For Letty, from the esoterica of my life:
Stars shinin' on my own brass bed.
Stars shinin' all over my head.
Oh, what a beautiful place to hide;
I'd learn to sleep with one eye
Just to look at him!
I'm tremblin' just to think of him now.
All I can think of is "Wow, Mr. Brown!"
You can ask me any time you please
If you can marry me.
Oh, I'll blush, head to toe,
But I sure won't ever say
"No!" 
-- lyrics by Merideth Willson, "I'll Never Say No,"
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Elvis' later recordings are rarely that good. I love him in the 50s and early 60s; after that I have to pick and choose.
Speaking of covers, a couple of months ago, I saw a show about Elvis, when he was doing Sinatra's "My Way", and it blew my socks off!
Letty,
...That first line of "You Belong To Me", is one of the most beautiful and haunting memories, of my youth. I'm assuming you meant Jo, though.
When Sinatra heard George Harrison's "Something" he declared it the greatest song written in the past thirty years. He may not have held to that opinion, but I thought it interesting that he was open to younger musicians and songwriters.
Edgar'
...Did you know Frank and elvis did a duet together, on Frank's TV special, where they did each other's song?
ANYTHING GOES
In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
Now goodness knows,
Anything goes.
Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, anything goes.
The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos
And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes
When grandmama whose age is eighty
In night clubs is getting matey with gigolo's,
Anything goes.
When mothers pack and leave poor father
Because they decide they'd rather be tennis pros,
Anything goes.
If driving fast cars you like,
If low bars you like,
If old hymns you like,
If bare limbs you like,
If Mae West you like
Or me undressed you like,
Why, nobody will oppose!
When every night,
The set that's smart
Is intruding in nudist parties in studios,
Anything goes.
The red silk stockings
And the green perfume....
One of the most beautiful songs I know is sung by Cat Stevens. I don't have all the words just now -
Morning has broken
Like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird
ok...so called music lovers
From Casablanca:
As Time Goes By...
Lyrics and Music by Herman Hupfeld;
© 1931 Warner Bros. Music Corp., ASCAP
This day and age we're living in
Gives cause for apprehension
With speed and new invention
And things like fourth dimension
Yet we get a trifle weary
With Mr. Einstein's theory
So we must get down to earth at times
Relax relieve the tension
And no matter what the progress
Or what may yet be proved
The simple facts of life are such
They cannot be removed
You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say, "I love you"
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny
Well, it's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by
Oh yes, the world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by
The beginnings to the two most beatiful songs, ever written:
And now the purple dust, of twilight time,
Steals across the meadows of my heart,
High up in yhe sky, the little stars pine,
Always reminding me, that we're apart,....."Stardust" by Hoagy Caarmichael
They say, in yo your early life,
Romance came,
And in this heart of yours,
Burned a flame,...."Sophisticated lady" by duke Ellington
I'm arbitrary on those.
booman
True, Hoagy wrote the music called Stardust, but another person added the lyrics - forgot who.
Also, the most gorgeous version of Stardust, for myself, is an instrumental by Peter Duchin.
bobsmyth<
The lyrical truths found in As Time Goes By are still so. This is a remarkable song that is pertinent to today's listeners 73 years after it was published.
The lyrics that come before "You must remember this, etc." are rarely heard today, yet the nuances of living in the modern world they describe are just as evocative for people of 2003 as they were for the population in 1931.
Thank you for posting the complete lyrics.
Ok...so called Music lovers
Aside from "As time goes by" in Casablanca, the image of Paul Henreid striding across the floor and ordering the band to play the Marseillaise to counteract the Germans singing. The evocative singing and filming of that scene still stirs my heartstrings.
Edgar,
...I doubt that Duke wrote the lyrics for "Lady. but with songs like that, the melody is so remarkable that once a good lyricist does the words, it's almost impossible to do a so-so version of it.
...My favorite instrumental version is by Lionel Hampton. Vocal, Johnny Mathis. My fave version of "Lady", may be by vocalist sam Fletcher, or Jackie Wilson, I don't know, it's hard to say.
...Of course there are other "hard to mess up" melodies, but my next favorite is probably, "The Masquerade is Over". Ooooh!...Whattasong.
Hi friends. Been away awhile and I hope you're all well. What a nice thread Letty gave birth to here. I'd like to add some thoughts about great melodies and lyrics. I'd have to agree that the melody of Stardust is breathtaking. Perhaps as good, and very similar, though less noted, would be a tune called Midnight Sun. It's that chromatic thing, you know... gently descending in half steps, creating surprising minor/major outside changes as it goes.
A very lovely Beatle song, the Fool on the Hill, is perhaps nearly as good in this regard. Actually, for my taste, it may be a better song, in as much as the lyrics venture into an inner realm defining the lonliness of the true individual... but then I think that at their best the Beatles were the most ingenious songwriters of the last century. They certainly were prolific, and wide ranging in their ventures. To me they typify the rare musician that doesn't use genre as a safe refuge, but rather as a creative touchstone. Like Cole Porter, they wanted to play with style and were very lighthearted as to lyrical content. Hence there's a great Beatle song abutting nearly every major genre. Act Naturally was one of the biggest country hits of all times, Michelle one of the great Euro-style love songs, When I'm Sixtyfour an indearing swing tune, Blackbird an astonishing folk inflected piece, Back inthe USSR an amazing pop rock tune... and on and on.
Another song writer whose work covered a lot of stylistic ground was Harold Arlen. Best known, perhaps for his work for the Wizard of Oz, over the many decades of his career he found his voice in nearly every style that coalesced in the pop ephemera. When I Fall in Love is simply one of the most tender songs in existence.
In my opinion, these are very poor times in that kind of creativity. Most songwriters these days seemed determined to copy only the recent. And they've been doing it so long that the recent is stale. A paradox, that. The poetic nature of lyrcs has fallen prey as well to the short attention span and teen oriented nature of the business. A love song as subtle and direct as As Time Goes By seems barely possible these days. Eleanor Rigby a downright impossibility. But then, I'm sure some young writer will come along and shake up the scene. They will undoubtedly meet resistance from the boxed in money hungry market, but in time I think the public will appreciate that new kind of voice. Maybe not now, but eventually.
The thoughts, these are, of a hopeful curmudgeon.
Beedlesquoink wrote:
When I Fall in Love is simply one of the most tender songs in existence
I agree, Beedle, and I would add "If I Loved You" from Rodgers' and Hammerstein's
Carousel.
ok... so called music lovers
Artist Cat Stevens
Song Morning Has Broken
Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the world
Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day
My Gorsh. Here you all are havin' fun without me.
Hoagy and Johnny were lovers, I think.
I believe that Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael did "Skylark" which is the most thrilling song in the universe. K.D. Lang did a great job with it, too.
ah, and Squeedle--do I ever luvvvvvv "Midnight Sun" as you well know. Funny, someone bought up "When I Fall in Love" and I just posted that on the OAK man's thread about his Chevy Van.
