Apologies Jeff for changing your name! I don’t know how it happened.
I meant to compare the verses of “White Christmas” and “Embraceable You” in one respect only: both seem to me “lighter” than do their respective choruses. I wasn’t implying that they are as good as each other.
By the way, Berlin seems to have been not too bothered by singers leaving out the verses of his songs. He very much liked Pat Boone’s LP of his songs - and Boone leaves out all the verses of the Berlin songs he recorded.
I'm afraid that I can't agree with Alex (by the way, I'm a Jeff, not a Steve !) in placing the verses of Embraceable You and White Christmas in the same category. With due deference to the great Irving Berlin I have to say that , having looked online at a score of the verse to White Christmas , I think I might have been able to have knocked off something of similar quality (music and lyrics) while recovering from the after-effects of an excess of too many gin and tonics. The verse of Embraceable You , with its Richard Straussian swoops in the melody and unexpected modulations is, on the other hand, a work of great craftsmanship, equal in inspiration to the lovely song that it introduces and quite beyond the efforts of a mediocrity like myself to try to write anything like it.
It's obvious that there are many verses to some fine and memorable songs that were added as a matter of convention and it's no loss to omit them but , equally so, (and it's frequently the case with songs from the Gershwin brothers) the lyrics and music of others are works of art in themselves and it's regrettable that we hear them so frequently in truncated versions.
I agree with Stephen that the verse of “The Man I Love” suggests a brighter interpretation of the chorus than that provided by many singers who sing only the chorus. But much as I like the “bright” interpretations offered by singers who do include the verse (Te Kanawa, Ameling), I like the torch song feel of the recordings of Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday even more.
It is possible that the attraction the torch song approach has for singers has led to the verse being so commonly omitted. And somewhat similar reasons may have contributed to the frequency with which the rather “light” verses of “Embraceable You” and “White Christmas” are omitted. But it is worth noting that even verses that are not lighter than the chorus are often omitted. A case in point is the very frequent omission of the verse of Victor Young’s “Love Letters”.
On the question of recordings of “Indian Love Call”, I am often a little frustrated with the sopranos involved. Sills and Sutherland are past their prime. Barbara Hendricks’ voice sounds too “thick” to me and Jeannette MacDonald too brittle. I wish Kathleen Battle had recorded it.
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“Following the discussion up til now on this topic I decided to visit the Gershwin section of my shelves of vinyl and found that I had two versions--Kiri Te Kanawa and Frances Gershwin- which both included the verse to The Man I Love. On playing them I quickly realised that I had heard it before. It's quite a jaunty introduction - perhaps more in the style of Leslie Stuart or Lionel Monckton than anything in the jazz age - and it seems to me that it gives the clue to the way the chorus should be treated... in a bright, optimistic way (as do Kiri and Gershwin's sister) rather than as a left-on-the-shelf torch song as many performers do. It has to be said that Gershwin's own piano transcription suggests a rather reflective interpretation, though.
The Indian love call , unfortunately, suffered in the past from parodies such as when two ill-assorted, somewhat elderly performers (imagine Hylda Baker and Arthur Mullard ! ) used to spoof it in a comedy sketch. The whole thing, heard as intended, is very lovely though; Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills recorded complete versions. I haven't heard the Slim Whitman version but I know that somewhere I have a record (Supraphon) of Friml improvising on his own songs so I'll have to listen to it again.
I've often wondered what the Piano Concerto which Friml used, both as performer and composer, as his "Calling card" when he first went to America is like.
I imagine a lot of standard songs from the Jazz age are performed in a way that the original composer/lyricists wouldn't have recognised or, maybe, approved of. The last time I heard "My baby just cares for me" it was performed in a slow, drawling way quite different to the vigorous quickstep style it had when it was in the show and film "Whoopee." On another note the original lyrics of the show's hit-song "Making Whoopee" with their rather misogynistic - but very witty - flavour - "The choir sings "Here comes the bride", another victim is by her side " and so on in similar vein- soon fell victim to censorial disapproval and when Eddie Cantor (who had introduced them in the original production and the film) performed the song in the 1944 film "Show Business" he was using the somewhat anodyne lyrics that had replaced them and which have always been performed since.
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