Songs Week of 20 September 2007

20 September 2007
In observance of Moon Day next Tuesday we'll listen to two moon songs of entirely different genres (a genre is a kind of music, film, etc.). The first is a great jazz vocal by Billie Holiday.

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WHAT A LITTLE MmmNLIGHT CAN DO

This is an example of the trifles that jazz great, Billie Holiday recorded and turned into gold, with help from some fine jazz musicians. Teddy Wilson on piano starts things rolling, Benny Goodman follows with a great solo on clarinet, starting in the low register, then swinging in the high part of the instrument, before Cozy Cole leads into Holiday's vocal with a brief drum tattoo. After her vocal Cozy Cole bangs out another rhythmic pattern that leads to Ben Webster's solo on tenor sax. Teddy Wilson on piano has a solo, ending with a trumpet fanfare based on the main tune by Roy Eldridge, as Cole keeps the rhythm moving. The lyrics are nonsense, but the record is timeless:

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Ooh, ooh, ooh, what a little moonlight can do. Ooh, ooh, ooh, what a little moonlight can do to you. You're in love, your heart's a-flutter, all day long you only stutter cause your poor tongue just cannot utter the words, "I love you." Ooh, ooh, ooh, what a little moonlight can do, wait a while till a little moonbeam comes peeping through. He'll get bold, you can't resist him and all you'll say when you have kissed him is ooh, ooh, ooh what a little moonlight can do.

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BLUE MOON

The song "Blue Moon" had a strange history. It began as a movie song from the 1930s, written by the composing team of Rodgers & Hart, one of the most famous in Broadway history. Elvis Presley later recorded the song for his first RCA Victor release in 1956, with a strange echo effect, a slowed-down clopping drumbeat, and without the bridge (middle part of a song) with the happy ending; so he turned into a sad blues. Later the doo-wop group, The Marcels, hopped up the rhythm and made the song almost unrecognizable—but still a lot of fun:
Blue moon. Blue moon you saw me standing alone without a dream in my heart without a love of my own. Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for, you heard me saying a prayer for someone I really could care for. And then you suddenly appeared before me: The only one my arms would ever hold. I heard somebody whisper "Please adore me" and when I looked the moon had turned to gold. Blue moon, now I'm no longer alone without a dream of my own. Oh, oh. . . .

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