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Home » Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The New Neo Posted on by

I can’t have chocolate (migraines), so I’ll take music.

Which do you prefer? Or maybe the answer is “all”?

Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day! — 31 Comments

  2. Paul’s right. Linda Ronstadt just sounds like she’s singing a song, the others sound like they’re demonstrating technique. Also, the other arrangements seem distracting to me.

  3. I was so sad when I learned Ronstadt could no longer sing (Parkinson’s, I believe). What a voice she had!

  4. Sarah Vaughan. I have an extensive collection of her recordings and to me she is a great songstress. Jazz singers are stylists more so than pop singers. Funny thing about taste, I found Rondstat’s version a bit cloy and the orchestration too Boston Pops. To each xe own.

    Rondstat was a top notch rock/pop vocalist. Her rendition of Blue Bayou rivals Roy Orbison’s original.

  6. I have always been fascinated by supposedly happy songs written in minor keys. There always seems to be something melancholy, sinister, or disquieting about them; my Funny Valentine, Puttin’ on the Ritz, 42nd Street, are a few. Anyone else care to contribute a title?

  9. I have always been fascinated by supposedly happy songs written in minor keys..Anyone else care to contribute a title?

    Cue up Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies, as Ella does it. My first recollection of Blue Skies was hearing it at a high school assembly devoted to computer-generated music, when computer-generated music was a novelty. These were the days of Switched on Bach.

    My reaction to Blue Skies was that it was pretty good music.
    My history teacher said he found it scary to have a computer generate music.

    I found it interesting that YouTube has several songs that came out several years ago that are titled “Blue Skies” but have nothing to do with Irving Berlin’s masterpiece. BTW, I have a navy blue shirt that is Irving Berlin brand, purchased in the ’80s. 🙂

  10. Men can sing “My Funny Valentine” too. Or at least jazz trumpeter, Chet Baker, one of my faves, did. Though I admit the first time I heard him sing, I couldn’t tell the gender.

    “My Funny Valentine” — Chet Baker
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvXywhJpOKs

    It’s dark and moody. I like it. A foggy Sunday afternoon in San Francisco.

    “Let’s Get Lost,” an indie documentary on Baker, is worth watching.

  13. None of the videos are showing in my browser for some reason, so I’ll just note that (1) my favorite jazz singer these days is Sofia Rei, (2) for a really great torch singer, look for Melody Gardot, and (3) Ella Fitzgerald singing Cole Porter’s Songbook is an absolutely essential CD!

  14. DNW, the Ella version you posted is fine indeed. I beg to differ about it being “not jazz influenced.” For example, compare how Ella sings “sweet comic Valentine” at the beginning of the song, compared with how Linda Ronstadt does it. (50 seconds on…) Ella put her own stamp on the song.

  15. Diane Wilson: I’m always up for new turn-ons. I’ll check out Sofia Rei and Melody Gardot. Thanks!

    My favorite jazz singer from the 00s was Diana Krall. There are those who don’t like her. Maybe she’s too pretty, too blond or too successful. Or she snagged Elvis Costello for a husband (or visa-versa). Whatevs.

    Here’s one that kills me:

    “Peel Me a Grape”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfJ_c2tyfQ0

    Send out for scotch, boil me a crab
    Cut me a rose, make my tea with the petals
    Just hang around, pick up the tab

    Never out think me, just mink me
    Polar bear rug me, don’t bug me
    New Thunderbird me, you heard me

    I’m getting hungry, peel me a grape

    Peel me
    Peel me a grape

    The dark side of Valentine’s Day.

  18. Gringo on February 14, 2019 at 8:07 pm at 8:07 pm said:

    DNW, the Ella version you posted is fine indeed. I beg to differ about it being “not jazz influenced.” For example, compare how Ella sings “sweet comic Valentine” at the beginning of the song, compared with how Linda Ronstadt does it. (50 seconds on…) Ella put her own stamp on the song.

    Yeah, you’re right. I was going to try and look up “the original” which I figured was from some movie musical, and then I realized I have no idea where to begin. I was imagining it was somehow in a movie related to scene in one of two musicals numbers I remember – the one where the guy leaps through the arch in Pied Piper type clothes, (not the one with the woman in the red dress with Fred Astaire in the hipster bar.) You know, the Medieval speech parody … (Reminds me of a Robin Hood book I had as a kid)

    They must have made a couple dozen movie musicals though, and well, geez …

    Oh, Diane Wilson is right re the Songbook.

    And Huxley is right about Krall, especially the Live in Paris album. Makes me think of family get togethers, young families, parents healthy and active, Krall and Steve Tyrell playing in the background.

    Have a vodka martini on me.

  19. Diane Wilson on February 14, 2019 at 7:52 pm at 7:52 pm said:
    None of the videos are showing in my browser for some reason
    * * *
    Me too.
    However, thanks to everyone for the playlists.
    Remember to go out and “See the U-S-A, in your Chev-ro-let” if you have one of the requisite vintage.

  20. DNW, I tried to find some “straight” renditions of My Funny Valentine. Linda Ronstadt’s is perhaps one. I listened to Johnny Mathis’s version. I never considered him a jazz singer, but his interpretation definitely could be considered jazz. Maybe it’s a song that inspires such a reaction.
    Johnny Mathis: “My Funny Valentine” 1959.
    The instrumental backups for both Johnny Mathis and Linda Ronstadt have a tinge of Baroque era music to my ear- at least at the beginning of the songs.

  21. Diane Wilson: And thanks for the links. It works best for me when someone points me specifically to what they love.

    Rickie Lee Jones, known for her rock/pop, sometimes covers torch songs. Here’s her version of Valentine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-V6rxXx95U

    It’s wildly expressive, so I wouldn’t call it straight, but it doesn’t swing like I expect from jazz.

    Her album, “Pop Pop,” made it to the #8 Billboard Contemporary Jazz Album. It covers jazz standards like “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” and I love it dearly, but it doesn’t seem that jazzy either.

  22. All good, and a bit different.
    I liked Carmen the best, despite having the slowest beginning. Great phrasing on the “Is your figure less than Greek…”, plus fantastic rising voice at end.

    It’s not easy to have popular happy love songs — much much more sad, lost, breakup songs. Both in jazz and my far more listened to pop rock.
    One great smiling song that comes to mind is the Turtles – Happy Together
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvu3xiFmfDU

    I made a list of many pop songs, including Do You Wanna Dance, since my wife and I love dancing together.
    https://tomgrey.wordpress.com/2019/02/15/happy-love-songs-not-just-for-valentines-day/

    Was busy with wife on V-Day. We saw a surprisingly good RomCom: Crazy, Stupid Love (2011 – in Slovak, so I continue to slowly improve). Not too stupid, like too many comedies now.

  24. It’s not easy to have popular happy love songs

    Tom Grey: That’s a tough challenge. You’ve got a good list and I have trouble extending it.

    Even the Beatles didn’t have many unalloyed happy love songs. “She Loves You” has the shadow of a misunderstanding hanging over it. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is a prologue to love. Your “I Feel Fine” is a fine choice.

    The problem, I think, is songs often tell stories. Stories don’t bask in happy love. Stories involve conflict and an arc or some sort or they are not stories.

    I think you missed a bet on Van Morrison, assuming he is popular enough for your metric.

    “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile)”
    “Brown-Eyed Girl”
    “Moondance”
    “Caravan”
    “Crazy Love”
    “Gloria”

    I’m sure Stevie Wonder and the Monkees have a part to play in your list as well. Then there’s Bob Dylan’s uncharacteristic “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.”

  25. Let’s see, happy love songs…

    I’d add Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay,” Donovan’s “Jennifer Juniper,” the Beatles’ “The Long and Winding Road,” Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe,” Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman,” Leo Sayers’ “When I Need You,” the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Rain On the Roof” and “Do You Believe in Magic.”

  26. How could I forget the Lovin’ Spoonful!

    I’ll throw another log on the fire with “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” because this blog doesn’t get enough commie folksingers.

    It’s not as upbeat as “Do You Wanna Dance” but it’s the same old story, only in it for the long haul.

    “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” — The Weavers
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDa7Q8DZQ_M

  27. DNW, “Bewitched, &c.” is from Pal Joey, which opened on Broadway in (I think) 1940. From stories by John O’Hara; music by Richard Rodgers.

  28. “Mad about the Boy,” / It’s pretty funny, but I’m Mad about the Boy ….

    A favorite of mine, as sung by Julie London. Intimate, throaty, velvet voice…. A great shame that she changed her style later on.

  29. huxley:

    I actually thought to put the Weavers’ “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” in there, but I though it was too obscure (I was raised on the Weavers). However, the pop version, quite popular in 1957, was by Jimmy Rodgers.

  30. neo: Yeah, I know the Jimmy Rodgers version, but my parents were beatniks so for me it was the Weavers.

    Lord, it’s a beautiful tune and the lyrics downright wholesome! It was loosely adapted from an Irish song about a cow….

  31. A favorite of mine, as sung by Julie London. Intimate, throaty, velvet voice…. A great shame that she changed her style later on.

    Julie near Chicago: It was the London version of “Valentine” in neo’s list which popped for me. I don’t know her aside from “Cry Me a River.” She’s a classy singer.

    My favorite “Valentine” is still Chet Baker’s, maybe because it was the first version I really listened to. I love the way he kept it small and the jazz so pure, spare, yet inventive.

    You can hear a lot of Chet Baker in Elvis Costello’s later style and you would not be mistaken.

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