I Can Dream, Can't I? (1939)

S. Fain/I. Kahal

"I'm aware my heart is a sad affair

There's much disillusion there, but I can dream, can't I?"

The Andrews Sisters had a hit with this, yet another song of desperate love, but I prefer Tommy Dorsey 's version with the somewhat forgotten Jo Stafford singing the vocals. Karen Carpenter, perhaps oddly, also sang this tune, which becomes that much more poignant when you are aware of her too short, too sad life. And another twist: the great Cass Elliot sings it, too, if somewhat blandly.


VERSE
As we eye the blue horizon's bend
Earth and sky appear to meet and end
But it's merely an illusion
Like your heart and mine
There is no conclusion...

CHORUS

I can see

No matter how near you'll be

You'll never belong to me

But I can dream, can't I?

Can't I pretend that I'm locked in the bend of your embrace?

For dreams are just like wine

And I am drunk with mine

I'm aware

My heart is a sad affair

There's much disillusion there

But I can dream, can't I?

Can't I adore you

Although we are oceans apart?

I can't make you open your heart

But I can dream, can't I?

Skylark (1941)

Mercer/Carmichael

And in your lonely flight

haven't you heard the music in the night?

Wonderful music

Faint as a will o' the wisp 

crazy as a loon

sad as a gypsy serenading the moon

A song that has and needs no introductory verse, Skylark is one of Hoagy Carmichael's most beloved and well-known songs, with an unusual pattern of chords - especially in the bridge - that can make challenging to play or sing. Hoagy is thought to have written it as a tribute to his friend, Bix Beiderbecke. Johnny Mercer was inspired, as he mostly is, with the dreamy, nostalgic images that evoke an old Southern evening. (It seems as if Mercer read and re-read Percy Blythe Shelley's Ode to a Skylark poem many times.) The No Sleeping Dogs blog analyzes just what makes the skylark bird so special here. Lastly, I suppose I should mention the discontinued Buick Skylark, which began as a luxury sedan and ended its run as a classic muscle car after 46 years.

CHORUS

Skylark
Have you anything to say to me?

Won't you tell me where my love can be?

Is there a meadow in the mist

Where someone's waiting to be kissed?

Oh skylark
Have you seen a valley green with spring?

Where my heart can go a-journeying

Over the shadows and the rain

To a blossom covered lane

And in your lonely flight

Haven't you heard the music in the night?

Wonderful music

Faint as a will o' the wisp

Crazy as a loon

Sad as a gypsy serenading the moon

Oh skylark
I don't know if you can find these things

But my heart is riding on your wings

So if you see them anywhere

Won't you lead me there?

I Want a Little Girl (1930)

Moll/Mencher

There must be someone who is all alone

Just a little girl/boy to fall in love with me.

A classic blues (though originally a foxtrot), this song has been recorded by everyone from Louis Armstrong to Eric Clapton, though the version that plays in my head is by T-Bone Walker. It's such a good song, I think, why can't it be sung by a lady? Of course it can. Just do a online search and find the amazing "girl" version sung by Ernestine Anderson, who Time Magazine called "the best-kept jazz secret in the land" upon her first LP release in 1958.  Despite thirty albums and multiple Grammy nominations, Ernestine never became recognized in the larger world of jazz. Quincy Jones paid off her mortgage so she wouldn't lose her home. A friend of mine, Chris Flory, an amazing guitarist, plays his version here, with the great drummer, Chuck Riggs, in the background.

CHORUS - Male vocals

I want a little girl to love a lot,
I'd give her everything that I've got
For a little girl who'd fall in love with me

I want a little girl, she may not look
Like the kind in the picture book
But if she can cook, she'll suit me to a 'T'

She don't have to wave her hair
Or dress in fancy clothes
And I wouldn't even care
If she don't wear silken hose

I want a little girl to call my own
There must be someone that's all alone
Just a little girl who'd fall in love with me

CHORUS - Female vocals

I want a little boy to call my own to love a lot
Must be someone who is all alone

Just little boy who'd fall in love with me

I want a little boy may not look
Like the pictures in a story book
But if she can cook, he'll suit me to a 'T'

He don't have to wave her hair
Or get dressed up in fancy clothes
And I would not even care
If he didn't buy me nylon (silken) hose

I want a little boy to love a lot

I'm gonna give him everything I've got 

Just a little boy who'll fall in love with me

This Cold War With You (1949)

Tillman 

So let's do right

or let's just say we're through

I just can't stand another

cold, cold war with you

Country legend Floyd Tillman wrote and recorded this song first in 1949, pretty much in the middle of the Cold War between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. Because this stand-off between two power countries so resembles the power struggles that can be seen in a couple's personal relationship, many artists have performed it since then. I first heard John Prine's version in the early '80s. This song is just one of many songs related to the Atomic Age and the foreboding that started then about the fate of the world... it's a foreboding that has never really left us, frankly. And relationships continue to have their stand-offs as well. On that cheery note, don't forget to give a big hug to those you love.

The sun goes down and leaves me sad and blue

The iron curtain falls on this cold war with you

Though you won't speak and I won't speak that's true

Two stubborn people with a cold war to go through

Oh why oh why should love ever come to couples like you and me

Whose cold cold wars are never done

And whose hearts just can't be free

Oh let's do right or let's just say we're through

I just can't stand another cold cold war with you

Hawaiian Wedding Song (1961)

King/Hoffman/Manning


Now that we are one

Clouds won't hide the sun

Blue skies of Hawaii smile

On this our wedding day

The new Baz Luhrmann IMAX concert film Elvis Presley In Concert – EPIC – is out and hopefully is introducing the King to a new generation of fans. With Elvis gone since 1977, it's been more than a generation since he has been a key name in popular music. Much has been written about his circumscribed and sort of sad life, and then there are the many impersonators. Yet he remains one of the best singers of the 20th Century, at least in my opinion. All the films that his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, contracted him into are horrible, and Blue Hawaii is no exception. But his singing is at an apex. Only  Elvis can take a Hawaiian folk song, add a bunch of hokey background singers, and turn it into a love song that will stand through both volcanic and the sands of time. R.I.P. and ELVIS LIVES. 

This is the moment
I've waited for
I can hear my heart singing
Soon bells will be ringing

This is the moment
Of sweet aloha

I will love you longer than forever

Promise me that you will leave me never

Here and now, dear
All my love I vow, dear
Promise me that you will leave me never
I will love you longer than forever

Ua sila
Pa‘a ‘ia me ‘oe
Ko aloha makamae e ipo
Ka'u ia e lei a‘e nei la

Now that we are one
Clouds won't hide the sun
Blue skies of Hawaii smile
On this, our wedding day
I do love you with all my heart
I do love you with all my heart

Wild is the Wind (1956)

Tiomkin/Washington

For we're like creatures of the wind

And wild is the wind. . .
Wild is my heart for you

Dimitri Tiomkin, born in Russia, was well-known for composing the music for some of the biggest Western films in the 1940s and 1950s; he was nominated for Best Score over twenty times.  Classically trained in Moscow, his melodies are known for their emotional moodiness, alluding to both the vast emptiness of the West and the inner soul. Ned Washington, best known for composing the lyrics to When You Wish Upon a Star, was a frequent collaborator.  Three very different singers - Johnny Mathis, Nina Simone and David Bowie - all had a hit with this song; were they drawn to the words, the melody, or the idea? Johnny Mathis sang it first as the opening song for the movie of the same name. Of the three great singers who did this, I think Nina Simone owns it. What do you think?

Love me, love me, say you do

Let me fly away with you

For my love is like the wind

And wild is the wind

Wild is the wind

Give me more than one caress

Satisfy this hungriness

Let the wind blow through your heart

For wild is the wind 

Wild is the wind

You . . . touch me
I hear the sound of mandolins

You . . . kiss me    
With your kiss my life begins

You're spring to me    
All things to me

Don't you know - you're life itself!

Like the leaf clings to the tree,

Oh, my darling, cling to me

For we're like creatures of the wind

And wild is the wind    
Wild is the wind
Wild is my heart for you

My Funny Valentine (1937)

Rodgers/Hart

But don't change a hair for me

Not if you care for me

Stay, little Valentine stay

With Valentine's Day around the corner, and a new bio-pic of Lorenz Hart now out, let's remember Lorenz Hart, who never found love in his own life although he wrote about it so well. Together with his musical partner, Richard Rogers, they wrote over 500 songs together, until Hart's death at age 48. Hart was very self-conscious and insecure about his looks: he was under five feet tall with outsized, facial features and ears. He was also habitually late and alcoholic, which led Richard Rogers to select another lyricist (Oscar Hammerstein) to write the lyrics for Oklahoma!  The 2026 bio-pic Blue Moon, with Ethan Hawke as Hart, focuses on the later part of Hart's life, when he is unemployable and drowning in both drink and sorrow. Sad as his life was, his collaborations with Rogers produced some of the loveliest music of the era. Hart's lyrics, always clever and poetic, often contain a hint of sadness in them. 

VERSE

Behold the way our fine-feathered friend
His virtue doth parade.
Thou knowest not, my dim-witted friend
The picture thou hast made.

Thy vacant brow and thy tousled hair
Conceal thy good intent.
Thou noble, upright, truthful sincere,
And slightly dopey gent - your're --

CHORUS

My funny Valentine

Sweet comic Valentine

You make me smile with my heart

Your looks are laughable

Unphotographable

Yet you're my favourite work of art

Is your figure less than Greek

Is your mouth a little weak

When you open it to speak

Are you smart?

But don't change a hair for me

Not if you care for me

Stay little Valentine stay

Each day is Valentine's Day

Is your figure less than Greek

Is your mouth a little weak

When you open it to speak

Are you smart?

But don't change one hair for me

Not if you care for me

Stay little Valentine stay

Each day is Valentine's Day

I'll be home for Christmas (1943)

Ram/Gannon/Kent

"I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams."

This was written at the height of World War II, giving the song a built-in melancholy. After all, in the end, the singer will only be home "in my dreams." And for families whose loved ones were service members, there was a special poignancy, particularly if the loved one would not be returning home, not at Christmas and perhaps enver. Bing Crosby remains the definitive singer on this – as well as on some other classic holiday songs, and he manages to make this original version sound pretty cheerful, or at least pretty hopeful. Other worthy renditions are Elvis' version, and more recently, Kelly Clarkson, who does the song as a nice, slow waltz.

I'll be home for Christmas;
You can count on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree.
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love-light gleams.
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams.

Autumn in New York (1934)

Vernon Duke

"Glittering crowds

and shimmering clouds 

in canyons of steel
They're making me feel I'm home"

A love song to the City. This autumn has been especially spectacular in New York since the leaves have lingered on, in swirls of red, orange, purple, green, yellow, brown. Amazing. As a song, Autumn in New York is popular as a jazz instrumental, perhaps because Charlie Parker recorded it in 1949. However, a quick online search proves that all the great singers (Ella, Frank, Bing, etc. etc.) have a version as well. And the lyrics are so poetic; they deserve to be heard more frequently.

CHORUS

Autumn in New York
Why does it seem so inviting?
Autumn in New York
It spells the thrill of first-nighting

Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in canyons of steel
They're making me feel I'm home

It's autumn in New York
That brings the promise of new love
Autumn in New York
Is often mingled with pain

Dreamers with empty hands
They sigh for exotic lands

It's autumn in New York
It's good to live it again

Lovers that bless the dark
On benches in Central Park

It's autumn in New York
It's good to live it again

Frim Fram Sauce (1945)

Ricardel/Evans

"I want the frim fram sauce 

with the ause and fay 

and some shafafa on the side."

There was something about 1940s that made songwriters come out with a host of songs with nonsensical lyrics: Mairsie Doats and Dosey Doats (1943) is one of the most enduring - it took me decades to figure that one out, if in fact I ever did. Frim Fram Sauce was a big hit for the great Nat King Cole, and numerous artists, feeling light-hearted, have covered it over the years (so to speak.) Diana Krall, in her tribute album to Nat Cole, brought the sauce's existence to a new generation of listeners. Sung right, this is be a pretty suggestive song: I think Diana's version is sexier than Nat's; she switches "fella" to "lady," of course. A fun article about what all these foodstuffs are can be found here.

CHORUS

I don't want french fried potatoes,

Red ripe tomatoes, I'm never satisfied.

I want the frim fram sauce

With the ause and fay

And shafafa on the side.

I don't want pork chops and bacon.

That won't awaken
My appetite inside.

I want the frim fram sauce

With the ause and fay

And shafafa on the side.

Well you know a fella

Really got to eat.

And a fella should eat right.

Five will get you ten.

I'm gonna feed myself right tonight.

I don't want fishcakes and rye bread.

You heard what I said.

Waiter please make mine fried.

I want the frim fram sauce

With the ause and fay

With shafafa on the side.

Body and Soul (1930)

Green/Heyman/Sour/Eyton

My life's a hell you’re making

You know I'm yours for just the taking

I'd gladly surrender myself to you
Body and soul

Many songs are about the pain of love, sadness, and surrender - but Body and Soul has always seemed especially full of desperation, with some of the most urgent words to a beloved. I would have said that the version I knew for so long, Billie Holiday's version, was the most heartbreaking until Amy Winehouse recorded the song (with Tony Bennett) not long before her death.

VERSE 

You're making me blue

All that you do

Seems unfair

You try not to hear

Turn a deaf ear

To my prayer

It seems you don't want to see

What you are doing to me

My arms are waiting to caress you

And to my heart they long to press you, sweet heart

CHORUS

My heart is sad and lonely

For you I cry

For you, dear, only

I tell you I mean it

I'm all for you

Body and soul

I spend my days in longing

And wondering it's me you're wronging

Why haven't you seen it

I'm all for you

Body and soul

I can't believe it

It hard to conceive it

That you'd turn away romance

Are you pretending

Don't say it's the ending

I wish I could have one more chance to prove, dear

My life a hell you’re making

You know I'm yours for just the taking

I'd gladly surrender

Myself to you

Body and soul

VERSE 2

Life's dreary for me

Day's seem to be long as years

I've looked for the sun

But can see none

Through my tears

Your heart must be like a stone

To leave me like this alone

When you could make my life worth living

By taking what I'm set on giving, sweetheart

September Song (1938)

Kurt Weill



"Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September. . ."

An appropriate song to begin the month of September and also to resstart this blog from some years ago. I first heard Walter Huston (John's father) singing this wistful song in a wavering, almost desperate voice: it's the end of summer, the end of vacation, the end of youth. He is better known for his character acting, particularly as the hard-bitten gold miner in his son's Treasure of the Sierra Madre. For a more modern version, check out Lou Reed's version on the great compilation album Lost In the Stars: a Tribute to Kurt Weill. 

VERSE
When I was a young man courting the girls
I played me a waiting game.
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old earth take a couple of twirls
And I'd ply her with tears instead of pearls
And as time came around, she came my way
As time came around, she came.

CHORUS
Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game

Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you

Yellow Bird (Choucounne) 1883

Monton/Durand

The melody and lyrics to this catchy yet poignant tune originated in Haiti in the late 19th century and the name of the poem was Choucounne. A long but interesting discussion of the song's Creole origins is here, including the Creole lyrics. When the record companies were casting around for yet another "island melody" for the impossibly handsome Harry Belafonte aka "King of Calypso" to do, they came up with this one and, at the same time, conveniently made Norman Ludoff the composer, with English words by Marilyn and Alan Bergman. The song remains lilting and lovely, but less so for me once I found it was appropriated. Who was Choucounne? The answer is, a woman, of course. Always a woman.

"You can fly away, in the sky away.

You more lucky than me!"

CHORUS
Yellow bird, up high in banana tree.
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.
Did your lady friend leave the nest again?
That is very sad, make me feel so bad.
You can fly away, in the sky away.
You more lucky than me!

VERSE
I also have a pretty gal, She not with me today.
They all the same, the pretty gal, Make them the nest, then they fly away.

CHORUS

SECOND VERSE
Wish that I was a yellow bird, I fly away with you.
But I am not a yellow bird, So here I sit, nothing else to do.
Yellow bird, yellow bird, yellow bird.

Cold, Cold Heart (1951)

H. Williams


"Why can't I free your doubtful mind
and melt your cold, cold heart?"

Read the genius of the simple lyrics that are so well put together in meter and rhyme. It's almost like a real conversation, right? Like a country Shakespeare. And he died at age thirty, under mysterious circumstances (well, too many drugs and alcohol) in the back of his chauffeured limousine on the way to a gig. Hank wrote over 150 songs during his brief career, with many becoming classics: Hey, Good Looking; Your Cheatin' Heart; Jambalaya; Move It On Over, and a "song that broke the internet" in 2024, "Lovesick Blues."

LYRICS

I tried so hard my dear to show that you're my every dream
Yet you're afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme
A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue
And so my heart is paying now for things I didn't do
In anger unkind words are spoke that make the teardrops start
Why can't I free your doubtful mind,and melt your cold cold heart

You'll never know how much it hurts to see you sit and cry
You know you need and want my love yet you're afraid to try
Why do you run and hide from life,to try it just ain't smart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

There was a time when I believed that you belonged to me
But now I know your heart is shackled to a memory
The more I learn to care for you, the more we drift apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

Rum and Coca Cola (1943)

L. Invader

"Young girls say they treat 'em nice, 

make Trinidad like Paradise
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomana"

Is it something about upcoming cold weather that makes me think of tropical drinks? The Andrews Sisters did this pre-post-colonial song a big hit, and who can blame the US for loving it back then, though it has not aged well. Here are three ultra-American gals, the Andrews sisters, singing with fake Caribbean accents, telling the folks to go down to Trinidad, where they all "be working for the Yankee dollah." Yes, you are guaranteed a great time with the young girls and the booze. Even a few years ago this song might have been played in some throwback radio show. Today it just sounds all wrong. Except for the harmonious singing. And yes, they were actually sisters.

LYRICS

If you ever go down Trinidad, they make you feel so very glad
Calypso sing and make up rhyme, guarantee you one real good fine time
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomana
Both mother and daughter workin' for the Yankee dollar.

Since the Yankee come to Trinidad, they got the young girls all goin' mad
Young girls say they treat 'em nice, make Trinidad like Paradise
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter workin' for the Yankee dollar.

Oh, you vex me, you vex me

From Chicachicaree to Mona's Isle, native girls all dance and smile
Help soldier celebrate his leave, make every day like New Year's Eve
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomahna
Both mother and daughter workin' for the Yankee dollar.

It's a fact, man, it's a fact

In old Trinidad, I also fear, the situation is mighty queer
Like the Yankee girl, the native swoon when she hear der Bingo croon
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter workin' for the Yankee dollar

Out on Manzanella Beach, G.I. romance with native peach
All night long, make tropic love, next day, sit in hot sun and cool off

It's a fact, man, it's a fact

Rum and Coca-Cola. Rum and Coca-Cola. 

Workin' for the Yankee dollar

FDR Jones (1938)

H. Rome

When he grows up he never will stray  

With a name like the one that he's got today...

Mister Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones

This song reflects the old trend for folks to name their babies after the President of the United States. This was back before things were so polarized. But the song is born during the tenure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in one of his later terms in office. First time it appears is with Ella Fitzgerald singing it in Chick Webb's orchestra - she was often given an novelty song back then... only to own it forever. In the 1941 MGM musical, "Babes on Broadway", starring the hyper-energetic duo of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, Judy performs this number in blackface as part of a minstrel show... not a high point in her career.

What's great about the song: The optimism. Everyone has a chance. Anyone can make it. Being named after the kick-ass president of the Depression could even help. Boy, times have changed. 

VERSE

I hear tell there's a stranger in the Jones' household,

(Yes siree, yes siree) That's what I am told

I hear tell there's a new arrival six days old

(Yes siree, yes siree) Worth his weight in gold

Come right in and meet the son

Christening's done, time to have some fun

(Yes Siree, yes siree) yes siree-e-e-e

(Yes siree, yes siree-e)

CHORUS

It's a big holiday everywhere  

For the Jones family has a brand new heir  

He's the joy heaven sent  

And they proudly present  

Mister Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones  

  

When he grows up he never will stray  

With a name like the one that he's got today  

As he walks down the street folks will say 

"Pleased to meet,  

Mister Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones"  

  

What a smile and how he shows it  

He'll keep happy all day long  

What a name, I bet he knows it  

With that handle how can he go wrong?  

  

And the folks in the town all agree  

He'll be famous, as famous as he can be  

How can he be a dud or a stick in the mud  

When he's Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones?  

(yes siree, yes siree, yes siree)  

Cause he's Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones.

Black Coffee (1948)

Webster/Burke

"A woman's born to weep and fret, to stay at home and tend her lovin'

And drown her past regrets, in coffee and cigarettes."

What is it about old coffee cans that makes artists want keep them around for stuff?  They can hold paintbrushes, paint... visit the Pollock-Krasner House and you will see the ones he used. Lee Krasner, no slouch of a painter herself and wife to Pollock certainly must have done a fair amount of "staying home and tendin' her lovin," trying to dry Jackson out and quit the booze. (Sadly, she lost the battle.) Peggy Lee does a knock-out version of this song, a bluesy, caffeine-y, swinging ballad. Her voice is modern, cool and edgy similar to a Pollock painting... or a Krasner, for that matter.

CHORUS

I'm feelin' mightly lonesome, Haven't slept a wink,
I walk the floor and watch the door
and in between I drink.....Black coffee,
Love's a hand me down brew
I'll never know a Sunday
in this weekday room.

I'm talking to the shadows
1 o'clock to four,
and lord how slow the moments go
when all I do is pour Black coffee
Since the blues caught my eye.
I'm hanging out on Monday,
My Sunday dreams to dry.

Now a man is born to go a lovin'
A woman's born to weep and fret
To stay at home and tend her lovin'
And drown her past regrets in coffee and cigarettes.

I'm moonin' all the mornin', mournin' all the night
and in between it's nicotine and not much heart to fight
Black coffee
Feelin' low as the ground,
it's drivin' me crazy, this waitin' for my baby
To maybe come around.

My nerves have gone to pieces
My hair is turnin' grey
All I do is drink black coffee,
Since my man's gone away.

Love is like a cigarette

Jerome/Kent

Then just like a cigarette 

Love seem to fade away
and leave behind ashes of regret...

Ivie Anderson deserves to be better known. One of Duke Ellington's earliest vocalists - and his first full time "girl" singer - her delivery is straightforward and swinging, not a scat to be heard. Love is like a cigarette conjures up a smoky time in the past when cigarettes evoked romance, moodiness, excitement. (Actually, they still have a tinge of glamour about them.) Think of Paul Henreid and Bette Davis in Now, Voyager - where would they have been without cigarettes? Sadly, Ivie suffered from severe asthma her entire life, and both her career and her life were cut short by this breathing disease. Here is she is singing with Ellington in a rare film clip singing I've Got it Bad and That Ain't Good.

VERSE

What is love? You called it heaven above 

Star that shine in the night 

A bird that sings in its flight 

A flower that blooms in the spring 

There's no such thing 

CHORUS

Love is like a cigarette 

You know you had my heart aglow 

Between your fingertips 

And just like a cigarette 

I never knew the thrill of life 

Until you touched my lips 

Then just like a cigarette 

Love seem to fade away and leave behind ashes of regret 

And with a flick of your fingertips 

It was easy for you to forget 

Cause love is like a cigarette 

Then just like a cigarette 

Love seem to fade away and leave behind ashes of regret 

And with a flick of your fingertips 

It was easy for you to forget 

Cause love is like a cigarette

Lush Life (1938)

Strayhorn

"So I'll live a lush life in some small dive

And there I'll be, while I rot with the rest

Of those whose lives are lonely too"

Billy Strayhorn. His name can't be brought up without mentioning that of Duke Ellington: the two were bound together in work and life. Ellington "kept" Billy, in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, blocks from his own. Billy was gay, shy and desperately unhappy; Ellington was his opposite. This is a one of the saddest and most difficult songs to sing or play. Strayhorn wrote the song while still a teenager and it remains elusive to the most seasoned interpreters. Frank Sinatra tried and never came up with something he liked.  Ella Fitzgerald (accompanied by Duke Ellington),  Johnny Hartman, and John Coltrane (without the lyrics) all have versions. Yet the lyrics are especially important in this song: they stand on their own as poetry.  And here is Billy, doing it himself (as well as accompanying himself on piano.) I hope he found peace away from the "wheel of life."

I used to visit all the very gay places

Those come-what-may places

Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life

To get the feel of life

From jazz and cocktails

The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces

With distingue traces

That used to be there

You could see where they'd been washed away

By too many through the day

Twelve-o'clock tails

Then you came along with your siren song

To tempt me to madness

I thought for awhile that your poignant smile

Was tinged with the sadness

Of a great love for me

Ah yes, I was wrong

Again, I was wrong

Life is lonely again

And only last year

Everything seemed so sure

Now life is awful again

A trough full of hearts could only be a bore

A week in Paris could ease the bite of it

All I care is to smile in spite of it

I'll forget you, I will
While yet you are still

Burning inside my brain

Romance is mush

Stifling those who strive

So I'll live a lush life in some small dive

And there I'll be, while I rot with the rest

Of those whose lives are lonely too

Smile (1936)

Turner/Parsons/Chaplin

Smile, you must keep on trying,

Smile, what's the use of crying,

You'll find that life is still worthwhile,

If you just smile.

This post is dedicated to my mom, who left this world in August, one year ago today. It was her favorite song. Wallowing in tearful and brave emotion, Smile, is one of most played songs at funerals. Is there irony in the fact that Charlie Chaplin, the funny little man of silent screen was the tunesmith? (written for the movie Modern Times); the lyrics were added later. It is perhaps the song which is most associated with Nat King Cole. Recently it became popular to a new generation of fans when it was revealed that Smile was Michael Jackson's favorite song. My mother was a "tough old bird," in the words of one friend. But she was also a sentimentalist and loved beautiful, sad music. 

CHORUS

Smile, though your heart is aching,

Smile, even though it's breaking,

When there are clouds in the sky

You'll get by

If you smile

through your fear and sorrow,

Smile, and maybe tomorrow,

You'll see the sun come shining through for you

Light up your face with gladness,

Hide every trace of sadness,

Although a tear may be ever so near,

That's the time

You must keep on trying,

Smile, what's the use of crying,

You'll find that life is still worthwhile,

If you just smile.