SLS: The Living Is Easy

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In honour of the fact that this weekend sees the 250th anniversary of American Independence from the UK, Jim is inviting us to play a song for Song Lyric Sunday that is included in the Great American Songbook, as suggested by Nancy of the Elephant’s Trunk aka The Sicilian Storyteller.

Jim’s post, Great American Songbook, tells us more, and is where I ‘borrowed’ my header image from. My first thought was “what?” Then I remembered that Rod Stewart has done several albums of songs from this, though they are a long way from my favourites of his. So I consulted the oracle and found that ‘The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant 20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes.’ Oh goodee, loads of genres that don’t really float my boat. Fortunately Wikipedia has a full list of the songs, most of which are not to my taste, but then I had a thought: some of these have been covered more recently in versions that I like, so I could play some of those. Here is what I’ve come up with.

In view of the current weather and the season this seems a good place to begin:

And the lyrics are, of course, on genius.com.

As Wikipedia tells us, “Summertime is an aria composed in 1934 by GeorgeGershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics, in two stanzas, are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based.” The song has become a jazz standard, with well over a thousand recorded versions, notably by Ella Fitzgerald, as referenced by genius.com. I’m going with a much more recent version, which I really like: it is well sung, and the video matches the feel perfectly. I’m not a huge fan of Lana Del Rey, but on this one she came up trumps for me (am I still allowed to use that word without ICE knocking on my door?)

My second choice for today is one which is definitely out of season! I’ll Be Home for Christmas was written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent and recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who had a top ten hit with the song. Originally written to honour soldiers serving overseas in World War II who longed to be home at Christmas time, I’ll Be Home for Christmas has since gone on to become a Christmas standard. Again quoting from Wikipedia “The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during World War II, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells his family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests snow, mistletoe, and presents “on” the tree. The song ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.”

The version I’m playing is one that I have shared many times as part of my Advent offerings. The song was recorded by the singer-songwriter Andrea Von Kampen for the first of a set of four wonderful Christmas adverts by Hafod Hardware, a shop in the mid Wales town of Rhayader. All four of the ads are spectacularly good, given that the only budget expense was to pay Andrea, and even though it is still almost six months away I couldn’t resist playing this today:

And for the record, here are the lyrics.

And for a third dip into the songbook, a real standard. This one was composed by Richard Rogers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, for the 1945 musical Carousel. The song is, of course, You’ll Never Walk Alone, which was made even more popular here by the hit version from Gerry and the Pacemakers, which spent four weeks at #1 in 1963. They were a Liverpool band, and the song was adopted by fans of Liverpool FC, becoming an essential part of their repertoire at matches. Many other clubs have also adopted it but Liverpool can claim it as their own! I could have gone for that version but instead I have chosen to play a special recording of the song which was made in solidarity with Bradford City AFC following the fire at their Valley Parade ground in 1985, when 56 spectators died and many more were seriously injured. This version is by the charity supergroup The Crowd, which featured Gerry Marsden and many others, and spent two weeks at #1 in the UK and Ireland in June 1985:

The lyrics, attributed to the Gerry and the Pacemakers version, are of course at genius.com.

I don’t normally play more than three songs for SLS but can’t resist adding a fourth today, as this version is a little bit of music history and it is very short.  The song is Ain’t She Sweet, which was composed by Milton Ager with lyrics by Jack Yellen. It was published in 1927 and became popular in the first half of the 20th century, typifying the Roaring Twenties, and became a Tin Pan Alley standard.

These are the lyrics from genius.com, and these are The Beatles singing it:

Early days from their times in Germany, where they first recorded the song. As I said, a little bit of music history from the days before they became the biggest band in the world. Ever.

I think I’d better stop there as I may be in danger of outstaying my welcome! Thanks as ever to Jim for running the show. Have a lovely day, enjoy the rest of your weekend if you are celebrating, or even if you aren’t, and I’ll see you again for some more Tuesday Tunes. Take care 😊

46 thoughts on “SLS: The Living Is Easy”

  2. I remember the song, “Ain’t She Sweet”, but honestly don’t recall the Beatles doing it. *scratch head* I guess this will give me something to investigate, like I don’t have enough to keep me busy. 🙂 Have a boogietastic week, Clive!

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    • They did it very early, before they broke big here and certainly before the US knew of them. A B-side and on some compilations. You have a great week too 👍

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  9. Clive, thank you for this carefully curated playlist for the prompt. I remember the first song from Porgy and Bess, when we were supposed to believe that slaves were happy. The advert for Christmas brought a tear to my eye. The memorial group song did also. Loved the slide show with The Fab 4.

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  10. “Summertime” is just a gift of a song to anyone with a decent voice isn’t it?. Great version, although I’d probably go for Fun Boy Three – does that make me a bad person? As for the Bradford Fire song, I am a Lincoln City Fan (there I’ve said it) and we lost two of our own to the fire. Every other week through the season I sit looking at the Stacey/West stand and think about them. A tragic, tragic event that did, thankfully, change football spectating forever. Great version of a great song nevertheless.

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    • Given that you said it’s a gift for someone with a decent voice that’s a strange choice!

      The Bradford City fire was terrible but as you say, some good has come out of it. Good luck in the Championship 👍

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  12. Fab choices …. for a Brit! 😂

    I probably would have chosen Janis’ version of “Summertime” because she’s just perfection in my mind, but Lana Del Rey did it well and I get why you went with her.

    OMG …. how wonderful was it to see/hear Gerry Marsden on the video for “You’ll Never Walk Alone”?! I had a huge lump in my throat. And speaking of lumps …. those Hafod adverts get me every single time. They are so incredibly well done, only a total grinch wouldn’t be touched by them.

    The Lads at the end, still wet behind the ears and totally unaware of what was to come. Brilliant addition to you excellent lineup, my friend.

    Sorry for waxing poetic; I blame the Hafod vid! 😊

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    • Thank you, Nancy, I’m glad you liked my selection from across the pond. I’d never go with Janis Joplin, as I was never a fan, and Lana is much easier on the eyes and ears for me.

      Hafod was a no-brainer for me, even out of season, and the charity single version of You’ll Never Walk Alone is enough to put a tear in any eye. I remember watching tv the afternoon that disaster happened, and it felt so unreal.

      I couldn’t resist adding in the Fab Four too, though that one goes back to Pete Best days.

      Much appreciated comments, thank you 👍

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  13. You knocked it out of the ballpark with all four choices invoking lovely memories for me. You’ll Never Walk Alone brings me back to my grade school days when we sang it in glee club. Nowhere near as good as the Crowd, but we thought we were some days. LOL. Though our soprano is still singing in a local cover band called Dakota Avenue.

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  14. Nice picks Clive. I almost went with Summertime and the Lana Del Rey version. It’s great isn’t it. I’ve always loved that song.

    Oh dear you said the “T’ word 🤮

    On a high note, England plays Mexico tonight in the World Cup. Go Lions!!!

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    • Thank you, Christine. I’m glad we didn’t duplicate, but that is a fantastic version of the song and a fun video.

      Sorry, but whenever I do it reminds me that here it is a slang word for ‘fart.’

      I read in today’s paper that Mexico have only lost twice in that stadium in 89 matches. I wasn’t confident before! It’s a 1am kick off in our time, so I might be asleep 🤣

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      • I’m not confident. We have played poorly so far and are lucky to have got this far. Unless we improve immensely that record isn’t In danger. Fingers very tightly crossed!

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  15. So, no Rod Stewart from you today, Clive but you did make some great selections.  Summertime the last song that Janis Joplin performed live at her final concert.  I enjoyed the rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone that you included.  Nice find coming up with that Beatles cover.

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      • Not being brought up over there in your musical traditions I was a little unsure on this theme. But once I realised how I could do it I found too many – I rejected three other good ones even to keep it down to four.

        Maybe everyone is suffering the after-effects of overdoing it yesterday? 😉

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  16. These are great selections. A fabulous rendition of Summertime, a moving You’ll Never Walk Alone and a delightful Ain’t She Sweet by the very young Beatles. (pre Ringo days. Is that Pete Best on the drums? Maybe even Stuart Sutcliffe in a couple of photos.) And I always love those Hafod Hardware ads.

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    • Thank you, Darlene, I’m pleased you enjoyed all of these. I think both Pete and Stuart are in those photos, and Pete was on drums for this recording.

      Hafod just had to be in there, didn’t they!

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  17. Clive what can I say but four brilliant choices – Summertime is one of my favourite songs no matter who sings it! Your second 😃 such fun I’d not seen it before so thanks for sharing, the third choice is a winner beautiful song – even if i wasn’t as a Liverpool supporter! – (only downside was on the video I see Dave Lee Travis and Rolf Harris took part in this but nobody knew back then.) and you last one, just perfect you can’t go wrong with the four boys! great bit of history – thanks Clive 👏

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  18. For someone who came out the door sounding somewhat adverse to the theme- you sure found a slew of songs this week! I loved the advertisement! Very clever idea to include it. That would make an interesting topic someday- songs that eventually became advertisements! – but then we might have to argue about how it is pronounced! hehehe

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    • Once I worked out how to do this one I found myself spoiled for choice!

      They made four of those ads, from 2017 to 2020. This was the first, and all were excellent. They get a regular rerun during my Advent series!

      Good idea for a theme. Maybe it will appear in my Tuesday Tunes at some point…

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