It's Jerome David Kern's birthday. Jerry would have been 123 years old today. Jonathan Schwartz is devoting his Sunday show on WNYC-FM to Kern's songs as interpreted by Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Margaret Whiting, et al. Terrific, and interspersed are songs composed by Jimmy Van Heusen, born yesterday (and here's Stacey Kent with "The Tender Trap"). Van Heusen, real name Chester Edward Babcock, named himself after a shirt.
Here's my own playlist for today, twenty canonical Kern numbers (one of them played twice]:
A Fine Romance (lyrics Dorothy Fields) [as sung by Billie Holiday c. 1934]
All the Things You Are (Oscar Hammerstein) [Ambrosian Chorus/ London Sinfoniette/ John McGlinn]
Bill (P. G. Wodehouse) [Helen Morgan]
Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man (Hammerstein) [Teresa Stratas with Frederica Von Stade, Karla Burns, Bruce Hubbard, and chorus]
I'm old Fashioned (Johnny Mercer) [Eileen Farrell]
I Won't Dance (Fields) [Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald]
Long Ago and Far Away (Ira Gershwin) [instrumental Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt]
Look for the Silver Lining (Buddy DeSylva) [Judy Garland]
Lovely to Look At (Fields) [Fred Astaire]
Make Believe (Hammerstein) [Ambrosian Chorus / London Sinfoniette / John McGlinn]
Ol' Man River (Hammerstein) [Sinatra 1945]
Pick Yourself Up (Fields) [Mel Torme]
Pick Yourself Up (Fields) [Nat King Cole]
She Didn't Say Yes (Otto Harbach) [Ella Fitzgerald]
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Harbach) [Sarah Vaughan]
The Song is You (Hammerstein) [Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Sinatra vocal]
The Way You Look Tonight (Fields) [Astaire in Swing Time]
They Didn't Believe Me (Harold Reynolds) [Sinatra radio c. 1950]
Why Do I Love You? (Hammerstein) [Ambrosian Chorus / London Sinfoniette / John McGlinn]
You Couldn't Be Cuter (Fields) [Ella Fitzgerald]
-- DL
"I'm Old Fashioned" (Ella Fitzgerald) would top my list.
Posted by: Minor Morgan | January 27, 2008 at 07:07 PM