Standard: a musical composition (as a song) that has become a part of the standard repertoire. Ever since the late 1950s, Johnny Mathis has been singing songs about loves won and lost (“The Twelfth of Never,” “Misty,” and “Chances Are”) with lush instrumental accompaniment and that recognizable and much parodied voice. Like the late Nat ...
Picking my Top Ten Songs from Ella Fitzgerald is the kind of task that could keep one up all night. But what a wonderful way to spend an evening. The rich, provocative, lively and touching melodies that Ella shared during her long and productive professional life are part of America’s treasure of great music. Even ...
Whenever I heard the phrase “the birds and the bees,” I know it means sex education. This is because my parents always had books available for our age level around the house at our eye level. They did not hide the facts from us. She definitely always had the book, “How Babies Are Made” by ...
Of all the great composers who flourished during Broadway’s first “Golden Age,” I think the most gifted and creative of them was Cole Porter. Mind you, when I say that, I am slighting some very famous names, such as Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Rogers and Hart, Rogers and Hammerstein, Rogers and Evans, (No, ...
