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?

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.

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

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

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