Inappropriate Wedding Songs? Probably

Al Green, Ella Fitzgerald, Kris Kristofferson, National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Songs on Saturday, Willie Nelson

Inappropriate Wedding Songs? Probably

In Film, Popular Music, Songs On Saturday, Television on April 30, 2011 at 8:04 AM

Hellooooo… Everybully!

And WELCOME! to Songs on Saturday!

This week’s Songs On Saturday was inspired by yesterday’s Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The theme is love in song, specifically two songs. One about hoping and waiting to find it, the other about snatching a bit of it fur just one night, Someone To Watch Over Me (1929) and Help Me Make It Through The Night (1971).

A popular tune that might immediately come to the minds of People at their prime during the seventies is Al Green‘s Let’s Stay Together (1972):

Let’s… let’s stay together
Loving you whether… whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad

Writing yesterday’s post brought a few feel good nostalgia tunes to mind fur Her and reinforced Her love fur songwriting and songwriters. She just enjoys a great lyric. Great story telling that invokes images and stirs the imagination and the emotions are what keep me listening. To paraphrase Michael Corleone in the The Godfather III “they pull me back in” every time, even after several decades!

Love is a theme that never fails as fodder fur the songwriter. So many People are unlucky at it, or can’t find it, or can’t hold on to it or otherwise preoccupied with it. Loving and being loved are universal human experiences.

There’s a saying old, says that love is blind
Still we’re often told, “seek and ye shall find”
So I’m going to seek a certain lad I’ve had in mind

Looking everywhere, haven’t found him yet
He’s the big affair I cannot forget
Only man I ever think of with regret

I’d like to add his initial to my monogram
Tell me, where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?

There’s a somebody I’m longin’ to see
I hope that he, turns out to be
Someone who’ll watch over me

Someone to Watch Over Me is a song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by his brother, Ira Gershwin for the musical Oh, Kay! in 1926. So many modern artists have performed and recorded this tune from Frank Sinatra to Amy Winehouse. Her personal favorite cover is by the great swing and jazz artist, “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald.

Ella Fitzgerald

Some of you are looking at this image now and remembering Ms Fitzgerald from those famous Memorex commercials where a tape recording of her voice is so sharp, so crystal clear, it shatters glass.

There will never be another Ella Fitzgerald. Her voice, her range, her jazz scat, the pure, natural, sweetness of her lilting soprano coupled with impeccable breath control, the clarity of her enunciation and pitch pawfect phrasing make listening to her now seem like the difference between calf’s liver and foie gras. Both are liver. Both taste great. (or so I’m told). But calf’s liver is not foie gras.

Over three decades of Her growing up, She caught many of Ms Fitzgerald’s performances due to her frequent television appearances on shows like The Merv Griffin Show, The Dick Cavett Show, The Smothers Brothers and The Dinah Shore Show. Ella Fitzgerald was “must see TV” back in the day.

Ella Fitzgerald was only 22 years old when George Gershwin died, but his brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin, lived long enough to not only hear Ella record this song, but also to assist with the production of the album from which it came. With arrangements and orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle, the album Ella Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook was honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the body that runs the Grammy Awards in 1959.

Ella Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook is widely considered to be one of the greatest musical compilations in recorded history! After the album’s completion, Ira Gershwin remarked, “I had never known how good our songs were until I heard Ella sing them.”

Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson were the country songwriting hit makers in the seventies. He penned such classic American songs as For “The Good Times,” “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and is currently a member of the Songwriter Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

He never got much attention fur his own recordings, but he was honored by the Grammy’s fur his songwriting and his songs became enormous hits fur others, namely Sammie Smith, whose recording of Help Me Make It Through the Night shot to #1 on the pop country charts in 1971.

I don’t care what’s right or wrong, I won’t try to understand.
Let the devil take tomorrow Lord tonight I need a friend.

Yesterday is dead and gone and tomorrow’s out of sight
And it’s sad to be alone. Help me make it through the night.

Sammie Smith won the Grammy fur Best Female Country Vocal Performance for “Help Me Make It Through the Night” in 1972.

Probably good we weren’t the official Royal wedding song choosers. Right? BOL!