1951 Shades of Love

Clockwise: Mario Lanza, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Les Paul & Mary Ford, and Tony Bennett.

While thinking of what to post about this evening, I am not sure what moved me, but I did a search on songs by Nat King Cole, and came up with his #1 hit of 1951, and decided to go with that year in music. Once I looked it up, I saw the Top five songs all had a different sound, they all focused on love, and had amazing singers. The #5 song of the year was from an American-born son of Italian immigrants, Alfred Arnold Cocozza. Well, that was his birth name, but you might know him better as movie and recording star Mario Lanza. In 1950, he starred in the film 'The Toast of New Orleans' with Kathryn Grayson, David Niven, J. Carrol Naish, James Mitchell and a young Rita Moreno. The film featured the song "Be My Love", which went on to be released as a single and become Lanza's first million-selling song. It spent 1 week at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and ended up the fifth best-selling song of 1951. This is Mario Lanza singing "Be My Love".

Rosemary Clooney grew up in a family of entertainers. In fact, Rosemary and her sister Betty sang together, starting their careers together. Brother Nick Clooney was an army DJ, and later settled back home in Ohio as a television journalist. Nick started his own family, which included his son, George Clooney. In 1946, Rosemary went out on her own, and was the singer with Tony Pastor's band. At the beginning of 1951, she recorded her first of many hit songs, when she recorded a song written by Ross Bagdasarian and writer William Saroyan, "Come On-a My House". Despite the song spending 6 weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, Rosie later admitted she never liked the song, but would be singing it for the rest of her career. I have to admit, I love the song! This is Rosemary Clooney singing "Come On-a My House".

Our next song comes from a husband and wife team who not only saw great success in the 1950s, their names became synonymous with great music. Mary Ford was introduced to Les Paul by 'cowboy' Gene Autry, and the two married in 1949. They began making music together, and from 1950 to 1954, the couple had 16 songs in the Top 10 of the Billboard charts. That list would included "How High The Moon", a song with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. The song, from the 1940 Broadway musical 'Two For The Show', spent 9 weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The couple had great success through the 1950s, but it took a toll on the marriage, and they divorced in 1963, ending the partnership. Paul was not only a great musician, but also an outstanding luthier, making some of the great guitars out there. He also developed the prototype for the electric guitar still used today. But in 1950s, he was better known as part of a great duo. This is Les Paul and Mary Ford performing "How High The Moon".

The sun must have been shining just right on the new entertainers, for in the #2 spot for the year, we have another singer with their first solo hit with Anthony Dominick Benedetto. As a young 13-year-old, Benedetto worked as a singing waiter in Queens, his first step on the way to a professional career in music. After a stint in the army, Benedetto tried to make music his profession, but met little success, until singer Pearl Bailey invited him to open for her in New York. There he was seen by Bob Hope, who asked him to join him on tour, and soon the singer became a household name. But not as Anthony Benedetto. Who is that, you might ask? Anthony is better known as Tony Bennett, one of the greatest male singers of Jazz for the last century. In 1952, Bennett had his first big hit, when "Because of You" spent 8 weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song, written by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson in 1940, became a Jazz standard, as well as launched a career that is still going strong. This is Tony Bennett singing "Because of You".

Nathaniel Adams Coles was born the son of a Baptist minister. He learned to play organ from his mother, before starting real lessons at the age of 12. After moving to Los Angeles in 1930s, he formed a group with a slight variation on his name. Soon, the Nat King Cole Trio was playing all over LA, and the man was making a name for himself. In 1943, the group was signed to Capitol Records. He was the first to top a guitarist and bassist with his piano to form a trio, and soon that would be considered the norm for Jazz trios. While this song was not his first hit, "Too Young" was certainly one fo the biggest for him, spending five weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song, written by Sidney Lippman, the lyrics by Sylvia Dee, was recorded by many, including Donny Osmond in 1972. But no one could match the success with the song that Nat King Cole did in 1951. With the top-selling song of the year, here is Nat King Cole singing "Too Young".

Have a great weekend!

Dark Monday • Kismet

In 1953, a charming musical opened on Broadway starring Alfred Drake, Doretta Morrow, and Richard Kiley. The show is the retelling of the 1911 play of the same name written by Edward Knoblock. The story concerns a wily poet who has a way to talk his way out of trouble, and do it many times. However, while he is busy weaving his tales, his beautiful daughter meets and falls in love with a young man. Aside from the stellar cast, the show is also remembered as one of the first Broadway shows to utilize television for promotion. The show opened amidst a newspaper strike, so the promoters needed to figure out a way to get the word out. It was successful, and the show ran for almost 600 performances, and was awarded the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1954. That was not the only win, including wins in Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Alfred Drake, and Best Conductor and Musical Director for Louis Adrian. One of the songs Adrian conducted each night was the delightful "Baubles, Bangles and Beads", written by Robert Wright and George Forrest, based on the melody by Russian composer Alexander Borodin, whose music inspired most of the music for the show. Here is the beautiful Miss Peggy Lee singing "Baubles, Bangles and Beads".

There was another song that made it into the general consciousness of the public, as it was covered by so many great singers. "Stranger In Paradise" was also written by Wright and Forrest, as inspired by Borodin's "Gliding Dance of the Maidens," from the Polovtsian Dances. While Kiley and Morrow handled the duties of singing the song on Broadway, and Vic Damone and Ann Blyth took it on the the 1955 movie version, it was recorded by the great Tony Bennett in 1953 to become a hit. In 1954, Tony Martin and The Four Aces both had versions of the song that hit the charts. But I opted to share the version by Bennett, so here he is, singing "Stranger In Paradise".

You can purchase the Original Broadway Cast Album on iTunes or you can order the CD on Amazon.

Tony Bennett & Barbra Streisand • Smile

Singers Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand.

Sometimes, there is a magnificence that seems ridiculous to even discuss. Such is the case with this video, which has Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand performing the classic song "Smile", written by Charlie Chaplin. Well, Chaplin wrote the music for the soundtrack of his 1936 classic Modern Times. Eighteen years later, John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons wrote lyrics for the tune, first sung by the great Nat King Cole. It was also recorded by Bennett, released in 1959. And when Tony decided to add it to the Duets: An American Classic album, he chose another musical icon to sharer the song with. Here is Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand singing "Smile".



"Smile" can be found on Duets: An American Classic on iTunes and Amazon.

Duets with Tony Bennett

Top: Tony Bennett. Bottom: Lady Gaga; Amy Winehouse; Norah Jones; Aretha Franklin; and Kd lang.

The great Tony Bennett has done countless duets over the years, but more recently, he completed two albums of duets, featuring some of the top singers of today, singing the songs of yesterday. It is an intriguing idea, and Bennett and company pulled it off with style and flair. And speaking of style, we all know Lady Gaga has it coming out her pores. She teamed up with Bennett to sing "The Lady Is A Tramp". The song is from the 1937 show Babes In Arms, and was written by the great team of Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers. Gaga and Bennett have so much fun together, there is no way not to love this duet.



In one of the last video performances before she passed, Amy Winehouse teamed up with one of her own personal idols when she sang "Body And Soul" with the master himself. The performance is amazing, and everything you could want from the pair. The song was written in 1930 by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton and Johnny Green for actress Gertrude Lawrence. It was also featured in the Broadway review Three's A Crowd. After an amazing recording by Louis Armstrong, the song quickly became a jazz standard. Here is it performed by Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse.



Our next song was written by the great Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash for the Broadway show One Touch of Venus that opened in 1943. The song quickly grabbed the attention of many, from Billie Holiday to Barbra Streisand. So it is very special that Bennett decided to team up with Norah Jones for the gorgeous and romantic "Speak Low".



It is interesting that when Bennett was figuring out the line up of singers and songs for the second album, he asked legendary singer Aretha Franklin to sing "How Do You Keep The Music Playing?". The song, written by Michel Legrand, and Alan and Marilyn Bergman for the 1982 film Best Friends, a song he had sung with George Michael on the first. Between Franklin and Bennett, there was over 150 years of life in the song, and it works beautifully.



"Because of You" was written by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson in 1940, and the 1951 recording by Tony Bennett was his first ever hit. So when it came to do a duet with it, Bennett chose the singer is has called "the best singer of her generation", the brilliant Kd lang.



You can purchase Duets: An American Classic on iTunes and Amazon. You can also purchase Duets II on iTunes and Amazon.

60 Years Ago • Tony Bennett's Because Of You

Sixty years ago, Tony Bennett was in the middle of quite a role. This week in 1951, Bennett was on the third of eight consecutive #1 weeks atop the Billboard Sales chart with the beautiful song, Because Of You. The song was written by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson, and first appeared in the movie I Was An American Spy. It was Bennett's first #1 song, the start of a long and storied career as a singer. The following clip shows you Tony Bennett singing Because of You on a television special in 1966, and he follows it up with Taking A Chance On Love, written by John Latouche and Ted Fetter for the 1940 Broadway musical, Cabin In The Sky. That production was noteworthy for it was the first time a production was mounted on Broadway with an all-minority cast. A few years later, it was recorded and released by Benny Goodman.

Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse

It takes something truly special to be able to steal the spotlight from a star like Tony Bennett, but Amy Winehouse was able to do it, with an ease and vulnerability that was completely charming. The singer, who passed away two months ago, not only recorded a duet with Bennett, but also taped a video before she died. In it, she looked beautiful and healthy, a far cry from some of the videos of her final tour performances. The song is Body And Soul written in 1930, with lyrics by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour and Frank Eyton; and music by Johnny Green. It has been sung y countless truly legendary talents. Amy's vocals seem to be channeling the great Billie Holiday, yet remain completely and utterly Amy. Enjoy.



You can pre-order your copy of Tony's album, Duets II, on iTunes here. The list of artists with which he duets is simply stellar.

Billboard Top 5 • Margie's Birthday!

Clockwise:Nat King Cole; Tony Bennett; Rosemary Clooney; Mario Lanza; and Les Paul & Mary Ford.

Well, yesterday was my cousin Margie's birthday, so I asked her to name the year, and I would do a post for her. She picked 1951, which is kinda exciting, as I hadn't covered it before! So, before I go any further, I thought I would give everyone a chance to meet my cousin, pictured below to the left of Eric Himan (and her sister Eileen on the right) from a show she went with me in January at the World Cafe Live! in Philadelphia, also featuring Levi Kreis and Jason Antone.



The first clip of the post will be the #5 song from 1951 according to the Billboard chart. The song is Be My Love, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn and music by Nicholas Brodzsky. The song first appeared in the 1950 movie The Toast of New Orleans, where it was sung by Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza. It was recorded by Lanza, and the following year made it to #1 on the chart. Like my beautiful cousin, Lanza was a Philadelphia native. Here is the version of the classically-trained tenor.



It is nigh-on impossible to resist Rosemary Clooney's cute and flirty recording of Come On-A My House. The song, written by Ross Bagdasarian and writer William Saroyan, was written in 1939, but was largely ignored until recorded by Clooney. There are reports that Rosemary did not like the song, which became a trademark of the singer.



The #3 song on the year-end chart belonged to the husband/wife team of Les Paul & Mary Ford, introduced by legendary Hollywood 'cowboy' Gene Autry. 1951 was a huge year for the pair, who sold over 5 million records, and had How High The Moon on top of the Pop chart for 9 weeks. The jazz standard was written in for the 1940 Broadway show, Two For The Show, with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. The duo combined the Jazz and Rock sound to give their own unique sound to the music they performed. Les Paul was a real innovator, manufacturing guitars that carried his name, as well as maintaining a strong career as a performer. Here is their song, How High The Moon.



The #2 song for the year was sung by the great American crooner, Tony Bennett. Because of You was written by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson in 1940. It was Bennett's first #1 song, and it stayed atop the chart for 10 weeks, and sold over a million copies. Later, Bennett rerecorded the song for the 2006 album Duets: An American Classic. He sang it with the glorious voice of kd lang. The song also featured a beautiful trumpet solo by Chris Botti.



And finally, the #1 song for the year 1951 was recorded by the astounding Nat King Cole. Written by Sidney Lippman with lyrics by Sylvia Dee, Too Young went to #1 on the Billboard chart, and stayed there for five consecutive weeks. There were plenty of other versions of the song, including one by the King of Pop while still a member of the Jackson 5, and by Donny Osmond in 1972 on the Here's Lucy show.



So, it only seems appropriate that I end this tribute to my cousin Margie with the song Too Young, for it age is just a number, and the real age a matter for the mind, then Margie is indeed still far too young to remember any of these songs. So I will continue to celebrate Margie, including this photograph I took in her South Philly kitchen, with my sister Kathy and my niece, Mandy.