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 😊