Calendar
January 12, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 7
“One Song at a Time” continues with “It’s a Lovely Day Tomorrow,” sung by me, with piano and orchestration by Doug Hammer. It was written in 1938 by Irving Berlin, who was extremely disturbed by the signing of the Munich Agreement and the probability of war.
It was first performed in London in 1939 by wartime singer Vera Lynn and then released in Berlin‘s 1940 Broadway musical, Louisiana Purchase, a satire about political malfeasance in New Orleans.
Only a few other artists have put out recordings of “It’s a Lovely Day Tomorrow, ” including Frank Sinatra, Mary Martin, Doris Day and the Harvard Krokodiloes. Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra also released it as a single in 1940 with a B-side of “You’re Lonely and I’m Lonely.”
Despite it being virtually forgotten, “It’s A Lovely Day Tomorrow,” still has relevance in the 21st century, 83 years after it was originally written.
February 1, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 8
“One Song at a Time” continues with “We’ll Meet Again,” sung by me, with piano and orchestration by Doug Hammer.
Written in 1939 by the London-based songwriters Ross Parker and Hughie Charles, the song was made famous by Dame Vera Lynn, “The Forces’ Sweetheart,” whose recording was heard on the BBC’s Wartime Broadcasting Service.
The song’s place in our pop culture is unshakeable.
- It’s been covered by Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Rod Stewart, Sammy Davis Jr., Benny Goodman, Johnny Cash, The Byrds, The Ink Spots, and many others.
- For the final episode of his talk-show, Steven Colbert convinced over 100 celebrities including Henry Kissinger, Tom Brokaw, and Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster to join him in a rousing rendition.
- It was even referenced by Pink Floyd in their song “Vera” and used to haunting effect in the closing scenes of Dr. Strangelove.
Over 80 years later, on 5 April 2020, Queen Elizabeth II referenced the song in a rare televised address to express her gratitude to the British people acknowledging the challenges they faced from Covid. “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again.”
February 22, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 9
“One Song at a Time” continues with “It Goes Like It Goes” sung by me, with piano and orchestration by Doug Hammer. It was composed by David Shire, with lyrics by Norman Gimbel, for the 1979 film Norma Rae, a story about a struggle to unionize a cotton mill in the south. Sung by Jennifer Warnes, it was the Academy Award winner that year for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture.
Despite winning for best original song, it only played during the opening and ending credits of the film. Martin Ritt, the director, said he eliminated much of the original score because he wanted to go for a more documentary feel and lose the Hollywood gloss. The composer, David Shire, says he can understand why Ritt removed much of his score, and that looking back, it still sounds “too Hollywood” to him.
In any case, the lyrics of the song remain relevant today.
So it goes like it goes and the river flows
And time it rolls right on
And maybe what's good gets a little bit better
And maybe what's bad gets gone
March 19, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 10
“One Song at a Time” continues with “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” sung by me with piano accompaniment and orchestration by Doug Hammer.
I decided to release this song as part of “One Song at a Time” after reading these recent headlines: “The Pandemic Has Been Less Than Ideal For Relationships Old And New, Leaving Some Couples Locked Down With Each Other – And Others Reconsidering Things” (The Guardian) and “I Don’t Know If My Relationship Will Survive the Pandemic” (The New York Times).
It was written by the husband and wife songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and was first recorded in 1960 by the Shirelles, who took the single to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The Shirelles’ lead singer Shirley Alston initially disliked the song, dismissing it as “too Country and Western” for the girl group from Passaic, New Jersey. Some of the other artists to record it include Cher, Laura Nyro, Roberta Flack, the Four Seasons, Amy Winehouse and Neil Diamond.
As King writes in her memoir A Natural Woman, she and Goffin were so proud of their breakthrough hit that they had their New Jersey home's doorbell “pretentiously and expensively” modified to play the song.
In “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” the singer is wondering what will happen the day after a sexual encounter with her man. It originally met with some resistance from radio stations, but not enough to stop it from becoming a huge hit.
April 12, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 11
“One Song at a Time” continues with “Children Will Listen,” sung by me with my longtime musical partner, Will McMillan, with piano and orchestration by Doug Hammer. It was written by Stephen Sondheim for the 1987 Broadway musical Into the Woods and was first performed by Bernadette Peters and then by Meryl Streep in the 2014 film.
Into the Woods intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Rapunzel,” and “Cinderella.”
One reviewer wrote that “throughout ‘Into the Woods,’ Sondheim unspools an array of lyrical truths like ‘Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor,’ ‘Sometimes people leave you halfway through the woods,’ and ‘Nice’ is not the same as being ‘good.’ And of course, ‘Careful the things you say, children will listen. Careful the things you do, children will see, and learn.’”
The New York Times wrote, “‘Into the Woods’ is an adult inquiry into the promises of childhood fairytales; in essence, it’s a musical that asks, What happens after ‘happily ever after?’”
May 3, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 12
One Song at a Time continues with “Millwork,” sung by me with piano accompaniment and orchestration by Doug Hammer and backup vocals by Will McMillan.
The song was composed by James Taylor for the Broadway musical Working, which was based on the 1974 book by Studs Terkel, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. A millworker, a waitress, an ironworker, a teacher, a publicist, a cleaning woman and many others get their moment to be heard. “The extraordinary dreams of ordinary people,” was how Terkel described his book.
Released in 1979 by James Taylor, “Millwork,” has been covered by Bette Midler, Emmylou Harris, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, and Bruce Springsteen, who describes the song as “an anthem of class inequality and union solidarity.”
Despite its having been written over forty years ago, this sorrowful ballad of a steam press operator in a luggage factory in Lowell, Massachusetts, could easily have been written today.
May 24, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 13
“One Song at a Time” continues with “Evolution,” sung by me, with piano and orchestration by Doug Hammer. It was composed by Brazilian musician Ivin Lins and first released in 1989.
Ivin Lins is a political activist and musical icon in his country. He has released numerous recordings with great impact, always on contemporary issues of each era. Although he was closely monitored by the authorities during Brazil’s years of military dictatorship, he managed to escape censorship and continue his career unabated.
Lins was relatively unknown in the United States until he was discovered by producer Quincy Jones in 1979. In the 1980s his work had a major international impact, especially in the U.S. where it was recorded by an eclectic list of musicians including Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Michael Bublé, George Benson, Toots Thielemans, Al Jarreu, Manhattan Transfer, Take 6, Sting, Diana Krall, Barbara Streisand and many others. To quote the Los Angeles Times, “His songs powerfully attest to the global reach of his music.”
Despite being written over forty years ago, the lyrics of “Evolution/Evolução” remain relevant today:
We can travel to the planets
Drive a mile through solid granite
Thrive in all extremes of weather
But we cannot live together…
June 14, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 14
“One Song at a Time” continues with “Never Never Land,” sung by me with accompaniment and orchestration by Doug Hammer. It was composed by Jule Styne, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, for the 1954 production of Peter Pan.
The play Peter Pan has a rich history in the theatre starting in 1904 with J.M. Barrie’s London play. While there have been many productions since, it wasn’t until the 1954 Broadway production that the musical found its audience, earning Tony awards for Mary Martin as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook. (In a nod to the original play, the title role is usually played by a woman.)
“Never Never Land” is Peter’s ode to a “place where dreams are born.” This song led me to search for a definition of “never-never land.” Merriam-Webster defines it as an imaginary place where everything happens exactly as you would like it to, a place of utter perfection and happiness.
July 12, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 15
“One Song at a Time” continues with “P.S. I Love You” sung by me, with piano and orchestration by Doug Hammer. Written in 1934, it was composed by Gordon Jenkins with lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
The song’s hit version was introduced by Rudy Vallée in 1934, but was largely forgotten until its rendition by the Hilltoppers and then Frank Sinatra in the mid-1950s. After that, the song was covered by Billie Holiday, Rosemary Clooney, Lionel Hampton, Bob Dylan, Diana Krall, and Bette Midler, among many others.
The lyrics begin with a list of banalities – “I'm in bed each night at nine” and “Yesterday we had some rain” – followed by the sweet “Nothing else to tell you dear, except each day seems like a year, Every night I'm dreaming of you, P.S., I love you.”
Over five decades, Mercer wrote lyrics for more than 1500 songs. He famously said, “It takes more talent to write music, but it takes more courage to write lyrics.”
August 23, 2021
ONE SONG AT A TIME, Track 16
“One Song at a Time” continues-and ends-with “I’ll Be Seeing You,” sung by me, with piano by Doug Hammer, and clarinet by John Clark. This 1938 ballad by Sammy Fain (music) and Irving Kahal (lyrics) was beloved during WWII, when it became a sentimental anthem for British and American soldiers serving overseas. But it’s not a war song, not really.
The song was recorded by Jo Stafford, Neil Sedaka, the Carpenters, Willie Nelson, Rod Stewart, Frank Sinatra and many others. Bing Crosby had the big hit with it – it was the #1 song in 1944. It was the song Stevie Wonder sang to close out Johnny Carson’s 30-year run on The Tonight Show, the theme music of Liberace’s 1950s television show, and the music on the last episodes of Star Trek.
When NASA’s mission on Mars ended in 2019, Billie Holiday’s 1944 recording of the song was the final transmission sent to the Opportunity rover. The last message Opportunity had sent was, “My battery is low and it’s getting dark.” NASA sent recovery commands along with Billie Holiday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
It’s been a year almost to the day since I began the “One Song at a Time” project, intended as a sort of antidote to the pandemic and the lockdown. The responses that I received after every track fueled the project. Now one year, and sixteen songs later, “One Song at a Time” is on its way to becoming a CD, to be released sometime in late fall. By intention, and a little happenstance, songs by Johnny Mercer, Stephen Sondheim, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen, James Taylor, Carole King and others, all reflect challenging times.