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?

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

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.