sway me now
Los Panchos, Quien Sera
Julie London
Dean Martin
When marimba rhythms start to play
Dance with me, make me sway
Like the lazy ocean hugs the shore
Hold me close, sway me more
Like a flower bending in the breeze
Bend with me, sway with ease
When we dance you have a way with me
Stay with me, sway with me
Other dancers may be on the floor
Dear, but my eyes will see only you
Only you have that magic technique
When we sway I grow weak
I can hear the sound of violins
Long before it begins
Make me thrill as only you know how
Sway me smooth, sway me now
Other dancers may be on the floor
Dear, but my eyes will see only you
Only you have that magic technique
When we sway I grow weak
I can hear the sound of violins
Long before it begins
Make me thrill as only you know how
Sway me smooth, sway me now
Background information
Birth name Gayle Peck
Born September 26, 1926(1926-09-26)
Origin Santa Rosa, California, United States
Died October 18, 2000 (aged 74)
Encino
Genres Torch songs, Cool jazz
Occupations Singer, Actress
Instruments Vocals
Years active 1955 – 1975
Labels Bethlehem Records, Liberty Records
Website Voice in the Mirror: A Tribute to Julie London
Gayle Peck (September 26, 1926 – October 18, 2000), known as Julie London, was an American singer and actress. Best known for her smoky, sensual voice, she was at her singing career's peak in the 1950s. Her acting career lasted more than 35 years, concluding it with the role of nurse Dixie McCall on the television series Emergency! (1972–1979).
Born Gayle Peck in Santa Rosa, California, she was the daughter of Jack and Josephine Peck, who were a vaudeville song-and-dance team. When she was 14, the family moved to Los Angeles, California. Shortly after that, she began appearing in movies. She graduated from the Hollywood Professional School, Hollywood, California, in 1945.
In July 1947 she married actor Jack Webb (of Dragnet fame). Her widely regarded beauty and poise (she was a pinup girl prized by GIs during World War II) contrasted strongly with his pedestrian appearance and streetwise acting technique (much parodied by impersonators). This unlikely pairing arose from their mutual love for jazz music.[1] They had two daughters, Stacy and Lisa Webb. London and Webb divorced in November 1954. Daughter Stacy Webb was killed in a traffic accident in 1996.
In 1954, having become somewhat reclusive after her divorce from Webb, she met jazz composer and musician Bobby Troup at a club on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles.[2] They married on December 31, 1959, and remained married until his death in February 1999. Together, they had one daughter, Kelly Troup and twin sons, Jody and Reese Troup.[3] Kelly Troup died in March 2002.
She suffered a stroke in 1995, and was in poor health because of her long-term cigarette habit until her death on October 18, 2000, in Encino, California, at age 74, survived by four of her five children. London was interred next to Troup in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery, Los Angeles. Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.
London began singing in public in her teens before appearing in a film. She was discovered by talent agent Sue Carol (wife of actor Alan Ladd) while London was working as an elevator operator. Her early film career did not include any singing roles.
She recorded 32 albums in a career that began in 1955 with a live performance at the 881 Club in Los Angeles.[4] Billboard named her the most popular female vocalist for 1955, 1956, and 1957. She was the subject of a 1957 Life cover article in which she was quoted as saying, "It's only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to the microphone. But it is a kind of oversmoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate."
Julie London's debut recordings were for the Bethlehem Records label. While shopping for a record deal, she recorded 4 tracks that would later be included on the compilation albums Bethlehem's Girlfriends in 1955. Bobby Troup backed London on the dates, and London recorded the standards Don't Worry About Me, Motherless Child, A Foggy Day, and You're Blasé.
London's most famous single, "Cry Me a River", was written by her high-school classmate Arthur Hamilton and produced by Troup.[5] The recording became a million-seller after its release in December 1955 and also sold on re-issue in April 1983 from the attention brought by a Mari Wilson cover. London performed the song in the film The Girl Can't Help It (1956), and her recording gained later attention in the films Passion of Mind (2000) and V for Vendetta (2006).
Other popular singles include "Hot Toddy," "Daddy" and "Desafinado." Recordings such as "Go Slow" epitomized her career style: her voice is slow, smoky, and sensual. Aside from her music, the notably[citation needed] suggestive portrait photos used on London's album covers made lasting impressions even on the tone deaf.[citation needed]
The song "Yummy Yummy Yummy" was featured on the HBO television series Six Feet Under and appears on its soundtrack album. Her rendition of "The Good Life" was featured in a 2008 British Airways dancing aquatic television advertisement for its new Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom.
Her last recording was "My Funny Valentine" for the soundtrack of the Burt Reynolds film Sharky's Machine (1981).[1]
Primarily remembered as a singer, London also made more than 20 films. One of her strongest performances came in Man of the West (1958), starring Gary Cooper and directed by Anthony Mann, in which her character, the film's only woman, is abused and humiliated by an outlaw gang.
She performed on many television variety series and also in dramatic roles, including guest appearances on Rawhide (1960) and The Big Valley (1968). Her ex-husband Webb was executive producer for the series Emergency!, and in 1972 he hired both his ex-wife and her husband Troup for key roles. London played nurse Dixie McCall), while Troup was emergency-room physician Dr. Joe Early. She and her co-stars Kevin Tighe, Randolph Mantooth, and Robert Fuller also appeared in an episode of the Webb-produced series Adam-12, reprising their roles. London and Troup appeared as panelists on the game show Tattletales several times in the 1970's.
Tom Dooley
The Kingston Trio: Tom Dooley!
Johnny Rivers
Lyrics:
(Intro) Throughout history
There've been many songs written about the eternal triangle
This next one tells the story of a Mr Grayson, a beautiful woman
And a condemned man named Tom Dooley...
When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dooley... must hang...
[Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die]
I met her on the mountain
There I took her life
Met her on the mountain
Stabbed her with my knife
[Chorus]
This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Hadn't a-been for Grayson
I'd a-been in Tennessee
[Chorus]
This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Down in some lonesome valley
Hangin' from a white oak tree
[ending chorus]
Tom Dooley" is an old North Carolina folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina. It is best known today because of a hit version recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio. This version was a multi-format hit, reaching #1 in Billboard, the Billboard R&B listing, and appearing in the Cashbox country music top 20.
It was selected as one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Inc.
In the documentary Appalachian Journey (1991), folklorist Alan Lomax describes Frank Proffitt as the "original source" for the song. Since the song predates Frank Proffitt's early version, it appears that Lomax means that Proffitt's version is the one that has become most well known to us because the Kingston Trio derived their interpretation from it. Certainly, there is at least one earlier known recording, by Grayson and Whitter made in 1929, approximately 10 years before Proffitt cut his own recording.
Impoverished Confederate veteran Tom Dula (Dooley), Laura Foster's lover and probable fiancé, was convicted of her murder and hanged in 1868. Foster was stabbed to death with a large knife; the brutality of the attack partly accounted for the widespread publicity the murder and subsequent trial received.
Dula had a second lover, Anne Melton. It was her comments that led to the discovery of Foster's body, but Melton was acquitted in a separate trial based on Dula's word. Dula's enigmatic statement on the gallows that he had not harmed Foster but still deserved his punishment led to press speculation that Melton was the actual killer and that Dula simply covered for her. Melton, who had once expressed jealousy of Dula's purported plans to marry Foster, died insane a few years after the homicide. Thanks to the efforts of newspapers such as The New York Times, and to the fact that former North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance represented Dula pro bono, Dula's murder trial and hanging were given widespread national publicity. A local poet, Thomas C. Land, wrote a popular song about Dula's tragedy after the hanging.
A man named "Grayson," mentioned in the song as pivotal in Dula's downfall, has sometimes been characterized as a romantic rival of Dula's or a vengeful sheriff who captured him and presided over his hanging. Some variant lyrics of the song portray Grayson in that light, and the spoken introduction to the Kingston Trio version did the same. Col. James Grayson was actually a Tennessee politician who had hired Dula on his farm when the young man fled North Carolina under suspicion and was using a false name. Grayson did help North Carolinians capture Dula and was involved in returning him to North Carolina, but otherwise played no role in the case.
Dula was tried in Statesville, because it was believed he could not get a fair trial in Wilkes County. He was given a new trial on appeal but he was again convicted, and hanged on May 1, 1868. His alleged accomplice, Jack Keaton, was set free. On the gallows, Dula reportedly stated, "Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I didn't harm a hair on the girl's head."
Dula's last name was pronounced "Dooley," leading to some confusion in spelling over the years. (The pronunciation of a final "a" like "y" is an old feature in Appalachian speech, as in the term "Grand Ole Opry"). The confusion was probably compounded by the fact that Dr. Tom Dooley, an American physician known for international humanitarian work, was at the height of his fame in 1958, when the Kingston Trio version became a major hit.
The doleful ballad was probably first sung shortly after the execution and is still commonly sung in North Carolina.
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group originated as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds. It rose to international popularity, fueled by unprecedented sales of 33 1/3 rpm long-playing record albums, and helped to alter the direction of popular music in the U.S.
The Kingston Trio was one of the most prominent folk music groups of the era's relatively short-lived pop-folk boom that their success helped to create. Beginning with their first album released in 1958—which included the hit recording of "Tom Dooley" that sold over three million copies as a single,[2] the Trio released nineteen albums that made Billboard's Top 100, fourteen of which ranked in the top 10, and five of which hit the number 1 spot.[3] Four albums charted during the same week among the Top 10 selling albums in December 1959,[4] a record unmatched for nearly 50 years,[5] and the group still ranks after half a century in the all time top ten of many of Billboard's charts, including those for most weeks with a #1 album, most total weeks charting an album, most #1 albums, most consecutive #1 albums, and most top ten albums.
Music historian Richie Unterberger characterized their impact as "phenomenal popularity",[7] and the Kingston Trio's massive record sales in its early days made acoustic folk music commercially viable, paving the way for singer-songwriter, folk rock, and Americana artists who followed in their wake.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
I Feel Love
Donna Summer
Ooh
it's so good, it's so good
it's so good, it's so good
it's so good
Ooh
heaven knows, heaven knows
heaven knows, heaven knows
heaven knows
Ooh
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love
I feel love, I feel love, I feel love
Ooh
fallin' free, fallin' free
fallin' free, fallin' free
fallin' free
Ooh
you and me, you and me
you and me, you and me
you and me
Ooh
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love
I feel love, I feel love, I feel love
Ooh
I'll get you, I'll get you
I'll get you, I'll get you
I'll get you
Ooh
what you do, what you do
what you do, what you do
what you do
Ooh
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love, I feel love
I feel love
I feel love, I feel love, I feel love
Don, old, Yeh Mera Dil
DON Movie Songs Lyrics
Yeh mera dil yaar ka deewana Lyrics Hindi Song Title: Yeh mera dil yaar ka deewana : DON
Singer(s): ASHA BHOSLE
Hindi Lyrics:
La la la la, li la la la la la la
Yeh mera dil yaar ka deewana
Deewana deewana pyaar ka parwaana
Aata hai mujhko pyaar mein jal jaana
Mushkil hai pyaare tera bachke jaana
Yeh mera dil yaar ka deewana - 2
(Dil voh chaahe jisse, chaahe jisse usse paaye
Pyaar voh yaar ke jo naam pe hi mit jaaye) - 2
Jaan ke badle mein jaan loon nazraana
Yeh mera dil yaar ka deewana
Deewana deewana pyaar ka parwaana
(Pal pal ek halchal, dil mein ek toofaan hai
Aane ko hai voh manzil jiska mujhe armaan hai) - 2
Bhoolna na tujhe dil ka yeh takraana
Yeh mera dil yaar ka deewana
Deewana deewana pyaar ka parwaana
Aata hai mujhko pyaar mein jal jaana
Mushkil hai pyaare tera bachke jaana
Yeh mera dil yaar ka deewana - 2
"I Feel Love"
Single by Donna Summer
from the album I Remember Yesterday
B-side "Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)"
Released July 2, 1977
Format 7" single, 12" single
Recorded 1976
Genre Disco, House
Label Casablanca (U.S.)
GTO Records (UK)
Writer(s) Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Producer Giorgio Moroder
Pete Bellotte
Certification Gold (US)
Gold (UK)
Donna Summer singles chronology
"Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)"
(1977) "I Feel Love"
(1977) "Shut Out"
(1977)
"I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley Remix)"
Single by Donna Summer
Released 1982
Format 7" single, 12" single
Genre Disco
Label Casablanca
Writer(s) Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Producer Giorgio Moroder
Pete Bellotte
Donna Summer singles chronology
"State of Independence"
(1982) "I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley Remix)"
(1982) "The Woman in Me"
(1983)
"I Feel Love (The 1995 Remixes)"
Single by Donna Summer
Released 1995
Format 12" single, CD single
Recorded 1995
Genre Disco
Label PolyGram
Writer(s) Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte
Producer Giorgio Moroder
Pete Bellotte
Donna Summer singles chronology
"Any Way At All"
(1994) "I Feel Love (The 1995 Remixes)"
(1995) "State of Independence (The 1996 Remixes)"
(1996)
Donna Summer - "I Feel Love"
listen to a clip from the song.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
"I Feel Love" is a song by Donna Summer, taken from her 1977 concept album I Remember Yesterday. The recording's entirely electronic backing track helped pioneer electronic disco music.
The song constituted the 'future' segment of the album, which represented a stylistic progress through time. The title track of the I Remember Yesterday album represented the 1940s, "Love's Unkind" the 50s, "Back in Love Again" the 60s and the album concluded with the futuristic "I Feel Love". The song reached number one in the UK Singles Chart, number six on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and number nine on the Hot Soul Chart. It quickly became popular in gay dance clubs and was adopted as a gay anthem.[1] "I Feel Love" is ranked #411 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Before "I Feel Love", most disco recordings had been backed by acoustic orchestras[2] although all-electronic music had been produced for decades. Giorgio Moroder's innovative production of this disco-style song, recorded with an entirely synthesized backing track, was influential in the development of disco, electronica, house and techno styles and has even been said to have originated the latter genres.[3]
[edit]Reception
According to David Bowie, then recording of his 'Berlin Trilogy', its impact on the genre's direction was recognized early on:
“ One day in Berlin ... [Brian] Eno came running in and said, 'I have heard the sound of the future.' … he puts on 'I Feel Love', by Donna Summer … He said, 'This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.' Which was more or less right.[4] ”
The album version lasts for almost six minutes. It was extended for release as a 12" maxi-single, the eight-minute version included on the 1989 compilation The Dance Collection: A Compilation of Twelve Inch Singles. The song was slightly edited on
the 7" format, the fade-in opening sound reaching maximum volume sooner. A version which fades out at 3:45, before the third verse and final choruses, has been included on a large number of greatest hits packages and other compilations issued by PolyGram, Mercury Records, Universal Music and others, such as 1994's Endless Summer: Greatest Hits and 2003's The Journey: The Very Best of Donna Summer.
In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "I Feel Love" #411 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The review for the song stated that Moroder and Summer "claimed tomorrow in the name of disco."[5]
Following the track's success, within months Summer and Moroder produced the 11 minute "Now I Need You"/"Working The Midnight Shift" sequence (on Summer's 1977 double album "Once Upon A Time"), which successfully builds on "I Feel Love"'s pioneering ethereal vocals, mechanised beats, sequenced arpeggios and ostinato basslines.
[edit]Patrick Cowley remix
In the early 1980s, after Summer had left Casablanca Records and signed with Geffen Records, Casablanca issued a series of singles from her 1979 double album Bad Girls as well as the compilation Walk Away - The Best of 1977-1980. A new version of "I Feel Love" remixed by disco and high energy pioneer Patrick Cowley followed in early 1982.
The full-length 12" version, 15:45 long, became a dance floor hit again five years after its original release and was issued as an edited 7" single that reached #21 on the UK singles chart. The remix used loops, keeping the song's bass-line going for extended passages of overdubbed effects and synthesiser parts. Thus the track is not a remix in the true sense (ie, rebuilding the track from its constituent parts) due to the new instrumentation superimposed.
Donna Summer (born LaDonna Adrian Gaines; December 31, 1948)[1] is an American singer and songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of music, earning the title "The Queen of Disco".
Summer was trained as a gospel singer before her introduction to the music industry and has always been known for her "powerhouse" vocal delivery. Though she is most notable for her disco hits, Summer's repertoire has expanded to include contemporary R&B, rock, pop, and gospel. Summer is one of the most successful recording artists of the 1970s and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums hit number one on the Billboard charts. She also became the first female artist to have four number-one singles in a thirteen-month period. Summer's website states that she has sold more than 130 million records worldwide.[2]
Born on New Year's Eve 1948 in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Summer was one of seven children raised by devout Christian parents. She sang in church, and in her teens joined a psychedelic rock group called The Crow, so named because Summer was the only black member of the group. At eighteen, Gaines left home and school to audition for a role in the cast of the Broadway musical, Hair. Unsuccessful in getting the part in the Broadway show (Melba Moore got the role), she was offered the European Tour when the show moved to Germany, where Summer also performed in the German versions of several musicals including Godspell and Show Boat. She settled in Munich and also performed with the Viennese Folk Opera and the pop band Munich Machine.
In 1971, Summer released a single in Europe titled "Sally Go 'Round The Roses", her first solo recording. The single was unsuccessful, however, and she had to wait until 1974 to launch a solo career. Summer married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer ("Summer" is an Anglicization of his last name) that same year and gave birth to daughter Mimi the following year. Summer did various musical jobs in studios and theaters for several years, including the pop group FamilyTree from 1974 to 1975.
After her divorce from Sommer, she married her second husband, American musician Bruce Sudano, in 1980. They have two daughters named Brooklyn and Amanda. Sudano was a member of the 1970s groups Alive N Kickin' and The Brooklyn Dreams.
[edit]Early success and notoriety
While singing back-up for groups such as Three Dog Night, she met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. With these producers, Summer signed a contract in the Netherlands and issued her first album, Lady of the Night, which included the European hit, "The Hostage". The single made number one in France and Belgium, and number two in the Netherlands. Its follow-up, the title track of the album, also gained some degree of European success.
In the summer of 1975, Summer approached Moroder and Bellotte with an idea for a song. She had come up with the lyric "Love to love you, baby" as the possible title for the song. Moroder was interested in developing the new sound that was becoming increasingly popular (which later would become known as Disco), and used Summer's lyric to develop the song. He had the idea that she should moan and groan orgasmically, but Summer was reluctant. Eventually she agreed to record the song as a demo. She has stated that she was not completely sure of some of the lyrics, and parts of the song were improvised during the recording. Summer later stated on a VH1 "Behind the Music" program that she pictured herself as Marilyn Monroe acting out the part of someone in sexual ecstasy. Moroder was so astounded with Summer's orgasmic vocals that he insisted she release the single herself. The song, titled "Love to Love You", was released to modest success in Europe. When it reached America to the hands of Casablanca president Neil Bogart, he was so ecstatic over the demo that he asked Moroder to produce a twenty-minute version of the song. Summer, Moroder and producer Pete Bellotte cut a seventeen-minute version, renamed it "Love to Love You Baby", and Casablanca signed Summer and issued it as a single in November 1975. Casablanca distributed Summer's work in the US while other labels distributed it in different nations during this period.
"Love to Love You Baby" was Summer's first big hit in America, reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in early 1976 and becoming her first Number-One Hot Dance Club Play chart hit. The single was quickly certified Gold with 1,000,000 copies in the US. The album (side one of which was completely taken up with the full-length version of the title track) was also released in late 1975 and was soon certified Gold for sales of over 500,000 US copies. The song was branded "graphic" by some music critics and was even banned by some radio stations for its explicit content. Time magazine reported that 22 orgasms were simulated in the making of the song, and some of the music press dubbed Summer "The First Lady of Love." Two successful, Gold-selling concept albums followed: A Love Trilogy which featured the single "Could It Be Magic" and Four Seasons Of Love which featured the uptempo "Spring Affair" as well as the ballad "Winter Melody" which was a top-30 hit in the UK - the first of Summer's singles to be aired on Radio 1 and a hit on the US R&B charts.
The 1977 album I Remember Yesterday, another concept album, found the Summer/Moroder/Bellotte team combining the Disco sound with musical elements of the past, present and future. The song representing the future, "I Feel Love" became a landmark recording, giving Summer another Pop and R&B hit reaching number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and number one in the UK. "I Feel Love" earned her a second US Gold Single as well. The song's use of electronic sounds was revolutionary and popularized synthesizers in dance, rock, and the burgeoning new wave.
Summer released a double album in 1977, Once Upon A Time, a concept album telling a modern-day Cinderella "Rags to Riches" story through the means of electronica. The album contained three top-forty hits: Fairy Tale High, Rumour Has It and I Love You.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha_Bhosle
Come September - Old / Instrumental
Billy Vaughn
Raja, Nazarein Mili
--MALE--
Da da di da dum dum
Da di dum dum, da di dum dum, da di dum
--FEMALE--
Da di di da dum dum
Da di dum dum, da di dum dum, da di dum
(Nazrein mili, dil dhadka
Meri dhadkan ne kaha, love you Raja) - 2
--MALE--
Jaadu koi chhaane laga
Mujhko maza aane laga, hoye
Bas mein nahin hai armaan
Mujhe seene se laga, kiss me aaja
--FEMALE--
Nazrein mili, dil dhadka
Meri dhadkan ne kaha, love you Raja
--MALE--
(Khwaabon mein bhi jaane ada maine tera naam liya
Aayi jo tu mere saamne maine dil ko thaam liya) - 2
--FEMALE--
Tere liye main hoon bechain kitni
Sanam kya tujhe hai pata
Ab to hai jeena mushkil
Meri jaan tere bina, love you Raja
Nazrein mili, dil dhadka
Meri dhadkan ne kaha, love you Raja
--MALE--
Jaadu koi chhaane laga
Mujhko maza aane laga, hoye
Bas mein nahin hai armaan
Mujhe seene se laga, kiss me aaja
--FEMALE--
Nazrein mili, dil dhadka
Meri dhadkan ne kaha, love you Raja
--MALE--
Dum dum, da di dum, da di dum dum, da di dum
--FEMALE--
Da di di da dum dum
Da di dum dum, da di dum dum, da di dum
--MALE--
Da da di da da
--FEMALE--
Da di di da da
(Ab raat din dilbar mera mere kareeb hoga
Sab se haseen, sab se judaa mera naseeb hoga) - 2
--MALE--
Milke kiya humne yeh faisla
Hum kabhi bhi na honge judaa
Hum jo mile to aaya
Haseen mausam pyaar ka, kiss me aaja
--FEMALE--
Nazrein mili, dil dhadka
Meri dhadkan ne kaha, love you Raja
--MALE--
Jaadu koi chhaane laga
Mujhko maza aane laga, hoye
Bas mein nahin hai armaan
Mujhe seene se laga, kiss me aaja
--FEMALE--
Nazrein mili, dil dhadka
Meri dhadkan ne kaha, love you Raja
--MALE--
Kiss me aaja
--FEMALE--
Love you Raja
--MALE--
Kiss me aaja
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_September
Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto, May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, actor and musician.
Darin performed widely in a range of music genres, including pop, jazz, folk and country. Although unknown to his public, his health was dangerously fragile and strongly motivated him to succeed within the limited lifetime he feared he would, and ultimately did, have.
He was also an actor, singer/songwriter and music business entrepreneur. His wish for a legacy was "to be remembered as a human being and as a great performer."[1] Among his many other contributions, he became a goodwill ambassador for the American Heart Association.
Bobby Darin was born to a poor, working-class Italian-American family in the Bronx, New York. The person thought to be his father (who was actually his grandfather) died in jail a few months before he was born. It was the height of the Great Depression, and he once remarked that his crib was a cardboard box, then later a dresser drawer. He was initially raised by his mother Polly and his sister Nina, subsisting on Home Relief until Nina later married and started a family with her new husband Charlie Maffia. It was not until Darin was an adult that he learned Nina, who was 17 years his senior, was in fact his birth mother, and that Polly, the woman he thought was his mother, was really his grandmother.[2] He was never told the identity of his real father, other than being told that his birth father had no idea Nina was pregnant, and thus never knew that Bobby was even born. Polly mothered him well, despite her own medical history resulting in her addiction to morphine. It was Polly who took the young Bobby to what was left of the old vaudeville circuit in New York, places like the Bronx Opera House, and the RKO Jefferson in Manhattan, where he received his first showbiz inspiration, and where he saw performers like Sophie Tucker, whom he loved.[3]
Darin was frail and sickly as an infant and, beginning at the age of 8, was stricken with multiple recurring bouts of rheumatic fever. The illness left him with a seriously weakened heart. Overhearing a doctor tell his mother he would be lucky to reach the age of 16, Darin lived with the constant knowledge that his life would be short, which further motivated him to use his talents. He was driven by his poverty and illness to make something of his life and, with his innate talent for music, by the time he was a teenager he could play several instruments, including piano, drums and guitar. He later added harmonica and xylophone.
An outstanding student, Darin graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science and went on to attend Hunter College on a scholarship. Wanting a career in the New York theater, he dropped out of college to play small nightclubs around the city with a musical combo. In the resort area of the Catskill Mountains, he was both a busboy and an entertainer.[2] For the most part teenage Bobby was a comedy drummer and an ambitious but unpolished vocalist.
As was common with first-generation Americans at the time, he changed his Italian surname to one that sounded less ethnic. He chose the name "Bobby" because he had been called that as a child. He allegedly chose Darin because he had seen a malfunctioning electrical sign at a Chinese restaurant reading "DARIN DUCK" rather than "MANDARIN DUCK", and he thought "Darin" looked good. Later, he said that the name was randomly picked out of the telephone book, either by himself or by his publicist. It has also been suggested that he amended the word "daring" to suit his ambitions. None of these stories have been verified.[citation needed]
[edit] Music career
What really moved things along for Darin was his songwriting partnership, formed in 1955, with fellow Bronx Science student Don Kirshner. In 1956 his agent negotiated a contract for him with Decca Records, where Bill Haley & His Comets had risen to fame. However, this was a time when rock and roll was still in its infancy and the number of capable record producers and arrangers in the field was extremely limited.
A member of the now famous Brill Building gang of once-struggling songwriters who later found success, Darin was introduced to then up-and-coming singer Connie Francis. Bobby's manager arranged for Darin to help write several songs for Connie in order to help jump-start her singing career. Initially the two artists couldn't see eye to eye on potential material, but after several weeks Bobby and Connie developed a romantic interest in one another. Purportedly, Connie had a very strict Italian father who would separate the couple whenever possible. When Connie's father learned that Bobby had suggested the two lovers elope after one of Connie's shows, he ran Darin out of the building while waving a gun telling Bobby to never see his daughter again.
Bobby saw Connie only twice more after this happened, once when the two were scheduled to sing together for a television show and again later when Connie was spotlighted on the TV series This Is Your Life. Connie has said that not marrying Bobby was the biggest mistake of her life.[4] She used the title words of the song "My First Real Love," (a Darin-Kirshner song she'd recorded and on which Darin had played drums), when she said, "Well, he was my first real love and I never stopped loving him all my life." [5] Connie Francis said too that she and Darin would sometimes go to the Apollo Theater to see artists like James Brown and Ray Charles, 'we were the only white people in the audience', and when Darin did record first for Decca early in 1956 it was a piece of black music, pioneered by the Louisiana songster Leadbelly, Rock Island Line - though the immediate inspiration was Lonnie Donegans skiffle version. He sang it on the Dorsey Brothers T.V Show, a big deal at the time, with the lyrics written on the palms of his hands in case he forgot them, which he did. But the songs recorded at Decca did very little business.[5]
Darin left Decca to sign with Atlantic Records (ATCO), where he wrote and arranged music for himself and others. There, after three mediocre recordings, his career took off in 1958 when he wrote and recorded "Splish Splash." The song was an instant hit, selling more than a million copies.[6] "Splish Splash" was written with radio DJ Murray "Murray the K" Kaufman, who bet Darin that he could not write a song that started out with the words "Splish Splash, I was takin' a bath", as suggested by Murray's mother. On a snow-bound night in early 1958, Darin went in the studio alone and recorded a demo of "Splish Splash." They eventually shared writing credits with her. This was followed by more hits recorded in the same style.
In 1959, Bobby Darin recorded "Dream Lover," a ballad that became a multi-million seller. Along came financial success and with it came the ability to demand more so-called creative control. Some at the label wanted a Fats Domino-ish album, but Darin's devoted publicist and advisor Harriet 'Hesh' Wasser wanted a 'great, swinging, standard album,' and , as she later told it, they were walking down 57th street when Darin told her "Hesh, don't worry, you'll get your album." His next record, "Mack the Knife", was the classic standard from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera: Darin gave the tune a vamping jazz-pop interpretation, which he consciously modeled on the style of Frankie Laine.[7] The song went to No. 1 on the charts for nine weeks, sold over a million copies, and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1960. Darin was also voted the Grammy Award for Best New Artist that year. "Mack The Knife" has since been honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. He followed "Mack" with "Beyond the Sea", a jazzy English-language version of Charles Trenet's French hit song "La Mer."
The tracks were produced by Atlantic founders, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün with staff producer Jerry Wexler and featured brilliant arrangements by Richard Wess. Propelled by the success of "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea", Darin became a hot commodity. He set all-time attendance records at the famed Copacabana nightclub in New York City, where it was not unusual for fans to line up all the way around the block to get tickets when Darin performed there. The Copacabana sold so many seats for Darin's shows that they had to fill the dance floor, normally part of the performance area, with extra seating. Darin also headlined at the major casinos in Las Vegas.
Sammy Davis Jr., an exceptionally multi-talented and dynamic performer himself, was quoted as saying that Bobby Darin was "the only person I never wanted to follow" after seeing him perform in Las Vegas.
Darin had a significant role in fostering new talent. Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson and Wayne Newton opened his nightclub performances when they were virtually unknown. Early on, at the Copacabana, he insisted that black comic George Kirby be his opening act. His request was grudgingly granted by Jules Podell, the manager of the Copacabana.
In the 1960s, Darin also owned and operated a highly successful music publishing and production company (TM Music/Trio) and signed Wayne Newton to TM, giving him a song that was originally sent to Darin to record. That record went on to become Newton's breakout hit, "Danke Schoen". He also was a mentor to Roger McGuinn, who worked for Darin at TM Music and played the 12 string guitar in Darin's nightclub band before going off to form The Byrds. Darin also produced football great Rosey Grier's 1964 LP, Soul City," and "Made in the Shade" for Jimmy Boyd.
In 1962, Darin also began to write and sing country music, with hit songs including "Things" (U.S. #3) (1962), "You're the Reason I'm Living" (U.S. #3), and "18 Yellow Roses" (U.S. #10). The latter two were on Capitol Records, which he joined in 1962, before returning to Atlantic four years later. The song "Things" was sung by Dean Martin in the 1967 TV special Movin' With Nancy, starring Nancy Sinatra, which was released to home video in 2000.[8]
[edit] Acting career
In addition to music, Darin became a motion picture actor. In 1960, he appeared twice as himself in NBC's short-lived crime drama Dan Raven, starring Skip Homeier and set on the Sunset Strip of West Hollywood. In 1960, he was the only actor ever to have been signed contractually to five major Hollywood film studios. He wrote music for several films and acted in them as well. In his first major film, Come September, a romantic comedy designed to capitalize on his popularity with the teenage and young adult audience, he met and co-starred with 18-year-old actress Sandra Dee. They fell in love and were married in 1960. The couple had one son, Dodd Mitchell Darin (born 1961) and later divorced in 1967.
Wanting his acting to be taken seriously, he took on more meaningful movie roles, and in 1962, he won the Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Male Newcomer" for his role in Pressure Point. [1]
In 1963, Darin was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a shell-shocked soldier in Captain Newman, M.D.. At the Cannes Film Festival, where his records—in particular "Beyond the Sea"—brought him a wide following, he won the French Film Critics Award for best actor.
Constantly
Cliff Richard
All day I'm walking in a dream
I think about you constantly
Just like an ever flowing stream
Your memory haunts me constantly
Shadows fall and I try to drive you from my mind
So you're no longer near to me
But my heart sees you there with me
Every sunset you share with me
The rain that patters through the tree reminds
Me of you constantly
Your name is whispered by the breeze and love birds
Bring your song to me
Just as sure as each star keeps burning
In the sky your love will stay a flame in me
A flame that burns so bright
Not only through the night
But constantly
Though we may be far apart
You're constantly deep in my heart
There's a Summer Place
Cliff Richard
Percy Faith
Andy Williams
There's a summer place
Where it may rain or storm
Yet I'm safe and warm
For within that summer place
Your arms reach out to me
And my heart is free from all care
For it knows
There are no gloomy skies
When seen through the eyes
Of those who are blessed with love
And the sweet secret of
A summer place
Is that it's anywhere
When two people share
All their hopes
All their dreams
All their love
There's a summer place
Where it may rain or storm
Yet I'm safe and warm
In your arms, in your arms
In your arms, in your arms
In your arms, in your arms
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams (born December 3, 1927) is an American pop singer. Andy Williams has recorded 18 Gold[1] and three Platinum[2] certified albums. Ronald Reagan described Andy's voice as "a national treasure". He had his own popular TV variety show from 1962–71. He also owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri.
Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa[3], the son of Jay Emerson and Florence (née Finley) Williams. He first performed in a children's choir at the local Presbyterian church.[4] Williams and his three older brothers Bob, Don, and Dick formed the Williams Brothers quartet[5] in the late 1930s, and they performed on radio in the Midwest, first at WHO in Des Moines, Iowa, and later at WLS in Chicago and WLW in Cincinnati. Williams graduated from Western Hills High School in Cincinnati. The Williams Brothers appeared with Bing Crosby on the hit record "Swinging on a Star" (1944). This led to a nightclub act with entertainer Kay Thompson from 1947 to 1951.[6]
[edit] Solo career
Question book-new.svg
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2009)
Williams' solo career began in 1953.[7] He recorded six sides for RCA Victor's label "X," but none of them were popular hits.[8]
After finally landing a spot as a regular on Steve Allen's Tonight Show in 1954[9], he was signed to a recording contract with Cadence Records, a small label in New York run by conductor Archie Bleyer. His third single, "Canadian Sunset" reached #7 in the Top Ten in August 1956, and was soon followed by his only Billboard #1 hit, "Butterfly" (a cover of a Charlie Gracie record on which Williams imitated Elvis Presley) in February 1957. More hits followed, including "The Hawaiian Wedding Song" (U.S. #11), "Are You Sincere" (U.S. #3 in February 1958), "The Village of St. Bernadette" (U.S. #7 in December 1959), "Lonely Street" (U.S. #5 in September 1959), and "I Like Your Kind Of Love" with Peggy Powers (U.S. #8 in May 1957) before Williams moved to Columbia Records in 1961, having moved from New York to Los Angeles and gaining another hit with "Can't Get Used to Losing You" (U.S. #2). In terms of chart popularity, the Cadence era was Williams' peak although songs he introduced on Columbia became much bigger standards. Two top ten hits from the Cadence era, "Butterfly" and "I Like Your Kind of Love" were apparently believed to not suit Williams' later style; they were not included on a Columbia reissue of his Cadence greatest hits in the 1960s.
In 1964, Williams ultimately became the owner of the Cadence master tapes, which he occasionally licensed to Columbia, including not only his own recordings, but those of his fellow Cadence-era labelmates, The Everly Brothers, Lenny Welch, The Chordettes, and Johnny Tillotson. In 1968, although he was still under contract with Columbia for his own recordings, Williams formed a separate company called Barnaby Records not only to handle reissuing of the Cadence material, especially that of The Everly Brothers (one of the first Barnaby LPs was a double LP set of the brothers long out of print Cadence hits) but new artists as well. Barnaby also had several Top 40 hits in the 70s with novelty artist Ray Stevens (who had done a summer replacement show for Williams in 1970), including Top 10s such as "Everything Is Beautiful" in 1970, and "The Streak" in 1974.
Also in 1970, Barnaby signed and released the first album by an unknown singer-songwriter named Jimmy Buffett ("Jimmy Buffett Down to Earth") produced by Travis Turk. Columbia initially was the distributor for Barnaby, but later distribution was handled first by MGM Records and then GRT. Once Barnaby ceased operating as a working record company at the end of the 1970s, Williams licensed the old Cadence material to various other labels (such as Varese & Rhino in the U.S.) after 1980.
During the 1960s, Williams became one of the most popular vocalists in the country and was signed to what was at that time the biggest recording contract in history. He was primarily an album artist, and at one time he had earned more gold albums than any solo performer except Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis and Elvis Presley. By 1973 he had earned as many as 18 gold album awards. Among his hit albums from this period were Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses (number one for 16 weeks in mid-1963), The Andy Williams Christmas Album, Dear Heart, The Shadow of Your Smile, Love, Andy, Get Together with Andy Williams, and Love Story. These recordings, along with his natural affinity for the music of the 1960s and early 1970s, combined to make him one of the premier easy listening singers of that era. In the UK, Williams continued to reach high chart status until 1978. The albums Can't Help Falling In Love (1970), Andy Williams Show (1970) Home Lovin Man ( #1 1971), Solitaire (1973), The Way We Were (1974) and Reflections (1978) all reached the Top 10.
Williams forged an indirect collaborative relationship with Henry Mancini, although they never recorded together. Williams was asked to sing Mancini and Johnny Mercer's song "Moon River" at the 1962 Oscar Awards (where it won), and it quickly became Williams' theme song. ("Moon River" was never a chart hit for Williams).[10] The next year Williams sang "Days of Wine and Roses" which was written by Mancini and Mercer (this song also won). Two years later, he sang Mancini's "Dear Heart" at the 1965 awards and "The Sweetheart Tree" (also written with Mercer) at the 1966 awards.
On August 5, 1966, the 14-story, 700 room Caesars Palace casino and nightclub opened in Las Vegas, Nevada with the stage production of "Rome Swings", in which Williams starred. He performed live to a sold out crowd in the Circus Maximus showroom. He headlined for Caesars for the next twenty years.
In 1968, Columbia released a 45-rpm record of two songs Williams sang at the funeral of Robert F. Kennedy, a close friend: "Ave Maria" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". These were never released on a long-playing record.
Williams also competed in the teenage-oriented singles market as well and had several charting hits including "Can't Get Used to Losing You", "Happy Heart", and "Where Do I Begin", the theme song from the 1970 blockbuster film, Love Story. In addition Williams hit the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart with, "Almost There" (1965), "Can't Help Falling In Love" (1970), "Home Lovin' Man" (1970) and "Solitaire" (1973).
Both Williams and Petula Clark recorded "Happy Heart" at the same time, just prior to his guest appearance on her second NBC-TV special. Unaware that she, too, was releasing the song as a single, he asked to perform it on the show. The exposure ultimately led to his having the bigger hit with the tune. The song "Happy Heart" is played during the final scene, and throughout the end credits, of the Danny Boyle film Shallow Grave .
Building on his experience with Allen and some short-term variety shows in the 1950s, he became the star of his own weekly television variety show in 1962. This series, The Andy Williams Show, won three Emmy Awards for outstanding variety program. Among his series regulars were the Osmond Brothers. He gave up the variety show in 1971 while it was still popular and retrenched to three specials per year. His Christmas specials, which appeared regularly until 1974 and intermittently from 1982 into the 1990s, were among the most popular of the genre. Williams has recorded eight Christmas albums over the years and has been penned as Mr. Christmas.
Williams hosted the most Grammy telecasts, from the 13th Annual Grammy Awards in 1971 through the 19th Annual Grammy Awards in 1977, totaling seven consecutive shows. He returned to television to do a syndicated half-hour series in 1976–77.
In the early 1970s, when the Nixon Administration attempted to deport John Lennon, Andy Williams was an outspoken defender of the Beatles' right to stay in the United States.
A caricature of Andy Williams is included in the montage of caricatures displayed on the cover of Ringo Starr's 1973 album, "Ringo".
Williams also sang the national anthem at Super Bowl VII in 1973 with Little Angels of Holy Angels Church in Chicago, Illinois
Gypsy Feet
Jim Reeves
Gypsy feet will wander Gypsy feet will stray
Neither love nor thunder can ever make them stay
I can't tame a heart so wild like a jungle drum it beats
Were you born a devil child with the restless gypsy feet
Gypsy feet keep dancing to the tune of violin
Just like devil's prancing you dance away your sins
If I could tame your restless heart would make my life complete
But I can't put an anchor on your gypsy feet
[ guitar ]
My picture's in your locket on that golden chain
Money's in your pocket and you're gone again
Gypsy lips will promise vows that they never keep
Hearts like mine are crumbled beneath your gypsy feet
Gypsy feet keep dancing...
Monday, February 8, 2010
Seasons in the Sun
Goodbye to you, my trusted friend.
We've known each other since we're nine or ten.
Together we climbed hills or trees.
Learned of love and ABC's,
skinned our hearts and skinned our knees.
Goodbye my friend, it's hard to die,
when all the birds are singing in the sky,
Now that the spring is in the air.
Pretty girls are everywhere.
When you see them I'll be there.
We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun.
But the hills that we climbed
were just seasons out of time.
Goodbye, Papa, please pray for me,
I was the black sheep of the family.
You tried to teach me right from wrong.
Too much wine and too much song,
wonder how I get along.
Goodbye, Papa, it's hard to die
when all the birds are singing in the sky,
Now that the spring is in the air.
Little children everywhere.
When you see them I'll be there.
We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun.
But the wine and the song,
like the seasons, all have gone.
Goodbye, Michelle, my little one.
You gave me love and helped me find the sun.
And every time that I was down
you would always come around
and get my feet back on the ground.
Goodbye, Michelle, it's hard to die
when all the bird are singing in the sky,
Now that the spring is in the air.
With the flowers ev'rywhere.
I whish that we could both be there.
We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun.
But the stars we could reach
were just starfishs on the beach
"Seasons in the Sun" is an English-language adaptation of the song "Le Moribond" by Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel [1]. It became a worldwide hit in 1974 for Terry Jacks and became a Christmas Number 1 in 1999 for Westlife.
The song is a dying protagonist's farewell to relatives and friends.
[edit]Original French version
The original French-language song included sarcasm and references to his wife's infidelity - but these are often missing from the English-language adaptation. Jacks's recording was released in the United States and Canada early in the year, and rose to number one in America by March 2. Earlier recordings had been released by The Kingston Trio, the British band The Fortunes in 1968 and by Pearls Before Swine in 1970/71.
[edit]Terry Jacks version
The song was recorded in Vancouver, BC by Jacks and his wife at the time, Susan Jacks (the Poppy Family), shortly before their marriage ended. When the Beach Boys decided not to finish recording it, Terry and Susan made the decision to record it themselves and release it under Terry's name. The distinctive twangy guitar riff has frequently been attributed to Link Wray, however Wray himself always denied playing on the recording. Jacks released it on his own label and it soon topped the record charts in the U.S. (where it was released on Bell Records), Canada and the UK and sold over six million copies worldwide.
Jacks' version was released in the United States in December 1973, and made the Billboard Hot 100 a month later. On March 2, 1974, the song began a three-week run at No. 1 atop the Hot 100, and remained in the top 40 until almost Memorial Day weekend. Although he released several other singles that were successful in Canada, "Seasons in the Sun" would become Jacks' only major solo hit in the United States.[2]
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
B J Thomas
Burt Bacharach
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothin' seems to fit
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'
So I just did me some talkin' to the sun
And I said I didn't like the way he got things done
Sleepin' on the job
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'
But there's one thing I know
The blues they send to meet me won't defeat me
It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me
[trumpet]
It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me
"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" is a song written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song. David and Bacharach also won Best Original Score. The version by B. J. Thomas was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States in January 1970 for four weeks and the first #1 single of the 1970s. It also spent seven weeks atop the U.S. adult contemporary chart.[1]
The song was recorded in seven takes, after Bacharach expressed dissatisfaction with the first six.
Ray Stevens had been first offered the opportunity to record the song for the motion picture, but turned it down. He chose instead to record "Sunday Morning Coming Down," which was written by Kris Kristofferson. Bob Dylan is also supposed to have been approached for the song, but he too reportedly turned down the offer.[2]
The song is featured in the Leslie Nielsen movie Spy Hard, which parodies the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where the song plays. It also is featured on the soundtracks of Forrest Gump and the superhero film, Spider-Man 2, in the latter accentuating Peter Parker's blissful mood after abandoning his Spider-Man identity and its responsibilities. Most recently it was used in the Kevin Smith film Clerks II. It was also sung in The Simpsons episode, "Duffless". Also, the first episode of the second season from Grey's Anatomy is named after the song.
B.J. Thomas's version was listed at #12 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time.[1]
Love Me Tender
Elvis Presley
Norah Jones
Love me tender,
Love me sweet,
Never let me go.
You have made my life complete,
And I love you so.
Love me tender,
Love me true,
All my dreams fulfilled.
For my darlin I love you,
And I always will.
Love me tender,
Love me long,
Take me to your heart.
For it's there that I belong,
And well never part.
Love me tender,
Love me dear,
Tell me you are mine.
Ill be yours through all the years,
Till the end of time.
(when at last my dreams come true
Darling this I know
Happiness will follow you
Everywhere you go).
Love me tender,
Love me sweet,
Never let me go.
You have made my life complete,
And I love you so.
Love me tender,
Love me true,
All my dreams fulfilled.
For my darlin I love you,
And I always will.
"Love Me Tender" is a song sung by Elvis Presley, adapted from the tune of "Aura Lee" (or "Aura Lea"), a sentimental Civil War ballad with music by George R. Poulton and words by W.W. Fosdick. "Aura Lee" was published in 1861 and this Civil War song later became popular with college glee clubs and barbershop quartets. It was also sung at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Presley performed "Love Me Tender" on the The Ed Sullivan Show 9 September 1956, shortly before the single's release and about a month before the movie, Love Me Tender, was released, for which the song was originally recorded. (This was Presley's only movie that he died in.) On the following day, RCA received 1 million advance orders for the song, making it a gold record before it was even released. The studio, 20th Century Fox, originally wanted to call the movie "The Reno Brothers" but instead re-titled it to "Love Me Tender" to capitalize on the song's popularity.
Movie producer Hal Wallis would not allow Presley's regular band made up of Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana to play on the soundtrack. Instead, The Ken Darby Trio provided the musical backing with Red Robinson on drums, Charles Prescott on bass, Vita Mumolo on guitar, and Jon Dodson on background vocals, with Presley providing only lead vocals.
The song is credited to Presley and Vera Matson because of the publishing agreement reached for the assignment of royalties, but the principal writer of the lyrics was Ken Darby (Matson's husband). The song was published by Elvis Presley Music.[1] He also adapted the Civil War tune, which was in the public domain. When asked why he credited his wife as co-songwriter along with Presley, Darby responded, "Because she didn't write it either."
Presley received co-songwriting credit due to his Hill & Range publishing deal which demanded songwriters concede 50 percent of the credit of their song if they wanted Presley to record it; Presley never wrote any of his own songs.[2] As with nearly all his RCA recordings, Presley took control in the studio despite not being credited as producer. He would regularly change arrangements and lyrics to the point the original song was barely recognizable. This, arguably, justified the cowriting credit in this case.
Blowin' in the Wind..
Bob Dylan
avec Joan Baez
Peter Paul and Mary
Johny Cash
"Blowin' In The Wind"
How many roads most a man walk down
Before you call him a man ?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand ?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea ?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free ?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky ?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind".[1]
In 1999, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked #14 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
In 2009, the song was licensed for commercial use when The Co-operative Group used it as the soundtrack to a £10 million brand re-launch.[2]
Dylan originally wrote and performed a two-verse version of the song; its first public performance, at Gerde's Folk City on April 16, 1962, was recorded and circulates among Dylan collectors. Shortly after this performance, he added the middle verse to the song. Some published versions of the lyrics reverse the order of the second and third verses, apparently because Dylan simply appended the middle verse to his original manuscript, rather than writing out a new copy with the verses in proper order.[3] The song was published for the first time in May 1962, in the sixth issue of Broadside, the magazine founded by Pete Seeger and devoted to topical songs.[4]
In June 1962, the song was published in Sing Out!, accompanied by Dylan's comments:
There ain’t too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain’t in no book or movie or TV show or discussion group. Man, it’s in the wind—and it’s blowing in the wind. Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won’t believe that. I still say it’s in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it’s got to come down some ...But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know ...and then it flies away I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it’s wrong. I’m only 21 years old and I know that there’s been too many ...You people over 21, you’re older and smarter.[5]
In his sleeve notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991, John Bauldie writes that it was Pete Seeger who first identified the melody of "Blowin' in the Wind" as Dylan's adaptation of the old Negro spiritual "No More Auction Block". According to Alan Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America, the song originated in Canada and was sung by former slaves who fled there after Britain abolished slavery in 1833. In 1978, Dylan acknowledged the source when he told journalist Marc Rowland: "'Blowin' in the Wind' has always been a spiritual. I took it off a song called 'No More Auction Block' — that's a spiritual and 'Blowin' in the Wind' follows the same feeling."[6] Dylan's performance of "No More Auction Block" was recorded at the Gaslight Cafe in October 1962, and appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
Dylan critic Michael Gray has suggested that the lyric is an example of Dylan's incorporation of Biblical rhetoric into his own style. A particular rhetorical form deployed time and again in the New Testament and based on a text from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel (12:1–2) is: "The word of the Lord came to me: 'Oh mortal, you dwell among the rebellious breed. They have eyes to see but see not; ears to hear, but hear not." In "Blowin' in the Wind", Dylan transforms this into "Yes'n' how many ears must one man have ...?" and "Yes' n' how many times must a man turn his head / Pretending he just doesn't see?"[7]
"Blowin' in the Wind" has been described as an anthem of the 1960s civil rights movement.[8] In Martin Scorsese's documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home, Mavis Staples expressed her astonishment on first hearing the song, and said she could not understand how a young white man could write something which captured the frustration and aspirations of black people so powerfully.
Sam Cooke was also deeply impressed by the song and began to perform it in his live act. A version was included on Cooke's 1964 album Live At the Copacabana. He later wrote the response "A Change Is Gonna Come", which he recorded on January 24, 1964.[9]
"Blowin' in the Wind" became world famous when it was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, who were also represented by Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman. The single sold a phenomenal three hundred thousand copies in the first week of release. On July 13, 1963, it reached number two on the Billboard pop chart, with sales exceeding one million copies. Peter Yarrow recalled that, when he told Dylan he would make more than $5,000 from the publishing rights, Dylan was speechless.[10] Peter, Paul & Mary's version of the song also spent five weeks atop the easy listening chart.
Critic Andy Gill wrote: "'Blowin' in the Wind' marked a huge jump in Dylan's songwriting. Prior to this, efforts like 'The Ballad of Donald White' and 'The Death of Emmett Till' had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting. 'Blowin' in the Wind' was different: for the first time, Dylan discovered the effectiveness of moving from the particular to the general. Whereas 'The Ballad of Donald White' would become completely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as 'Blowin' in the Wind' could be applied to just about any freedom issue. It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude."[11]
Dylan performed the song for the first time on television in the UK in January 1963, when he appeared in the BBC television play Madhouse On Castle Street.[12]
500 miles
500 miles
500 Miles lyrics
1. If you miss the train, I'm on,
You will know that I am gone.
You can hear the whistle blow
One hundred miles.
One hundred miles, one hundred miles,
One hundred miles, one hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow
One hundred miles.
2. Lord, I'm one, lord, Im two,
Lord, I'm three, Lord, I'm four,
Lord, I'm five hundred miles
Away from home.
Five hundred miles, five hundred miles,
Five hundred miles, five hundred miles,
Lord, I'm five hundred miles
Away from home.
3. Not a shirt on my back,
Not a penny to my name.
Lord, I can't go a-home
This a-way.
This a-way, this a-way,
This a-way, this a-way,
Lord, I can't go a-home
This a-way.
"500 Miles" (also known as "500 Miles Away from Home" or "Railroaders' Lament") is a folk song made popular in the United States and Europe during the 1960s folk revival. The simple repetitive lyrics offer a lament by a traveler who is far from home, out of money and too ashamed to return. The song is generally credited as being written by Hedy West,[1][2] and a 1961 copyright is held by Atzal Music, Inc.[1] Some recordings have also credited Bobby Bare, Curly Williams, and/or John Phillips as co-writers.[3] West may have learned a version of the song as a child from her paternal grandmother Lillie Mulkey West.[citation needed] David Neale writes that "500 Miles" may be related to the older folk song, "900 Miles," which may itself have origins in a southern American fiddle tune called "Reuben's Train."[3]
"500 Miles" is West's "most anthologized song."[4] The song appears on the 1961 self-titled debut album by The Journeymen[5]; this may have been its first release.
The song was heard on the February, 1962 Kingston Trio live album College Concert (a 1962 US#3). It was further popularized by Peter, Paul & Mary (it was the second track on their US#1, May 1962 debut album).[6][7] Rewritten with new lyrics (by Bobby Bare), it charted as a hit single by American country music singer Bobby Bare in 1963.[4] It has also been recorded by Sonny & Cher, The Hooters, Reba McEntire, The Seldom Scene, Roseanne Cash, Bad Astronaut, and many others.[8]
Heart of Gold
Neil Young
I want to live,
I want to give
I've been a miner
for a heart of gold.
It's these expressions
I never give
That keep me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
Keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
I've been to Hollywood
I've been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean
for a heart of gold
I've been in my mind,
it's such a fine line
That keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
Keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
Keep me searching
for a heart of gold
You keep me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm growing old.
I've been a miner
for a heart of gold.
"Heart of Gold" from the 1972 album Harvest is Neil Young's only number one hit single in his long musical career. Rolling Stone ranked it #297 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.[1] It features the back-up vocals of James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt.
The song is one of a series of soft, acoustic pieces which were written partly as a result of a back injury. Unable to stand for long periods of time, he could not play his electric guitar and so returned to his acoustic guitar, which he could play sitting down.[2] [3]
The song was taped during the initial sessions for Harvest in early 1971 at Quadrafonic Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Ronstadt and Taylor were in Nashville at the time for an appearance on Johnny Cash's television program, and the album's producer Elliot Mazer arranged for them to sing backup for Young in the studio. [4] [5]
Originally, this song was meant to segue with the song "A Man Needs a Maid", and was therefore played on piano. It was played in this manner during Young's solo shows in 1971, but he abandoned this approach midway through the tour and began to play it on guitar as it is now known. Additionally, one line that was cut when the two songs became separate entities was "Afraid/A man feels afraid" [6] An example of the segued version appears on Young's Live at Massey Hall 1971 release.
Young wrote in the liner notes of his compilation album Decade: "This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." This statement was in response to the mainstream popularity that he gained as a result of "Heart of Gold"'s number-one status.
In 1985, Bob Dylan admitted that he hated this song, despite always liking Neil Young:[7]
The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about '72 and the big song at the time was "Heart of Gold." I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to "Heart of Gold." I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I'd say, "Shit, that's me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me."
The song has been covered by Tanya Donelly, Matchbox Twenty, Tori Amos, Free Dominguez, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Richard Lloyd, Bettye Lavette, Birds and Batteries, Zakk Wylde (with Black Label Society), Boney M, Carla Cook, Lawrence Gowan, Stereophonics, Rockapella, Roxette, Backburner, Hanah, Ossifar, the James Last Orchestra, Five for Five, Sally Dworsky, Channeling Owen, Stoney LaRue, The Bad Plus, Dave Matthews and Jimmy Buffett (with the Coral Reefer Band), and as a Karaoke backing track. It is also heard briefly in the film Iceman.
In 2005, "Heart of Gold" was named the third greatest Canadian song of all time on the CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version. It ranked behind only Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had $1000000" and Ian and Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds".[citation needed]
Neil Percival Young[1], OC[2] OM[3] (born November 12, 1945) is a Grammy Award winning Canadian singer-songwriter, musician and film director. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 1995 and also as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997.[4] Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960. He then migrated to California in 1966, as part of Buffalo Springfield and established himself as the tentative fourth member of Crosby, Stills & Nash. Due to Young's relationship with all band members diminishing to being too acrimonious for them to cooperate, he left both and forged a solo career, to success and critical acclaim. He has since become "one of the most respected and influential musicians of his generation".[5]
Young's work is characterized by his deeply personal, often politically outspoken lyrics, distinctive guitar work,[6][7] and signature[8] tenor singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments—including the piano and harmonica, his clawhammer acoustic guitar style and often idiosyncratic electric guitar soloing are the linchpins of a sometimes ragged, sometimes melodic sound. Although Young has experimented widely with differing music styles, including swing, jazz, rockabilly, blues, and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into either of two distinct styles: acoustic folk and country rock ("Heart of Gold", "Harvest Moon" and "Old Man") and electric-charged hard rock (like "Cinnamon Girl", "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)"), in collaboration with the band Crazy Horse. In recent years, Young has adopted elements from newer styles such as industrial, alternative country, alternative rock and grunge. Young's profound influence on the latter caused some to dub him "the Godfather of Grunge".[9] Young has been an undeniably important artist; The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website begins their article on Young stating flatly that "Neil Young is one of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers".[10] His distinct influence and inspiration within popular music derive in part from his longevity of a career spanning more than four decades.
Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Human Highway (1982), Greendale (2003), and CSNY Déjà Vu (2008). He is currently working on a documentary about electric car technology, tentatively titled Linc/Volt. The project involves a 1959 Lincoln Continental converted to hybrid technology, which Young plans to drive to Washington, D.C. as an environmentalist example to lawmakers there.[11]
Young is an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and the welfare of small farmers, having co-founded in 1985 the benefit concert Farm Aid. In 1986, Young helped found The Bridge School,[12] an educational organization for children with severe verbal and physical disabilities, and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts, together with his wife Pegi. (Young's involvement stems at least partially from that his sons Ben and Zeke have cerebral palsy, and his daughter Amber Jean, like Young himself, has epilepsy).
Young currently resides on his ranch in La Honda, California. Although Young has lived in northern California since the 1970s and sings as frequently about U.S. themes and subjects as he does about his native country, he retains Canadian citizenship, which he has never wanted to relinquish.[13] On July 14, 2006, Young was awarded the Order of Manitoba.[3] On December 30, 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.[14]
Shilo
Neil Diamond
Young child with dreams
Dream, ev'ry dream on your own
When children play
Seems like you end up alone
Papa says he'd love to be with you
If he had the time
So you turn to the only friend you can find
There in your mind
Shilo, when I was young
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
And we'd play
Young girl with fire
Something said she understood
I wanted to fly
She made me feel like I could
Held my hand out, I let her take me
Blind as a child
All I saw was the way that she made me smile
She made me smile
Shilo, when I was young
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
But you'd stay
Had a dream, and it filled me with wonder
She had other plans
"Got to go," says, "you know that I understand"
I understand
Shilo, when I was young
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
Come today
Had a dream, and it filled me with wonder
She had other plans
"Got to go," says, "you know that I understand"
I understand
Shilo, when I was young
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
Come today
"Shilo" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond.
It was originally recorded in 1967 for Bang Records, but Diamond and Bang founder Bert Berns disagreed over Diamond's career path.[1] The singer wanted to move away from his early teen-oriented pop type of recordings that Berns favored, which led to Berns' refusal to release the more introspective "Shilo" as a single,[2] even though Diamond felt it was part of his development as an artist. "Shilo" was instead relegated to an album track on 1967's Just for You.[2] Shortly after what was said to be a "tense" confrontation with Berns, Diamond departed Bang for Uni Records in 1968.
Diamond went into a commercial slump, without hits. But by January 1970, his career had rebounded with "Sweet Caroline" and "Holly Holy" on Uni/MCA Records. Bang Records finally released "Shilo" as a single, albeit with a new backing track recorded to make it sound fresher and more like Diamond's current style.[2] This reached number 24 on the U.S. pop singles chart in spring 1970,[3] inspiring Bang to release a new Neil Diamond compilation album that year titled Shilo.
Following this, Diamond reissued his 1968 debut album with Uni, Velvet Gloves and Spit, in October 1970, to incorporate a completely new recording of "Shilo".[2]
In any case, "Shilo" was not about the American Civil War Battle of Shiloh or the Israeli town Shilo, but was about a childhood imaginary friend:[1]
Shilo, when I was young —
I used to call your name
When no one else would come,
Shilo, you always came
And we'd play ...
The song was Diamond's most autobiographical to date, making reference to his lonely childhood amongst turmoil.[1] Diamond's emotional investment in the song contributed to his and Berns's coming into intense conflict.[1] Decades later, Rolling Stone would compare the song's stance to the emo style.[4]
Though not one of Diamond's biggest hits, "Shilo" has become one of his best-known songs, and is a staple of his concert appearances. It was included on the Diamond's 1972 Hot August Night live album as well as all almost all of his compilation albums.
Girl, you'll be a woman a soon...
Neil Diamond
I love you so much, can't count all the ways
I'd die for you girl, and all they can say is
"He's not your kind"
They never get tired of puttin' me down
And I never know when I come around
What I'm gonna find
Don't let them make up your mind
Don't you know
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Please come take my hand
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Soon you'll need a man
I've been misunderstood for all of my life
But what they're sayin', girl, just cuts like a knife
"The boy's no good"
Well, I finally found what I've been looking for
But if they get the chance, they'll end it for sure
Sure they would
Baby, I've done all I could
Now it's up to you
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Please come take my hand
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Soon you'll need a man
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Please come take my hand
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Soon, but soon you'll need a man
"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" is a song written by Neil Diamond, whose recording of it on Bang Records reached #10 on the U.S. pop singles chart in 1967. The song garnered a second life span when it appeared on the 1994 Pulp Fiction soundtrack, performed by rock band Urge Overkill. Other versions have been done by Cliff Richard (1968), Gary Puckett and the Union Gap (1969), the Biddu Orchestra (1978), and 16 Volt (1998).
The song first appeared on Diamond's album Just for You, which came out the same year. The mono and stereo versions of this song differ slightly. On the mono "Just For You" LP as well as on the 45, the strings do not come in until the second verse. It also has a slightly longer fade. The stereo "Just For You" LP version has a shorter fade and the strings come in on the first chorus.
My Lady d'Arbanville
Cat Stevens
My Lady d'Arbanville, why do you sleep so still?
I'll wake you tomorrow
and you will be my fill, yes, you will be my fill.
My Lady d'Arbanville why does it grieve me so?
But your heart seems so silent.
Why do you breathe so low, why do you breathe so low,
My Lady d'Arbanville why do you sleep so still?
I'll wake you tomorrow
and you will be my fill, yes, you will be my fill.
My Lady d'Arbanville, you look so cold tonight.
Your lips feel like winter,
your skin has turned to white, your skin has turned to white.
My Lady d'Arbanville, why do you sleep so still?
I'll wake you tomorrow
and you will be my fill, yes, you will be my fill.
La la la la la....
My Lady d'Arbanville why does it grieve me so?
But your heart seems so silent.
Why do you breathe so low, why do you breathe so low,
I loved you my lady, though in your grave you lie,
I'll always be with you
This rose will never die, this rose will never die.
I loved you my lady, though in your grave you lie,
I'll always be with you
This rose will never die, this rose will never die.
"Lady D'Arbanville" is a song written and recorded by Cat Stevens, and released in April, 1970. Already a successful songwriter, this was his first single released upon signing a contract with Island Records, with the encouragement of his new producer, Paul Samwell-Smith, fostering a folk rock direction for the young composer. "Lady D'Arbanville" has a madrigal sound, and was written about Stevens' former girlfriend, Patti D'Arbanville, metaphorically laying her to rest.
Lady D'Arbanville was the first single released from Stevens' third album, Mona Bone Jakon, which took off in a completely different direction from the songs of his previous two albums. Although Stevens' debut album had charted, and while both albums he'd recorded had successful single releases in the British pop music charts, he chafed against the "Carnaby Street musical jangle" and "heavy handed orchestration" that his producer, Mike Hurst, of Deram Records favoured.[1] Just at the completion of his second album with Hurst, Stevens contracted tuberculosis and a collapsed lung,[2] requiring hospitalisation and rest for a year. During this time, he spent his empty hours writing over 40 songs, and upon a clean bill of health successfully negotiated out of his Deram contract, and settled on Island Records' Paul Samwell-Smith as his new producer, who encouraged Stevens' inclinations towards an emerging folk rock genre.
As Stevens was nearing the end of his period of recuperation, he attended a party that boasted a gathering of musicians in London; including Jimmy Page, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton, and others in attendance. Among the party-goers was a very young American woman who was pursuing a modeling career, (by her own account about 14 years old at the time[3]) named Patti D'Arbanville.[4] [5] The two began dating over a period of more than a year. D'Arbanville stayed with him whenever she was in London, but often found her career taking her to Paris, and New York City. Unfortunately, after over a year with her, Stevens was willing to invest more in a serious relationship than his young, ambitious girlfriend. It was on such a foray to New York that she heard his song about her on the airwaves. Her reaction was one of sadness. She said, "I just have to be by myself for awhile to do what I want to do. It's good to be alone sometimes. Look, Steven wrote that song [Lady D'Arbanville by Cat Stevens] when I left for New York. I left for a month, it wasn't the end of the world was it? But he wrote this whole song about 'Lady D'Arbanville, why do you sleep so still.' It's about me dead. So while I was in New York, for him it was like I was lying in a coffin... he wrote that because he missed me, because he was down... It's a sad song."[6] D'Arbanville continues, "I cried when I heard it, because that's when I knew it was over for good."[4]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)