Dark Monday • Lost in the Stars

While I normally use my Dark Monday posts to pay tribute to the wonderful artists who have worked in musical theater to leave such an amazing bounty of material. From performers to writers to composers to dancers to designers, the rich history is truly something. After all, the term 'dark Monday' was a reference to the fact that musicals were dark on Mondays, not open for business, and the marquee lights were not shining. But today, I thought I would combine great music from the musical theater with the loss of a favorite of mine, Lou Reed. He passed away over the weekend at 71 years of age. In 1985, the album 'Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill' was released that included a wonderful version of "September Song", from the musical 'Knickerbocker Holiday'. The music was composed by Weill, with lyrics by Maxwell Anderson. This is Lou Reed singing "September Song".

The second track on the album is "The Ballad of Mac The Knife", from 'The Threepenny Opera', and performed by Sting and Dominic Muldowney. The song with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, and was their most famous song. It was recorded by many, in so many styles. There was the original German music hall style, true to the original, as well as Pop and Jazz interpretations by artists as varied as Bobby Darin, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Westlife. The song is a classic, and I bet most could sing along with it. This is Sting singing "The Ballad of Mack the Knife".

"Ballad of the Nazi Soldier's Wife" by Marianne Faithfull was written by Weill in 1942 with Bertolt Brecht. It was intended to be performed on German radio, chronicling the the gifts the German wife received from her soldier husband from the Russian front, until the last 'gift' arrived, the notification of his death on the battleground. Faithfull is such an exceptional interpreter, this is an amazing track. I hope you enjoy Marianne Faithfull singing "Ballad of the Nazi Soldier's Wife".

Ladies Take On The Beatles

Clockwise: Karen Carpenter; Marianne Faithfull; Emmylou Harris; and Judy Collins.

After listening once again to the first entry of this post, I was inspired to seek out other covers of Beatles songs, and found some incredible performances by many gorgeous voices. There are way more than the four that I post here, but picked these because of the purity of the voice, and the honesty they brought to the table that made them stand out. So I will start with Karen Carpenter's haunting version of Ticket To Ride. The song, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, was a hit for the Beatles in 1965. In 1969, it became the first song Richard and Karen Carpenter had on the Billboard charts.



You can find Ticket To Ride, both the single and the album, on iTunes and Amazon.

A stalwart on the folk scene for the last 50 years, playing in coffee houses since the early 1960s. In 1967, she released her first album, In My Life. It had songs from some of the top writers of the 20th century, from Bob Dylan, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, Leonard Cohen, Jacques Brel, Randy Newman, Donovan, and, of course, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. In fact, the stunning singer used the Beatles tune as the title track. Here is Judy Collins singing the great ballad, In My Life.



You can find In My Life, both the single and the album, on iTunes and Amazon.

The stunning Marianne Faithful sang a beautiful version of the Lennon-McCartney song Yesterday in 1965. This was before she was having affairs with The Rolling Stones, before she discovered the joys and pitfalls of the 60s drug culture. It was when she was a beautiful girl, with a lovely voice, singing an early cover of a song that is perhaps the most covered song in the history of recorded music.



You can find Yesterday, part of her Greatest Hits collection, on iTunes and Amazon.

At times, there is just a very fine line between Country and Folk, a line that has often been blurred. You could easily say that an artist like Emmylou Harris has not only crossed that line, but made it useless. The brilliance of her tone, the amazing phrasing she has, all makes her an amazing artist. And in 1975, she released an album that included Here, There and Everywhere, a song written by Paul McCartney, but credited to the Lennon-McCartney catalog. Elite Hotel was an amazing album, and the cover was just beautiful.



You can find Elite Hotel or the single Here, There & Everywhere, on iTunes and Amazon.

Ladies Sing the Lennon/McCartney Songbook in 1965

Clockwise: Lulu; Esther Phillips; Marianne Faithfull; and Cilla Black.

I was struggling a bit 1965, and then it hit me. Well, once I found a video from a show I didn't even know existed. The Music of Lennon & McCartney was broadcast in 1965, and featured several performers who recorded songs written by the legendary Beatles. The premiss of the show intrigued me, as I was thinking it was 1965, and some of their greatest work has yet to be written. However, they certainly had a strong enough collection to make it work, and in fact, had many songs left for a follow up at a later date.




I will begin with a performance by Cilla Black singing It's For You. It is the only song in this post that was not previously recorded by the Beatles. It was given to Cilla, who I hate to admit I had no clue of whom she was. She had a couple of hits in the UK, and eventually went from singer to performer to a top presented on the BBC. But in 1965, she appeared on The Music of Lennon & McCartney.



Like so many other people in this world, I adore Marianne Faithfull. She had quite the career in the 60s, as well as the most glamorous lifestyles, being Mick Jagger's girlfriend. She also sang a remarkable version of Yesterday, and did it on the show.



Esther Phillips was a remarkably talented singer I discovered with this post. It seems like so many people, Esther fought a particularly hard war with her demons, although it was the demons who eventually won. Here she offered up a gorgeous and poignant version of And I Love Him.



Lulu was a little girl with a big, big voice. Lulu had already had a few hits under her belt, and was still a few years from her biggest hit of all. In 1967 she released To Sir With Love, as well as have a featured toll in that movie. It topped the charts all over the world. Here is her version of the Beatles classic, I Saw Him Standing There.



Hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane!