the way you look tonight

This captivating standard speaks to a cherished moment that glows with love. Jerome Kern wrote 'The Way You Look Tonight' with Dorothy Fields, who recalled: "The first time Jerry played that melody for me I went out and started to cry. The release absolutely killed me. I couldn't stop, it was so beautiful."

Fred Astaire introduced the song in the film 'Swingtime', singing it alone at the piano while Ginger Rogers was in the next room. She walks in to hear the end of the song. 'The Way You Look Tonight' spent six weeks at number one and won the 1936 Academy Award for Best Song.

Billie Holiday

Frank Sinatra

Ella Fitzgerald

Bryan Ferry

Olivia Newton-John

Michael Bublé

Some day, when I'm awfully low,

When the world is cold,

I will feel a glow just thinking of you...

And the way you look tonight.

Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm

And your cheeks so soft,

There is nothing for me but to love you,

And the way you look tonight.

With each word your tenderness grows,

Tearing my fear apart...

And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,

It touches my foolish heart.

Lovely ... Never, ever change.

Keep that breathless charm.

Won't you please arrange it ?

'Cause I love you ... Just the way you look tonight.

Mm, Mm, Mm, Mm,

Just the way you look to-night.

pennies from heaven

This standard found a silver lining in the dark grey cloud of the Great Depression. The songwriting team of Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston composed ‘Pennies from Heaven’ in 1936. Johnson wrote the music and Burke did the lyrics. The song gave the title to two movies and has been featured in several other films. It has been recorded by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Dinah Washington, Clark Terry, Frances Langford, Arthur Tracy, Big Joe Turner, Dean Martin, The Skyliners, and many others.








Bing Crosby introduced the song in the film ‘Pennies From Heaven’, for which it received an Academy Award nomination. His version with with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra spent ten weeks at the top of the charts.


That same year Billie Holiday recorded a version with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra. Their version peaked at number three.



Louis Prima


Stan Getz with the Oscar Peterson Trio




Frank Sinatra and Count Basie





A long time ago
A million years BC
The best things in life
Were absolutely free.
But no one appreciated
A sky that was always blue.
And no one congratulated
A moon that was always new.
So it was planned that they would vanish now and them
And you must pay before you get them back again.
That's what storms were made for
And you shouldn't be afraid for
Every time it rains it rains
Pennies from heaven.
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven.
You'll find your fortune falling
All over town.
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down.
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers.
If you want the things you love
You must have showers.
So when you hear it thunder
Don't run under a tree.
There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me

robert johnson

Grandfather of Rock and Roll, Robert Leroy Johnson had his first recording session facing the wall. The technique of "corner loading" was used to enhance the sound of his guitar. During three days in November of 1936, Johnson played sixteen tunes in room 414 at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, which had been set up as a temporary studio by Brunswick Records. The itinerant "King of the Delta Blues" only had one other recording session before his untimely poisoning, but he lived a legendary life traveling all over the country from town to town, playing on street corners, developing his style, and establishing his reputation.

'Kind Hearted Woman Blues' was a response to 'Mean Mistreatin' Woman' by Bumble Bee Slim, which was a rewrite of Leroy Carr's 'Mean Mistreating Mama'. It was the first song and the only guitar solo he ever recorded.

Johnson adapted his finger picked Prodigal tale 'I Believe I'll Dust My Broom' from various related blues songs of the thirties: 'I Believe I’ll Make A Change' (done by Sparks Brothers and Leroy Carr), Kokomo Arnold's spinoffs 'Sagefield Woman Blues' and 'Sissy Man Blues', 'Believe I'll Go Back Home' by Jack Kelly, and 'Mr Carl’s Blues' by Carl Rafferty.

'Crossroad Blues' portrays a desperate man afraid of being caught out alone after dark. Legend says that Johnson sold his soul to the devil to be able to play guitar and that this song addresses his remorse.

there is no greater love

Seventy five years ago, Isham Jones and His Orchestra first released this jazz standard as the B-side to their single from a musical comedy. Jones composed the music and Marty Symes penned the lyrics. Side A was 'Life Begins When You’re in Love' from the film 'The Music Goes ‘Round'. 'There Is No Greater Love' became the last hit for Symes and Jones' last with the orchestra before Woody Herman took over as bandleader. It has been recorded many times over the years as a ballad as well as reinterpreted through swing and hard bop. Here are some notable renditions:

Billie Holiday (1947)

Dinah Washington – Dinah Jams (1954)

Miles Davis – Four & More (1964)

Sonny Rollins (1957)

Amy Winehouse (2004)

There is no greater love

Than what I feel for you

No greater love, no heart so true

There is no greater thrill

Than what you bring to me

No sweeter song

Than what you sing to me

Youre the sweetest thing

I have ever known

And to think that you are mine alone

There is no greater love

In all the world, its true

No greater love

Than what I feel for you

mississippi jook band

The Mississippi Jook Band met in a hotel in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to produce some of the earliest rock and roll recordings. Blind Roosevelt Graves and his brother Uaroy Graves were known for their spiritual guitar boogie. Cooney Vaughn was a local piano player who performed on a weekly radio show. Paramount talent scout H.C. Speir brought them together for their only session together at a temporary studio in the Hotel Hattiesburg where made these classic tracks. Roosevelt played guitar and sang, Uaroy played tambourine and kazoo, and Vaughn went crazy on the keys.

'Skippy Whippy'

'Hittin' The Bottle Stomp'

'Dangerous Woman'

'Barbecue Bust'

summertime

George Gershwin's languid lullaby embodies the lazy season of summer and is a jazz folk classic that has been recorded in over two thousand five hundred versions. The song was composed in 1935 for 'Porgy and Bess', an opera based on a novel by DuBose Heyward. Gershwin set DuBose Heyward's poem to music in the style of African-American spirituals and the slowly swaying notes evoke the South Carolina setting of his jazz opera.

Billie Holiday was the first to have a pop hit with the song in 1936.

Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald did their version in 1957.

Billy Stewart had the highest charting hit version in 1966.

Janis Joplin's version with Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1968.

The Doors from 'Live In Boston' as part of a medley with 'Light My Fire' and 'Fever' in 1970.

Sublime based 'Doin' Time' on 'Summertime' in 1996.

Morcheeba from 'Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin' released in 1998.

Fantasia Barino did this version on 'American Idol' in 2004.

Summertime,

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Oh, Your daddy's rich

And your mamma's good lookin'

So hush little baby

Don't you cry

One of these mornings

You're going to rise up singing

Then you'll spread your wings

And you'll take to the sky

But until that morning

There's a'nothing can harm you

With your daddy and mammy standing by

Summertime,

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich

And your mamma's good lookin'

So hush little baby

Don't you cry

weed smoker's dream / why don't you do right?

Kansas Joe McCoy wrote this jazz standard and recorded it with the Harlem Hamfats and then rewrote it five years later. The original song was subtitled 'Why Don’t You Do Now' and the rewrite was titled 'Why Don’t You Do Right?'




http://www.mccoybrotherstribute.com/

Sittin’ on a million

Sittin’ on it every day

Can’t make no money givin’ your

stuff away

Why don’t you do now

like the millionaires do

Put your stuff on the market

And make a million too

Fay's a betting woman

She bets on every hand

She's a trickin' mother for you every-

where she land

Why don’t you do now

like the millionaires do

Put your stuff on the market

And make a million too

May's a good-lookin' frail

She lives down by the jail

On her back though she got

hot stuff for sale

Why don’t you do now

like the millionaires do

Put your stuff on the market

And make a million too

'Why Don't You Do Right?' was recorded by Lillian "Lil" Green featuring Big Bill Bronzy on guitar in 1941.

A year later Peggy Lee did a version with Benny Goodman and it made it to number four on the charts and sold over a million copies. Lee confessed, “I was and am a fan of Lil Green, a great old blues singer, and Lil recorded it. I used to play that record over and over in my dressing room, which was next door to Benny’s. Finally he said, ‘You obviously like that song.’ I said ‘Oh, I love it.’ He said ‘Would you like me to have an arrangement made of it?’ I said, ‘I’d love that,’ and he did.”

In 1988, Amy Irving sang this version for Jessica Rabbit in the film 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'

Jessica Rabbit - Why don't you do right by sky1979

You had plenty money, 1922

You let other women make a fool of you

Why don't you do right, like some other men do?

Get out of here and get me some money too

You're sittin' down and wonderin' what it's all about

You ain't got no money, they will put you out

Why don't you do right, like some other men do?

Get out of here and get me some money too

If you had prepared twenty years ago

You wouldn't be a-wanderin' from door to door

Why don't you do right, like some other men do?

Get out of here and get me some money too

I fell for your jivin' and I took you in

Now all you got to offer me's a drink of gin

Why don't you do right, like some other men do?

Get out of here and get me some money too

Why don't you do right, like some other men do?

Like some other men do

oh! red

This Chicago session band recorded their first record and influenced the creation of rhythm and blues and rock & roll. Talent scout Mayo "Ink" Williams put the Harlem Hamfats together to back jazz and blues singers for Decca Records. None of the band members were from New York: Brothers Joe and Charlie McCoy were blues players from Mississippi; Herb Morand, Odell Rand, and John Lindsay were from New Orleans; Horace Malcolm and drummers Pearlis Williams and Freddie Flynn were from Chicago. Their sound reflected the geographical diversity of the band, drawing from dixieland, ragtime, swing, and blues. 'Oh! Red' has been covered by numerous artists including Count Basie, The Ink Spots, Blind Willie McTell, and Howlin' Wolf.

life begins when you're in love / riffin' the scotch

Billie Holiday

(born Eleanora Fagan, April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959)

Lady Day, the most beloved and perhaps the greatest of jazz singers, drew her sad and sensual voice out of a life of pain. Born out of wedlock, little Eleanora had a troubled childhood that involved rape and prostitution. She began singing in clubs with saxophonist Kenneth Hollan in 1929. John Hammond discovered Holiday singing in a Harlem jazz club in and arranged for her first recording session in 1933. She recorded with Benny Goodman and then Teddy Wilson and was an immediate success. Though her voice had a limited range, her singing style was a huge influence on jazz. She would strip down songs to their most immediate emotions and manipulate the notes like jazz musicians. Her life ended early after long struggles with drugs, alcohol, and the men in her life. Her music lives on.

This little gem was recorded in 1936 with Teddy Willson and His Orchestra.

Life begins when you're in love

You have the whole world before you

When you've found the one

The only one to love and adore you

And when you learn the sigh of it

The long of it, the cry of it

Life begins when Cupid wins

And you're in love

She made her recording debut with 'Riffin' the Scotch' was her first hit with Benny Goodman in 1934 at the age of eighteen. It made it to number six on the pop charts.

I jumped out of the tryin pan

And right into the fire

When I lost me a cheatin man

And got a no-count liar

Swapped the old one for a new one

Now the new ones breakin my heart

I jumped out of the tryin pan

And right into the fire

Lord, right into the fire

these foolish things (remind me of you)

 




Eric Maschwitz and Jack Strachey copyrighted this catalogue song about the way that any old thing can remind us of the ones we love. Maschwitz wrote the lyrics under his pen name, Holt Marvell on a Sunday morning in his London flat. He read them to Jack Strachey over the phone and he began work on the music. Harry Link made minor changes for the American public and is often included in the credits for the song. There have been numerous versions by artists including Dorothy Dickson, Leslie Hutchinson, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Frankie Laine, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Aaron Neville, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Bryan Ferry, Rod Stewart, Paris Bennett, Michael Bublé, Stan Getz, Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, Count Basie, and Lester Young.

Bryan Ferry performed this version for television in 1974. He titled his first solo album after the song.

Emmy Rossum

Benny Goodman and his Orchestra performed this number one hit version with Helen Ward on vocal.

Pianist Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra recorded “These Foolish Things” with Billie Holiday on vocal and Ben Webster on tenor saxophone. It made it to number five.

Ol' Blue Eyes recorded his weepy world-weary version in 1962.




Ella Fitzgerald

Michael Bublé

 Thelonious Monk

A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces,

An airline ticket to romantic places,

And still my heart has wings...

These foolish things remind me of you.

A tinkling piano in the next apartment,

Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant,

A fairground's painted swings...

These foolish things remind me of you.

You came, you saw,

You conquered me.

When you did that to me,

I knew somehow this had to be.

The winds of March that made my heart a dancer,

A telephone that rings,

And who's to answer?

Oh, how the ghost of you clings...

These foolish things remind me of you.

The first daffodil and long excited cables,

And candle lights on little corner tables,

And still my heart has wings...

These foolish things remind me of you.

The park at evening when the bell has sounded,

The 'Ile-de-France' with all the gulls around it,

The beauty that is spring's...

These foolish things remind me of you.

How strange, how sweet

To find you still,

These things are dear to me,

They seem to bring you near to me.

The sigh of midnight trains in empty stations,

Silk stockings tossed aside, dance invitations.

Oh, how the ghost of you clings!

These foolish things remind me of you...

These foolish things remind me of you.