Many a popular song is most famous for its tune rather than
its words, which often as not, do little more than rhyme moon with June or croon. Yet there are songs whose lyrics
reward listening to – and I attach my selection of 12 I enjoy, together with
someone’s interpretation. I found that 5 of my 12 were written by Cole Porter
(1891-1964), who was worldly and “sophisticated”; he often got it right when,
unusually in a songwriter, he fitted his own music to his own lyrics. He was
truly a Prince of Lyricists.
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| Cole Porter |
(1) My
Mammy (1924) by Joe Young and Sam Lewis
My first song breaks all my own rules. The mother-fixated lyrics
are thickly schmaltzy, and only partly memorable – I’d walk a million miles for
one of your smiles – incomparable Al Jolson performs it in black-face,
wholly non-PC and upsetting to most blacks and he offends the observant Jewish
community by impersonating a synagogue cantor who prefers popular music. Yet 90
years ago, Jolson socked it to ‘em with enormous panache in the attached finale
to the first talkie The Jazz Singer
in 1927. What a star!
(2) You’re
getting to be a Habit with Me. (1932) by Harry Warren and Al Dubin
This was a classic for many years but often ran into
censorship problems as it was thought to refer to and glamorise drug-taking. Oh, I can’t stay away, I must have you every
day, As regularly as coffee or tea,
You’ve got me in your clutches and I
can’t get free – in any event it was beautifully sung by Frank Sinatra in
1956.
(3) Miss
Otis Regrets (1934) by Cole Porter
Written for a long-forgotten early Cole Porter musical, this
song’s humour is decidedly black. Miss Otis loves but is betrayed by her lover,
whom she shoots dead, only herself to be lynched by a mob which storms her
jail. Her dying words – Miss Otis regrets
she’s unable to lunch today! Flamboyant Douglas Byng, who appeared as the
butler in the original London show, made this his cabaret signature tune for
many years.
(4) It
Ain’t Necessarily So (1935) by George and Ira Gershwin
Sung by the demonic tempter Sportin’ Life in Gershwin’s
opera-musical Porgy and Bess, this
was certainly a subversive number in its time, casting aspersions on the
veracity of the stories of David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale and the
discovery of baby Moses in the rushes by Pharaoh’s daughter. The things that you’re liable to read in the
Bible, it ain’t necessarily so – would not play well even now with Trump’s
cohorts in Hicksville! Cab Calloway gives his version.
(5) Always
True to you Darling in my fashion (1948) by Cole Porter
I have long enjoyed this cynical ditty from Cole Porter’s
smash hit show “Kiss me Kate” later made a film in 1956. Ann Miller, the
dynamic dark-haired dancer, for whom I carried a torch, combined charmingly
with Tommy Rall on the screen, confessing her possibly justifiable
indiscretions!
(6) Brush
up your Shakespeare (1948) by Cole Porter
Another from the “Kiss me Kate” movie, with the two
gangsters trying to collect a bookie’s debt from Howard Keel giving him some
friendly advice on the merits of the Bard. Typical verbal felicity from Cole
Porter, not all of whose allusions will perhaps have been understood by his
audience.
(7) Little
Things Mean a Lot (1953) by Edith Lindeman and Carl Stutz
This true-to-life song topped the charts and appealed to
one’s mother’s or grandmother’s generation in the pre-Wimmins’ Lib 1950s. Blow me a kiss from across the room, Say I
look nice when I’m not, A line a day when you’re far away, Little things mean a
lot. This song, with its generous sentiments, should be on the school
curriculum!
(8) I’ve
Grown accustomed to her Face (1956) by Alan J Lerner and Frederick
Loewe
“My Fair Lady”, based on Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, was a huge
success on Broadway and London: The 1964 film was lavishly dressed and elicited
wonderful performances from Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison
as Professor Henry Higgins. This tender love song, which ends the show, marks
the crack in the selfish lifestyle of Higgins and the taming of rebellious
Eliza.
(9) What
a swell Party (1956) by Cole Porter
This was an older Porter number, revived for his major
swansong, the sparkling original score and screenplay for High Society. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were never better than
in this boozy duet, capping the other’s comments and alluding to a comical café
society. This French champagne, So good
for the brain, Your mine, bon ami, A liberty, Fraternity!
(10) Zip (1957)
by Cole Porter
Another older number, revived for the musical Pal Joey, where torch singer/stripper
Rita Hayworth gave good value playing opposite Frank Sinatra. Rita manages to
mention Walter Lippman, the Giants, Schopenhauer, Plato, Cato, Freud, Dorothy
Dix not to mention Charley’s Aunt and Whistler’s Mother as she wittily stars as
the Broad with the broad, broad mind.
(11) Yes,
I Remember it Well (1958) by Alan J Lerner and Frederick Loewe
Impossible to overlook this delightful duet between the
ageing boulevardier Maurice Chevalier and his erstwhile lover Hermione Gingold,
as they reminisce by the beach at Deauville in the charming “Gigi” adapted from
the tale by Colette. It is a snapshot of affectionate old age.
(12)
Somewhere (1957) by Stephen Sondheim and
Leonard Bernstein
“West Side Story” broke new ground in the musical genre, more democratic and more socially
serious. The Romeo and Juliet plot of the lovers from warring gangs in New York
and this great love song must have resonance in a Europe beset by migrants,
most of whom just want peace and quiet
and open air, Somewhere.
SMD
19.08.17
Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2017
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