The 20 Greatest American Standards Ever Written

 It's hard for me to believe that it's been a year since I first published my list of "The 20 Greatest American Standards Ever Written" on this blog.  My last posting of this list was on November 8, 2009.  It's time to take another look at this list to see what changes need to be made, if any.  For new readers to this blog, in order to qualify for the list, the song must be over 50 years old.  In addition to the list of songs, I have listed my favorite personal recording of these songs as a good starting reference for anyone who wants to hear what I feel is the definitive recording of all these wonderful ageless songs. Also I am ranking the 20 songs from one to twenty with one being the best of the best.  Of course, picking 20 songs out of thousands is not easy and I know every reader will have their own favorites and their own ranking and I encourage any and all comments from all of my readers.

A few comments about the changes in the list. We have a new top number one song, "You've Changed" as sung by the late Eva Cassidy.  So sad for all of us that we lost Eva at such a young age.  There are lots of recordings of this great song, but I keep coming back to her version.  How good was she to push Sinatra's version off the list?  Yes, her recording is that good!  Speaking of Sinatra, he is listed as the "Best of the Best" on five songs and it was a coin toss with many more.  Only confirms the fact that Frank Sinatra was and still is the "Chairman" of the "Great American Songbook".  I took two great songs off the list, "Body and Soul" and sadly my long time personal favorite, "Misty".  I needed to make room for "My One And Only Love" and "These Foolish Things". Lastly, "Where or When" came close to breaking into the lineup.

THE 20 GREATEST AMERICAN STANDARDS 

1. You've Changed: Eve Cassidy

2. What's New: Frank Sinatra

3. The Nearness of You: Norah Jones

4. Here's That Rainy Day: Kenny Rankin

5. Embraceable You: Lena Horne & Frank Sinatra Duet

6. The Very Thought of You: Tony Bennett & Paul McCartney Duet

7. My Funny Valentine: Carly Simon

8. I've Got You Under My Skin: Frank Sinatra

9. Over The Rainbow: Ray Charles & Johnny Mathis Duet

10. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered: Ella Fitzgerald

11. In The Still Of The Night: Frank Sinatra

12. Night And Day: Frank Sinatra

13. Someone To Watch Over Me: Nancy Wilson

14. At Last: Etta James

15. All My Tomorrows: Frank Sinatra

16. The Way You Look Tonight: Tony Bennett

17. They Can't Take That Away From Me: Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong Duet

18. All The Things You Are To Me: Carly Simon

19. My One And Only Love: Nancy Wilson

20. These Foolish Things: Dinah Washington

Brian Wilson Does Gershwin

I just finished listening to the new Brian Wilson CD, "Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin".  Let me cut to the quick, if you like the Brian Wilson sound, you will like this CD.  If you like Gershwin you will like this CD. If you like the Brian Wilson sound and Gershwin songs, you will love this CD.  It turns out that the only Gershwin song that Brian knew before he made this CD was "Rhapsody in Blue" because he said his family played the record all the time at home and the melody really got into his head and has never left.  I find it hard to believe that in all the years Brian has been a major player in the music industry, he never got to know any other Gershwin songs. But that's exactly what he said when he was interviewed on XM radio's Nancy Sinatra show last week. This fact makes Brian's approach to many of these Gershwin gems very interesting.  He sang each song with an open mind and without any restraints caused by hearing the many classic recordings.  One other comment from Brian was that he was musically influenced at an early age by the music of the Four Freshmen. I had never heard this before and in thinking back about the "Beach Boys" sound, you can pick up some of the voice harmonies that the Four Freshman made famous.  Personally I really liked the CD.  I enjoyed the "Pop" approach to these "Super Star Songs" from the "Great American Songbook".   In particular, I really liked Brian's arrangement of the Gershwin song "The Like in I Love You".  I was not familiar with this Gershwin song but loved the melody and lyric. There are also four songs that sounded very much like the "Beach Boys": "They Can't Take That Away From Me", "I Got Rhythm", I've Got A Crush On You and "Nothing But Love". I loved them all.  And last but not least, there were five songs that Brian did as a solo that showed me a new side of his great talent.  His approach and sound was just great on: "I Loves you Porgy", "Love Is Here To Stay", "It Ain't Necessarily So", "S'Wonderful" and "Summertime".  At times Brian sounded the way I think "Sting" would sound singing these songs.  I hope this CD is very successful for Brian and encourages him to do another CD from songs listed on my "Top 20 Greatest Songs Ever Written in the Great American Songbook". I would be honored to work on the development of the playlist with Brian. Brian, have your people call my people!
Get the CD, you won't be disappointed!

Has iTunes Killed The CD Business?

I have been reading a lot lately about the slide in sales of CDs and have some observations and comments.  In my opinion, the decline in sales of CDs is directly related to the success and growth of iTunes.  In addition,  the music industry was not able to develop "out of the box" thinking and was content to stay within the status quo position they have embraced for the last 25 years or more.  However,  the music industry could have seen this change coming if they had bothered to ask the CD buying public this question: "If you could buy just those songs on a CD that you really liked instead of buying all the songs, what would you choose?".  I think it is pretty clear that the public's answer would be to buy only the songs that they loved and avoid any songs that were just OK. So it is not a surprise to read that artists today are putting out CDs that don't appear high on the charts while at the same time, a few of the songs on the same CD are hitting the top of the charts.  What does this trend mean for today's recording artists?  My guess is that it is not the end of the world for these talented musicians just a different world.  These artists need to create the best personal web sites available to attract customers who may have heard one of their songs, love it and want to see what other work the artist has done.  So the focus turns away from individual preselected CD to the entire body of work an artist has produced. The customer, in effect, will then create their own CD from the artist's body of work.  I think this is a good thing for the customer and the artist. Over the long run, the artist should be able to develop a strong loyal customer following and also will be rewarded for the development of his or her best work.

Rdio VS iTunes, Will It Just Be No Contest?

I have never subscribed to a monthly online music service because I am a big fan of iTunes.  However I wanted to alert you that there is a new monthly online music service, Rdio, that wants you to pay a monthly fee of $9.99 to access their music catalogue.  I read about this new music service in an article that was written by Allen Hoffman in the business section of THE STAR LEDGER on August 13, 2010.  According to the article, Rdio believes that it can succeed because of the ease of using their catalogue that contains over 7 million songs from major labels. It appears that Rdio is a mix of a music site and a social site.  Rdio allows you to create your own playlists just like iTunes but also will encourage  interaction and sharing of playlists with other Rdio subscribers.  An interesting concept, but at this point I can't see this business taking off.   If the music public continues to turn away from stealing music from online sites, then this would help Rdio get subscribers.  The major problem I would have with Rdio is that they will be controlling all of your favorites and play lists that we have spend many hours collecting and developing.  If you had this subscription for a couple of years and then decided to drop it, you would lose access to all your musical creations. But this is just my feeling, the younger generation does not seem to put a value on owning their favorite songs as long as they have access to them.  I also have to admit that I never thought I would enjoy sharing comments about music on a public blog with unknown people, but here I am.  So I will watch the progress of Rdio with an open mind and wish them the best. If any readers have any comments about this topic, please share them with me.    

Summertime and Live Music, Perfect Together

 

One of the many great pleasures of summer is  we all get to   hear great "live" music.  Most performers use the summer to do tours.   Resort areas like the Jersey Shore have local talent performing all week.  It makes for a wonderful time for those that can get away for a week or two.  But no matter where you get to spend some time this summer, I am sure that "live" music is pretty easy to locate.  Some of you might know that I am one of the owners of Epernay Restaurant in Montclair, NJ.  Epernay is a French Bistro that only plays the best music from the "Great American Songbook".  This summer Epernay has started a new Tuesday "Supper Club Series" to enable local young music students an opportunity to perform in a live and intimate public setting.  The series started on Tuesday August 3 spotlighting the singing of Joe Longthorne. Joe resides in Essex Fells and graduated from "Newark Academy" in Livingston.  Joe is currently a junior at "The Boston Conservatory of Music".  If you are in the area, come by for some wonderful French food from our new menu and   support Joe.  Epernay is a BYOB so take a bottle or two of your favorite wine to make your evening even more special.

ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY DOES IT ALL

As I have mentioned before in these blogs, one of the cool things I like to do is listen to CDs that have been released in the past by artists that I have missed along the way.  One artist that only recently caught my interest is Ann Hampton Callaway.  I can't believe that I had not been exposed to such a creative genius until recently.  This again confirms for me that there is real value in looking back and searching for gems that have been missed.  I first came across a CD Ann released in 2002 entitled, "Signature".  This title was perfect because the tunes Ann recorded in it do represent her signature sound and approach to the lyrics of some great songs. I particularly loved "You Turned The Tables On Me", "Tenderly, "Good Morning Heartache" and "For All We Know" recorded with help from the wonderful voice of Freddy Cole.  The second CD I found, "Slow" was released in 2005 and it is also a winner.  The tracks I liked the most were "Slow", "Never Let Me Go" the Carole King chestnut, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"and "You Belong To Me".  Ann's latest release is "At Last" and it's on my "To Do" list to review. I can't end this posting about Ann without commenting about her voice.  Ann's voice is rich, dark, warm and comfortable and has so inspired me that I am going to dedicate my recent oil painting posted at the top of this article to Ann Hampton Callaway.  It will now be entitled my "Ann Hampton Callaway" Still Life.  I believe the painting reflects the richness and warmth of Ann's wonderful voice, looks and personality.  You can catch several of Ann's performances on "YouTube".

By the way, Ann's talented sister, Liz Callaway will be appearing in NJ at NJPAC on November 6, 2010 and it is worth making the effect to get to see her act. 

Smooth Jazz In New York

Hi again, sorry it's been so long since I posted a new blog.  My schedule has been over the top for the last couple of months, and I have been working on a few other projects.

I heard some great live music over the past few months and wanted to share with you my experience on the "Smooth Jazz Cruises 2010". This is a jazz cruise that leaves from Pier 61 at the Chelsea Piers every week.  They have a different artist playing each week, all with the smooth Jazz sound.  We saw Spyro Gyra and they are still playing great sounds.  These cruises are really cool! You can have dinner on board or you can just have a drink and listen to the sounds.  As you might know, our area no longer has a smooth jazz radio station, and I still don't understand why the New York area can't support a smooth jazz station because both the 6:30 and the 9:30 shows were sold out the night we attended.  Being an old sax guy, hearing the Spyro Gyra sounds was a real treat for me.  It was a perfect night to be sailing on the Hudson admiring the skyline of the "Big Apple", sailing really close to the Statue of Liberty and admiring the water views  to die for!  They have cruises scheduled every week through the summer.  My advice is to check it out.  You can google "Smooth Jazz Cruises 2010" to get all the info.