I’m going to be a guest on a podcast and we’ll discussing the Great American Songbook.
I’ll have to prepare some songs to feature in clips. For the following songs, I’m not sure who’s recordings I want to include (if you don’t see some of your favorite songs listed, do not fret: they may be included, it may just be that I am already sure of which recording I want to use).
So, who’s recordings are your favorites for the following songs?
Cole Porter:
I Get a Kick Out of You
Miss Otis Regrets
Anything Goes
Let’s Misbehave
Everytime We Say Goodbye
George Gershwin:
Summertime*
They All Laughed
Our Love is Here to Stay
They Can’t Take That Away From Me
Irving Berlin:
Let’s Face the Music and Dance
Steppin’ Out with My Baby
Blue Skies
I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
Jerome Kern:
Pick Yourself Up
The Song is You
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
I Could Write a Book (Rodgers and Hart)
It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing (Duke Ellington)
She’s Funny That Way (Richard A. Whiting and Neil Moret)
Come Rain or Come Shine (Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer)
I’ve Got the World on a String (Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler)
*BONUS QUESTION: What is the best operatic recording of “Summertime”?
For Porter, you need to have Ethel Merman for one of them, maybe “Anything Goes.”
For Gershwin, you need a Fred Astaire version. “The Can’t Take That Away From Me” is the best choice, though you could substitute Berlin’s “Stepping Out With My Baby,” which is iconic.
Gedde Watanabe does a nice version of “Miss Otis Regrets” – in Japanese – but that’s probably not what you’re looking for.
Well, in all fairness, if I started a Thread asking what’s the best recording of “At Last”, it would end up being a really short Thread.
Might also do a clip of “Lullaby of Broadway” and “Million Dollar Baby” but I wasn’t too distressed about which versions to feature. Would love to hear about your favorites, though!
The podcast has more of a rock audience usually, so I’m not going to feature Janis/Big Brother, since it’s the version that the audience will all pretty much know backward already.
I know it’s crazy, but Cole Porter might be my favorite songwriter of the 20th Century, “Night and Day” is one of his most beloved songs, and I just have never really liked it. I’d say the same thing about “Love for Sale”: one of his most beloved songs, I love his songwriting … but not these two immensely popular songs.
For 5¢[$1000000]10¢ I like The Boswell Sisters. Other favorites…
[ul]
[li] I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm = Alice Faye[/li][li] I’ve Got the World on a String = Cab Calloway[/li][li] I Get a Kick Out of You = Ethel Merman[/li][li] Pick Yourself Up = Ginger Rogers and Fred AStaire, at least for a movie version[/li][li] Blue Skies = Maxine Sullivan[/li][/ul]Do you know yet when and where we can get the podcast?
